IGF 2014

Human Rights for the Internet: From Principles to Action

A seachange has taken place as national legislatures and intergovernmental organizations now recognize that they have human rights responsibilities online as well as offline, e.g. the UN Human Rights Council resolution (2012), the successful passage into law of the rights-based Marco Civil for the Internet in Brazil (2014), the launching of the New Zealand Greens’ Internet Rights and Freedoms Bill (2014), and the central role given to human rights as part of Internet governance processes in the NETmundial Outcome Document (2014). These developments underscore the achievements of Civil Society Organizations, global networks of engaged academics, grassroots groups, and digital activists, and courageous individuals who have been working to raise awareness about human rights online, and how they impact on Internet governance agendas. This work has been gathering momentum since the IGF began, inspired by earlier precedents. It includes research and campaigns around specific human rights concerns for the online environment, e.g. privacy and freedom of expression, alongside cross-sector collaborations to generate authoritative human rights frameworks for decisions on how we design, access, and use the Internet.

In light of how these aspirations have become actions, the workshop brings together representatives from initiatives that (i) link their work in this area to the IRPC Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet, and (ii) those initiatives that underpin and develop the objectives and content of the IRPC Charter. All participants have contributed to this wider historic recognition of the formative role that international human rights law and norms play in the future of global Internet governance. It is also a workshop that is taking place in the “post-Snowden” context of Internet governance decision-making, which throws up a number of pressing issues around inclusiveness and participation, rule of law, jurisdiction, technical standards, and the ongoing need to educate and raise awareness about rights and fundamental freedoms in the online world. The accent is on bringing to the discussion current examples of how each project represented here has been implementing human rights issues for the Internet, for which constituency and for what purpose. We will address achievements as well as tackle the particular obstacles and opportunities that each initiative encounters. We will share knowledge and brainstorm ways forward. We also consider those sections of the IRPC Charter that need updating or reconsideration in light of the changing context of human rights and Internet governance discussions across stakeholder groups and terrains.

This workshop marks the next step in the “Charter 2.0” project set in motion at the Bali IGF now that the IRPC Charter has proven its worth at the level of national legislatures, grassroots awareness-raising, and global campaigns to call public and private Internet service providers to account in how they ensure human rights online can be protected and enjoyed. It links to two other workshops co-organized by the IRP Coalition that flesh out the details of rights-based Internet governance principles at the individual and process level.

Agenda: The session will be divided into two parts: 1) brief panellist interventions and audience Q&A, 2) Break-out groups led by panellists to brainstorm, and where appropriate take part in some “policy-jamming” on specific points. Remote Participants will also be invited to provide examples and suggestions to the panellists about how they can move their work forward.

Outcomes: All participants will take away with them at least one concrete recommendation or insight from the session for their work. The session itself will also generate 3-6 concrete recommendations for further action that apply to all participants.

Revelations about surveillance and mass data collection over the past year have underscored the fact that the practice of journalism, and the circulation of information more broadly, is inseparable from key dimensions of Internet governance, from the infrastructure backbone to transmission dynamics to encryption. The past year’s headlines have made it clear that both policy changes and technological efforts are necessary to address the protection of communication and information exchange amid aggressive government surveillance and private sector complicity and ensure that all actors respect the rule of law, privacy and free expression.
As “canaries in the data mine,” journalists represent one of the most vulnerable — and engaged — groups of Internet users. What happens to journalists and journalism will likely foreshadow other, broader developments. Yet to what extent do different stakeholder groups understand the critical importance that their input to Internet governance plays in sustaining an environment in which press freedom and freedom of expression more broadly is possible?

The non-governmental organization Committee to Protect Journalists proposes a roundtable workshop to explore various stakeholders’ role in resisting mass surveillance, particularly of journalists and media, and how Internet governance choices may impact on press freedom. The interactive roundtable will seek to produce an initial list of ideas about the roles of technology companies, government, academia, journalists and news organizations in protecting source confidentiality and otherwise ensuring the free flow of information from the press to the global public.

