Comments from Bill - Fwd: [Fwd: [hr-wsis] HR and IG]

["Meryem Marzouki" <marzouki@ras.eu.org>]

Début du message réexpédié :

De: Bill McIver <bmciver@attglobal.net>
Date: Mar 22 fév 2005  04:34:02 Europe/Paris
À: hr-wsis@iris.sgdg.org
Objet: Rép : [Fwd: [hr-wsis] HR and IG]
Répondre à: wmciver@acm.org


Rikke and Meryem,

Thank you for moving us forward *again*.

I like the brevity.  I offer some ideas to consider
below.




------------------------------------------------------------------------



hi all

Below a first draft statement on HR and IG that Meryem and I have
developed this afternoon. Pls feel free to give us your comments and
remarks.

Best Rikke


HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNET GOVERNANCE
Human Rights Caucus Contribution - February 22nd, 2005

1. The civil society human rights caucus appreciates that a high level
working group on internet governance issues has been established,
following the Geneva Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action. We
would like to express our support to the open and inclusive approach
which has been taken so far by the working group. However, we wish to
express our concerns with the following issues.

2. Internet governance, even narrowly understood as domain name
management and technical standard setting, has important impact on human
rights and democracy. The role and functions of domain name management
and standards setting fora de facto involves and impacts human right
issues. Whether defined broadly or narrowly, at least human right issues
like privacy, freedom of expression, access to information, the public
domain of knowledge, etc. are at stake in these functions. In addition,
Internet protocols and standards have up to now been defined by a
limited number of developed countries and ICANN, the current forum for
domain name management is a private party, based on a contract by the US
government. Any decision resulting from WSIS on Internet governance
bodies and mechanisms must ensure that they are human rights compliant,
both through their composition and governing structures and through the
regular assessment of the substance of their decisions.

Think about introducing what a broader understanding of IG is starting in
(2) since you refer to the "narrow" one there (I see that you go into
it below).

3. Moreover, the civil society human rights caucus is deeply concerned
with the tendency to address every 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, current 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
broader human rights framework, in compliance with democracy and the
rule of law. This is especially important since, in the information
society context, a number of these rights are de facto threatened and in
the defensive role at present.

This might be a matter of debate within HR, but we should consider saying
that

"current discussions on issues such as ... must be addressed within
*several* frameworks *simulataneously*, *including human rights*"

instead of arguing that it is the sole framework. We should say that HR
as a framework is the basis for all decision making (as you say in 4),
but we have to recognize that there simulataneously exist a number of
other valid perspectives from which an issue must be addressed.
The RFP processes developed by the IETF and used by IANA/ICANN are but
one set of examples.

4. As reaffirmed in the Geneva Declaration of principles, the development
of the information society should be based on the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and the UN Charter, protecting and upholding the
universality, 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 indeed the first responsibility
of governments. This implies that governments are politically and
legally committed to uphold human right standards within their
jurisdiction and that they are accountable for human rights compliance,
including before national and international >> courts.

5. A main challenge with regard to Internet regulation 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 common. This implies access for all countries to
participate in policy decisions and enjoyment of this common good. It
also implies state responsibility to ensure that Internet governance
mechanisms are compliant with human right standards, and that there must
be means to enforce them.

6. 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. Technical management of the infrastructure must be
grounded upon public policy decisions, while ensuring that the latter
comply with human right standards and basic democratic principles of
inclusiveness, transparency, checks and balances, and the rule of law.


We should consider being even more concrete here in discussing
 ** at a conceptual level ** what  implementation of such a framework
would mean: 2
1. with both monitoring and enforcement mechanisms,
2. a rapporteur,
3. recourse, etc.
... with tacit recognition that these things are still sadly very weak
where
they do exist now.



My $0.02.


Best,


WJM

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--
Bill McIver
wmciver@acm.org
Member: Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (www.cpsr.org)
       Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS)
       WSIS CS Plenary -- Human Rights Caucus, Education Caucus
--