HR Caucus and IGF

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

Hi Manon and all,

Regarding the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the deadline we missed  
was the one mainly dealing with structure of the IGF. Contributions  
on "The need for a multistakeholder group to assist the the Secretary- 
General in convening the IGF, what the mandate of this group should  
be and how it should be formed" were indeed to be sent before Feb. 28.
This is an important issue, but it seems that the consultation  
meeting of mid-February, specially thanks to the chairs Nitin Desai  
and Markus Kummer, wont lead to any major concern. The "programme  
committee" (rather than a bureau) is still to be nominated. As far as  
I've understood, the secretariat is UN (Annan already nominated  
Markus Kummer as head), and its role is restricted  "to assist in the  
convening" of the IGF (see announcement at: http://www.un.org/News/ 
Press/docs/2006/sgsm10366.doc.htm).

But we still can - and should - meet the deadline of March 31 to send  
a contribution on "Public policy issues to be discussed at the first  
meeting of the IGF." We're asked to provide "top three choices and  
give a short explanation on the reasons for [our] choices" by 31  
March 2006.

We can indeed elaborate of the HR caucus written contribution made to  
the consultation meeting (it is at: http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/ 
smsi/hr-wsis/hris-igf160206.html), which mainly highlights privacy  
and freedom of expression.

However, my opinion is that, since now WSIS with its large range of  
issues is over, we should, in the IGF framework, concentrate and  
develop issues related to economic, social and cultural rights, and  
to the right to development, more than we did so far during WSIS,  
while still keeping high on the agenda civil and political rights  
issues, and specially FoE and privacy.

Rather than entering this process of 'shoping list', like the one  
already synthesized by the IGF secretariat (and recalled below by  
Manon), we may try to develop a strong contribution, along the  
following lines:

1/ General part of the statement:
- we don't necessarily accept the idea that the IGF sets up "top 3  
choices" for its first year, and then address "top 3 other choices"  
on the second year and so on... (inter alia because many topics are  
interrelated, specially if we frame the discussion in terms of rights);
- the IGF should concentrate its discussions on issues that _really_  
needs international coordination, that we would help identify. Here,  
we may address the many other issues dealt with in other  
international or regional fora, pointing the lack of coordination;
- Generally speaking,  the respect and upholding _all_ HR should not  
be dealt with by the IGF as one issues among many, but, together with  
the respect for the rule of law and democracy, as the baselines and  
the criteria against which any recommendation on the issues dealt  
with by IGF should be examined and assessed for compliance. To this  
end, we would reserve the right to intervene on any matter (e.g. spam  
or whatever the want to address);

2/ Focus on issues (since we wont be heard if we don't follow, at  
least partly, the format they're waiting for)
I'm really surprised to see that intellectual property rights have  
not been raised as an issue. I undertstand governements and business  
are not keen to discuss it in this framework, and prefer to handle it  
at WIPO and WTO, but I don't understand that CS groups have not  
strongly raised it, at least till now.
I also find important to support access to infrastructure and  
interconnection costs as one of the main issues to be dealt with by IGF.
And, of course, without respect and enforcement of privacy and  
freedom of expression, all this would have no meaning, in the end.
So, with main argument being the right to education and knowledge,  
and the right to development, in addition to the right to privacy and  
to freedom of expression, I propose that we elaborate on the  
following three issues:
- IPR, and specially DRMs and other means of implementing IPR through  
infrastructure and code.
- access to infrastructure and international interconnection costs
- privacy and freedom of expression

What do you think ?
[I don't know how many of you are subscribers to the CS Internet  
governance caucus list, but there are also interesting discussions -  
and confrontation of ideas - going on there]

Meryem

Le 8 mars 06 à 03:28, Manon Ress a écrit :

> Correct us if we're wrong but according to Thiru (CPTech Geneva)  
> while we kind of missed the first deadline  (to nominate who should  
> be part of the secretariat), we have till March 31 to identify in  
> writing what are our top three priorities to be discussed at the IGF.
>
> These are some of the topics submitted thus far:
>
>   1. Spam
>   2. Multilingualism
>   3. Cybercrime
>   4. Cybersecurity
>   5. Privacy and Data Protection
>   6. Freedom of Expression and Human Rights
>   7. International Interconnection Costs
>   8. Bridging the Digital Divide: Access and Policies
>   9. Bridging the Digital Divide: Financing
>  10. Rules for e-commerce, e-business and consumer protection.
>
>
> Here are the contributions made so far:
>
> http://www.intgovforum.org/contributions.htm
>
>
> On Mar 7, 2006, at 5:16 PM, Yaman Akdeniz wrote:
>
> > At 15:33 06/03/2006, you wrote:
> >
> > > We (Rikke and Meryem) are favoring option two, staying as a caucus.
> > > We would be willing to continue as co-chairs if there is an  
> > > interest,
> > > but we would also be willing to step down at this stage, if people
> > > favor another solution.
> > > In any case, we both are waiting to hear from you, and to facilitate
> > > any decision this caucus would make.
> >
> > I would also support the second option Meryem as long as both you  
> > and Rikke are happy with this. Keep up the good work coming.
> >
> > All the best,
> >
> > Yaman
> > --
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>
> ************************************************
> Manon Anne Ress
> manon.ress@cptech.org,
> www.cptech.org
>
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