The roundtable will help inform internal policy choices at companies, in government, in newsrooms and in the field, and will seek to foster a discussion that is relevant to all at-risk Internet users.

Agenda:
Introduction to the roundtable and the questions at hand (Dr. Radsch, 5 minutes)
5 minute overview of UNESCO's conceptualization of the press freedom dimensions of Internet governance (Dr. Berger)
2 minute comments from participants on what they think are the two most important or consequential press freedom dimensions of Internet governance:
Ms. Ben Hassine
Mr. Less
Dr. Lemos
Ms. Geybulla

Input from remote participants

Synthesize commonalities, identify tensions

Open to audience (including remote participants) for additional dimensions and Q&A

Answer questions and discuss the additional suggestions with a view towards identifying the most important/consequential press freedom dimensions of Internet governance

Researching children’s rights in a global, digital age

Workshop 56, Internet Governance Forum, Istanbul, November 2014

Organizer: Professor Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics and EU Kids Online, s.livingstone@Lse.ac.uk

Theme: The panel will primarily address conference theme 6. Internet and human rights. It is also relevant to theme 2: Content creation, dissemination and use, and to theme 5: Enhancing digital trust.

Description: Policy makers rely on high quality research to underpin evidence-based governance decisions. Although many researchers and research users attend the IGF each year, research is rarely a focus of IGF activities. Thus the research agenda, key concepts, robust yet practical methods, and challenges of evaluation and application are yet to be discussed in this crucial international forum. An ever-growing diversity of evidence on children’s rights in a global digital age exists and more is needed, making this a timely moment for stakeholders to debate the design, conduct and uses of research.

Detailed overview: The round table will ask, primarily, what are the research priorities and key research questions regarding children’s rights in a global, digital age? What is good research practice in a complex domain where the Internet is fast-changing and children’s particular needs and perspectives vary hugely by culture and context? Can the methods for conducting and evaluating research that have been established in the global North be extended to the global South, now that children are going online across the globe, or do new considerations apply? To what extent can the evidence usefully guide governance decisions, whether internationally, regionally or nationally? How to strengthen and promote dialogue between researchers and policy makers at all levels? Secondarily, it will ask, how can the research community achieve greater clarity and visibility regarding research priorities, good practice research methods and reliable statistics about children and digital media on a cross-national basis? How might we collaborate through research and stakeholder networks to sustain knowledge sharing?

The session brings together researchers and research users from different stakeholder groups ((academia, industry, regulator, UN organisation, NGO, activist) and from diverse continents around the world to identify the priority research questions, reputable research methods, and key research challenges to be faced when generating a truly global evidence base to underpin Internet governance that advances children’s rights in a digital age.

Agenda
90 minutes in total


Welcome, introductions and aims
10 minutes
Professor Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics and Political Science, and the 33-country research network, EU Kids Online


Panel: Formulating the global research agenda for children’s rights in the digital age
Short presentations of 5-8 minutes each, 25 minutes in total

Patrick Burton, Executive Director, Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention, South Africa, “Facilitating children’s voices in the development of policy relating to online safety and rights”

Kürşat Çağıltay, Professor, Faculty of Education, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey: “Conducting research at a time of political change”

Bu Wei, Professor and activist, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China “Critical perspective: mapping the studies on youth and digital media and their methodology in China”

Conversation: Research users’ priorities and challenges regarding children’s rights in the digital age
A 25 minute conversation (no presentations) moderated by Sonia Livingstone

Ankhi Das, Facebook, India
Fabio Senne, Cetic.br, Brazil
Jasmina Byrne, UNICEF Office of Research (with a global mandate)
Nevine Tewfik, Egypt, governmental research user and regulator

Open discussion
30 minutes
Gitte Stald, Professor, ITU University, Denmark, will act as the Remote Moderator
Youth participants
All session attendees

 

Women are increasingly turning to the Internet for growth and development opportunities, both socially and economically. While women constitute more than 50% of the active labor force, they still face serious challenges and barriers when it comes to employment, and other economic and social opportunities.
Even though women as social entrepreneurs have succeeded in marking a footprint in some countries, women in the MENA region continue to lag behind when it comes to business start-ups and female led business ventures.

