SESSION 51. Rights-Based Principles and the Internet: Taking Stock and Moving Forward
Organizer: Internet Rights and Principles Dynamic Coalition
Languages: EN/FR
Thematic focus: Internet
- Date and time of session: 26 February, 9.30-11.00am
- Number of participants: 60
- Number of remote participants: (ask the remote moderator): 6
- Session personnel (moderator, main speakers, discussants):
Session Moderator – Marianne Franklin (co-Chair IRP Coalition/Goldsmiths (University of London, UK), www.internetrightsandprinciples.org; www.gold.ac.uk
Panellists:
Anne Carblanc – OECD, http://www.oecd.org/internet/interneteconomy/
Elvana Thaci – Council of Europe, http://www.coe.int/t/informationsociety/
Anriette Esterhuizen – Association for Progressive Communications, www.apc.org
Dixie Hawtin – Global Partners, www.global-partners.co.uk
Meryem Marzouki – CNRS-UPMC/Sorbonne Universités & EDRI/CSISA, http://www.edri.org/ http://www.cnrs.fr/
Parminder Jeet Singh – IT for Change, www.itforchange.net
Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza and Joana Varon – CTS/FGV https://www.facebook.com/ctsfgv
Remote Moderator – Norbert Bollow (IRP Coalition Steering Committee, Internet Governance Caucus)
Rapporteur – Rebecca Zausmer (Global Partners UK)
5. Summary
This panel was organized by the IGF Internet Rights and Principles Coalition. It brought together a range of stakeholders engaged in developing a variety of human rights-based principles for Internet governance policy-making and agenda setting. These initiatives include the IRP Coalition’s Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet, the Brazilian Marco Civil, Association for Progressive Communication Internet Rights Charter, Council of Europe Compendium of Rights of Internet Users, the OECD Work on Principles for Internet Policy Making Rights, and the 2012 UN Human Rights Council Resolution 20/8. The session was in two parts: looking back and moving forward. First, the participants provided a historical perspective on the importance of the UN Bill of Rights for protecting, defending, promoting, and realizing internet users’ human, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights in the online environment. Panelists recalled the formative role of pioneering work during the WSIS period and since then in the IGF. They highlighted shifts in priorities during these earlier processes, increasing public awareness of the need to protect and promote all human rights in the design, access and use of the internet through developing instruments that can make all stakeholders in the internet governance policy-making and agenda-setting domain accountable for protecting and realizing users’ rights at all levels. Each participant presented their respective reflections on preceding initiatives and their current priorities for articulating and implementing rights and principles at the global, regional, national, and local levels. A lively debate between participants and the audience underscored a consensus that multistakeholderism in principle and in practice needs to take measures to ensure that all stakeholders are able to engage in the consultative, institutionalization, and operationalization of all aspects of the UN Bill of Rights as these apply to the online environment.
Despite differences in priorities, affiliation, and recommendations for moving their respective projects forward throughout the legal, social, and technical domains of internet governance the session was able to distill the following recommendations.
6. Agreed recommendations from the session
- The full range of human rights should be the normative foundation of any internet policy making and internet governance processes.
- Encourage all initiatives around human rights and principles to ensure that consultations, formulation and implementation engage all sectors of civil society in particular grassroots communities.
- Reinforce the principles of multistakeholder dialogue and open participation as the way of working in all internet governance arenas together with generating concrete outcomes
- Theme for IGF Bali 2013 and WSIS 2015 should be Human Rights and Principles for the Internet
- The creation of a dedicated UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Internet as a monitoring and accountability mechanism for the online environment