[Privsec] IG Statement: Human Rights

[karen banks]

this is the HR statement

karen

HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNET GOVERNANCE
Human Rights Caucus Statement - February 23nd, 2005

1. The civil society human rights caucus would like to express our support 
to the open and inclusive approach, which has been taken so far by the 
working group on Internet Governance. However, we wish to express our 
concerns with the following issues.

2. Internet governance has important impact on human rights and democracy. 
Whether defined broadly or narrowly, at least human right issues of 
privacy, freedom of expression, access to information, and the public 
domain of knowledge are at stake in Internet governance. The effective 
enjoyment of freedom expression and the right to assembly is tightly linked 
with the protection of privacy. In addition, the current forum for domain 
name management is dominated by a limited number of countries and lacks 
inclusion of especially developing countries. Any decision resulting from 
WSIS on Internet governance must ensure that future mechanisms are human 
rights compliant, both through their composition and governing structures 
and through regular assessment of their decisions.

3. The civil society human rights caucus is deeply concerned with the 
tendency to address any Internet related aspect within the framework of 
Internet governance. We recognize that a number of transnational issues 
related to Internet lack a global space for political discussions and 
agreement. However, discussions on issues such as privacy, freedom of 
expression, prohibition against discrimination, access to information, 
intellectual property, illegal content, spam, infrastructure security etc., 
must be addressed within a human rights framework. Internet governance must 
not result in a lawless zone escaping international human rights 
protection. This is especially important since, in the information society 
context, a number of human rights are threatened.

4. We agreed to develop an information society based on human rights. As 
reaffirmed in the Geneva Declaration of principles, the information society 
should be based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN 
Charter, protecting and upholding the universality and the indivisibility 
of all human rights, and their centrality to democracy, the rule of law and 
to development. The protection of human right standards is the first 
responsibility of governments. It is a state responsibility to ensure that 
Internet governance mechanisms are compliant with human right standards, 
that there are means to enforce them, and that governments can be held 
accountable for human rights violations, including before international 
courts. Holding governments responsible and accountable for human rights 
protection and enforcement does not exclude the active participation of 
private parties and civil society; however there must be clear divisions of 
responsibility.

5. An essential feature of Internet relates to its transnational nature. 
International agreements have traditionally been based on the assumption of 
territorial jurisdiction, whereas Internet is a global communication forum. 
One of the results of the World Summit of the Information Society in Geneva 
was a growing acceptance of the Internet as a global commons. This implies 
effective access for all countries to participate in decisions regarding 
enjoyment of this common good.

6. Internet governance mechanisms can and should further human rights by 
ensuring an enabling environment that protects and enforces human rights 
standards and democratic principles of inclusiveness, transparency, checks 
and balances, and the rule of law.


-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: ct-admin at wsis-cs.org på vegne af Jeanette Hofmann
Sendt: on 23-02-2005 17:18
Til: ct at wsis-cs.org
Emne: [WSIS-CT] fyi: draft statement of Internet Governance caucus


Statement on behalf of the Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus, 23
February 2005, Geneva

1.	The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus commends the Secretary
General of the United Nations on the establishment of the Working Group
on Internet Governance.

We would like to express our support for the Working Group's multi
stakeholder approach. We want to stress that there is a fundamental
difference between multilateral and multi stakeholder processes, and
that the Summit documents were explicit in calling for the balanced
participation of all stakeholders.  Gender balanced representation in
all aspects of Internet Governance is vital for the process and its
outcomes to have legitimacy.

We believe the WG is becoming a working model for multi-stakeholder
collaboration. Now all sectors are providing expertise and contributions
and we are satisfied that both our concerns and ideas are being taken
into account.

We believe that legitimate and successful Internet Governance can only
be achieved if all concerned or affected groups have an opportunity to
influence the outcome of governance processes.

The WSIS declaration of principles states that Internet governance
decision making should be pursued on a multi-stakeholder basis
reflecting the full participation of civil society. The governments that
agreed to this new international norm should now take positive steps to
ensure its full implementation.

As a first step, conformity with this norm should be carefully assessed
with respect to existing arrangements at intergovernmental level, like
the ITU, WIPO, UNESCO, OECD, private sector arrangements like ICANN, the
IETF and the NRO, and to any new emerging mechanisms. (to be added: WTO)

2. We propose that the WGIG grounds its work within the human rights and
social development framework. The rights to freedom of expression and
privacy are of special importance in this context. We also recommend
that WGIG places greater emphasis on the general principles of openness
and transparency.

The caucus believes that two outcomes of the WGIG that will add
significant value are:
. an understanding of how governance mechanisms can further these basic
rights and principles as well as cultural and linguistic diversity,
. an elaboration of the concept of democratic internet governance
fostering the goals of creativity, innovation and cultural as well as
linguistic diversity

3. We would like to point out that the extent of participation from
those who do not have yet access to the Internet is still far from
sufficient. This is especially true for civil society actors. We would
like to suggest that the WGIG make appropriate recommendation to ensure
the effective participation of ALL people. For governance mechanisms to
be all-inclusive and transparent, women and men who are not yet
connected by any communication technologies should be represented and heard.


4. It is important for all stakeholders to recognize the diversity of
processes and mechanisms involved in Internet governance, including:
. decisions by individual users
. private agreements
. national policies, and,
. international and transnational bodies.

This diversity of perspectives, opinions and values should be reflected
in the final report and any further outcomes of the WGIG.  While we
support WGIGs efforts to establish consensus on the various issues, the
report should go beyond consensual matters and find ways to reflect
diversity.

5. Although prepcom 2 is early for substantive progress on content
issues and definition, we wish to emphasize issues the WGIG must
consider in its next phase of work:

.	Unilateral control of the root zone file and its effects for the name
space
.	The crucial role of technical standards in the preservation of an
interoperable global Internet
.	The impact of Internet Governance on freedom of expression and privacy
.	The impact of Internet Governance on consumer protection
.	International Intellectual property and trade rules where they
intersect with Internet Governance
.	Access to knowledge as global commons


In addition we wish the WGIG  luck in coming to closure on a coherent
and meaningful definition on Internet governance.

We believe that the relevance of the WGIG report lies in advancing a
global understanding of these issues. Such global understanding
constitutes the basis of an informed, inclusive and democratic approach
to ICT governance. We thus look forward to progress being made on these
issues and the opportunity to contribute further to WGIG's work.


Regarding the follow up of WGIG's final report, negotiations must be
conducted "in an open and inclusive process that ensures a mechanism for
the full and active participation of governments, the private sector and
civil society from both developing and developed countries" as stated in
the Geneva declaration of principles. The final negotiated document MUST
reflect and honor the multi-stakeholder process that produced it.

best regards, jeanette

_______________________________________________
Ct mailing list
Ct at wsis-cs.org
http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/ct
Civil Society Plenary: http://www.wsis-cs.org/

_______________________________________________
Ct mailing list
Ct at wsis-cs.org
http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/ct
Civil Society Plenary: http://www.wsis-cs.org/