Women can be a strong economic growth engine, yet they have to overcome personal and societal challenges and barriers that may prohibit their entry and long term success. Women are using social media and on-line platforms to advocate for women entrepreneurial rights, seeking to increase women’s social and economic opportunities at the local, national and international level as well as to advocate for entrepreneurship awareness and to strengthen women’s entrepreneurial and professional skills.

With the growing number of Internet users worldwide, advocates for women entrepreneurial rights are using the Internet itself to raise awareness, voice their demands, launch campaigns and create pathways for change.

The panel will look at how effective social media platforms are in advocating for women’s entrepreneurial rights in the MENA countries, examining examples and stories of successes in advocating online for women’s entrepreneurial rights and changes that were made in different societies, as well as the challenges that women still face in the entrepreneurial world in the MENA region (including Iran, KSA, and Egypt).

The session will also elaborate on the role that technology and the Internet are playing in empowering women and enhancing their growth and development in the business world as well as the obstacles that users are facing in accessing the Internet in the different MENA countries, addressing the important role of Internet governance mechanisms and commitments to WSIS +10. One speaker will present challenges in Africa and Latin America as a contrast and comparison to similar experiences in the MENA region.

The outcome report from this workshop will identify ideas for advancing awareness and opportunities for advancing engagement of women entrepreneurs within the region.

Enforcing the correct level of human rights protection is very often a matter of jurisdictional reach. In the cyberspace, there could be two obvious alternatives to create a separate jurisdictional space: the technological option and the legal option.

Over a year before German Chancellor Merkel travelled to France in February 2014 to speak with French President Hollande about creating the foundations of a “protected” EU Internet, the EU-funded MAPPING project had already spelt out its plan of researching if “parallel universes” in cyberspace could be a solution for promoting human rights. This objective of creating spaces within cyberspace where European values on privacy and other human rights may be applied could conceivably be created by technological or legal means.

In its first stakeholder assembly (Rome 20-21 May 2014) MAPPING will be dedicating a session to “On-line mass surveillance, security and privacy: is an international treaty the only way forward?” including a discussion of the recent ECJ decision declaring “invalid” the EU Data Retention Directive.

In the IGF, the MAPPING consortium aims to take this debate even further with as many Internet governance stakeholders as possible - from Europe and beyond. How can we have human rights embedded in the current Internet structure? Are there technological or legal solutions to this issue? Would a “Schengen cloud” human rights Internet, as suggested by French and German leaders, be the solution? How would others see such a possible space?"

How can we protect our privacy when our most private communications can be covertly collected and analysed by States all around the world? How can freedom of expression exist if every time we read a text or article by a controversial author, our actions are automatically logged and stored by the machines, algorithms, and agents of the state?

Since the Snowden revelations, many people have begun to realise that the laws of their own country provide only ineffective protection against mass surveillance and the laws of other countries provide them with no protection at all. The world is waking up to the reality that most governments treat the private communications of non-residents and foreign nationals as fair game. The UN Human Rights Committee has for the first time remonstrated the US government for failing to provide extra-territorial protection for the privacy of non-citizens and legal challenges are being brought against bulk surveillance of foreign communications around the world.

The purpose of this roundtable is to build upon these developments and discuss what needs to be done to ensure established international human rights law is respected in the context of transnational surveillance. Among the questions to be addressed are:

Should we allow the intelligence services of one country to snoop on the residents of another without restraint?
Can any country freely violate the rights of foreigners by claiming they fall outside their jurisdiction?
Are existing surveillance laws compatible with the right to non-discrimination under international law?

This roundtable is co-sponsored by Internet Rights and Principles Coalition and the Pirate Party of Turkey.

Tying into the theme of “Connecting Continents” and building on the youth panel from IGF2013 – Bali WS 55 “Online Anonymity,” this workshop brings together leading researchers, technologists, human rights defenders, private industry, and government representatives to assess the role of Internet governance in supporting the development of a more secure and enabling online ecosystem.

This roundtable acknowledges anonymous online communication protects the extrinsic good of liberty, political freedom, self-determination, autonomy, dignity, power, and the ability to think and speak without censorship, surveillance, or retribution (Ermert 2009; Hosein 2006; Tavani 2011; La Rue 2011; Article 8: Right to Privacy Online in the IRP Charter). Anonymity is essential for voters, political dissidents, and whistleblowers to communicate without repercussion or retribution; “a safeguard against political oppression” (Hosein, 2006, p. 129). Online anonymity also protects people from violence offline, including vulnerable and marginalized populations.

This roundtable drills down to the specifics of how anonymous communication is being used to uphold human rights, and how mass surveillance undermines them which includes protection from harm, safety from reprisal, freedom of the press, and freedom to engage in democratic participation (see: Human Rights Watch report “Witness:The Price of Mass Surveillance”). Case studies from several countries will be presented, including the IGF host country of Turkey, Ethiopia, Malaysia, and others. The roundtable will also include discussion of anonymity-enabling technologies and emerging projects, in order to envision and push forward a clear role for Internet governance to protect people, while connecting them.

Draft message:

This note provides some suggested summary points which might be formulated into a message from the IGF to the Human Rights Council.

Participants at the United Nations Internet Governance Forum 2014 met on Friday 5th September  to reflect on Forum workshops related to the issues of enhancing digital trust and the internet and human rights. Aware of the United Nations Human Rights Council 27th Session and the Panel which will consider the reportof the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Right to Privacy in the Digital Age.

At IGF 2014 approximately 47 out of 87 workshops focus directly or indirectly on human rights, with privacy, surveillance, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and economic, cultural and social rights emerging as main themes. IGF 2014 participants (including from governments, civil society, private sector, academic and technical community) therefore considered whether to formulate an input that could be brought to the Human Rights Council on the topic of the right to privacy in the digital age. 

Suggested key messages

•        The right to privacy was a significant thematic issue at IGF 2014 (this para should include key themes or summary points from relevant workshops and roundtable discussion at IGF 2014)

•        We agree with the High Commissioner that: “Effectively addressing the challenges related to the right to privacy in the context of modern communications technology will require an ongoing, concerted multistakeholder engagement.”

•        We not only agree, we also embody such multistakeholder engagement through our participation at the IGF which is a United Nations mandated multi-stakeholder forum.

•        We therefore agree that Human Rights Council’s response to current challenges “should include a dialogue involving all interested stakeholders, including Member States, civil society, scientific and technical communities, the business sector, academics and human rights experts.”

•        We urge the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Council Members and Member States to engage with the Internet Governance Forum as a space for dialogue involving all stakeholders and which can assist and inform the Office of the High Commissioner.

•        We urge the High Commissioner for Human Rights to participate in IGF 2015 which will take place in Brazil.

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Background 

The Internet and human rights have come to the fore of Internet related public policy discussions over the last year and this is reflected in the large number of human rights related workshop and capacity building proposals for IGF 2014. The relationship between the Internet and human rights has become increasingly intertwined. In many instances, threats to the open nature of the Internet have become threats to human rights such as freedom of expression and opinion, privacy or freedom of association. MAG members supported the holding of a human rights roundtable at IGF 2012 as a way to develop the cross-cutting issues of human rights and development and to include feedback into the Taking Stock and the Way Forward session. This roundtable was hosted by Kenya, in partnership with APC, Finland and Sweden. At IGF 2013, the first main session on Human Rights was held with the Chair’s summary highlighting human rights as a significant theme.

The number of human rights related workshops in the IGF continues to grow: in 2012 approximately 40 workshop proposals made specific reference to human rights related issues. In 2014, approximately 47 out of 87 workshops focus directly or indirectly on human rights, with privacy, surveillance, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and economic, cultural and social rights emerging as main themes. Since IGF 2013, the United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Council have passed at least 10 resolutions and decisions that reference human rights and the internet. Most recently, the UNGA has reaffirmed the right privacy in the digital age as  one of the foundations of a democratic society,  and mandating further consideration of this issue at the global level. In July 2014 the High Commissioner for Human Rights released her report on this topic.

The report is a strong, clear and very persuasive analysis of human rights and mass surveillance, metadata collection and retention, the application of human rights to extraterritorial actions of governments (including telecommunications related). The High Commissioner makes clear findings on the right to protection of privacy in the digital age, including mass surveillance as a violation of fundamental human rights. The report focuses on the role of business and other stakeholders - it is an historic and ground breaking report that governments in particular, but all stakeholders, will need to respond to and which will be discussed at IGF 2014. 

The High Commissioner’s report will be tabled at the Human Rights Council's  27th session, which will take place right after  IGF 2014 and will also be considered by   the General Assembly's 69th session which will also open in September. It is vital that the IGF considers how to contribute to these deliberations, particularly as the Commissioner calls for assistance from multistakeholder engagement: 

"49. Effectively addressing the challenges related to the right to privacy in the context of modern communications technology will require an ongoing, concerted multistakeholder engagement. This process should include a dialogue involving all interested stakeholders, including Member States, civil society, scientific and technical communities, the business sector, academics and human rights experts. As communication technologies continue to evolve, leadership will be critical to ensuring that these technologies are used to deliver on their potential towards the improved enjoyment of the human rights enshrined in the international legal framework." 

We therefore propose using the opportunity of the human rights round table at IGF 2014 on key messages  interested stakeholders at the IGF might wish to send the Human Rights Council. This should be done with the understanding that all interested stakeholder groups are involved and contributing. 

This IGF roundtable provides an ideal, unique and very exciting opportunity for participants to consider the High Commissioner's recommendation and to offer suggested inputs to the UN HRC session that will follow the IGF, including the Council's multi-stakeholder panel on September 12th. Some IGF participants will be going to the HRC 27 session or some other contribution. But this is an opportunity for the IGF to produce tangible outputs that can be inputs to other processes. It is also a great opportunity also for the HRC to receive timely inputs from a multistakeholder process that will assist its work and we therefore suggest the roundtable be focused in this very practical, concrete way. 
Objective

The objective of the roundtable for human rights and digital security workshop organisers is to provide a wrap up session in which to gather comprehensive feedback from the various main sessions and workshops on human rights issues discussed by stakeholders and to use those inputs to strive to formulate a message/input that could be brought to the Human Rights Council on the topic of the right to privacy in the digital age.

This roundtable should be done with understanding that all interested stakeholder groups are involved and contributing.

Format 

The round table will be held in a multistakeholder environment in which speakers/participants who took part of the various main sessions and workshops bring their perspectives in a concrete manner to feed the Taking Stock and Way Forward session and propose ways to advance the HR discussion within the IGF.

 1. To take place during the last day of the IGF to invite people who have discussed/presented during workshops and main session on issues related to HR and the internet, in particular the right to privacy.

2. To have as the overall topic for the roundtable the issue of HR in the IGF and the right to privacy in the digital age

3 To ask participants to respond to specific questions such as: a) Now that the General Assembly has adopted a resolution on the right to privacy in the digital age and the Human Rights Council will consider the right to privacy in the digital age during HRC 27 in September 2014

(a)  What have been the main discussions on the right to privacy in the digital age at IGF 2014?

(b)  What message might the IGF participants wish to send the Human Rights Council to assist in its deliberations on the right to privacy in the digital age?

(c)  How can discussions on human rights and the internet held in the IGF be consolidated in the context of a potential resolution at the upcoming HRC session?

Preparatory Process

We propose to seek co-organisers from diverse stakeholder groups. Workshop organisers will be invited to participate and provide inputs to the roundtable and to share their workshop discussions. We have already prepared a preliminary analysis of workshop proposals to assist

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