Human rights, freedom of expression and free flow of information on the Internet

Click to read the details posted on IGF website here.

The interactive discussion will touch upon many of the key issues that will be discussed in related workshops prior to the session and will give all stakeholders an equal platform to address issues related to human rights and the Internet to find points of consensus, points of convergence and points of further action/research/referral to other institutions or actors if appropriate.

Policy related questions that this session will address include:

1. What are/have been the main themes at the nexus of the Internet and human rights in 2013? What have been the policy responses? What are the key strategies and actions for responding to these themes?
2. What is working well to promote human rights, freedom of expression and the free flow of information on the Internet? What are areas for concern?
3. What HR standards can be applied in the digital environment?
4. The HRC adopted a milestone resolution in 2012, in which governments agreed that the same HR apply online as offline (Res 20/8). Do all stakeholders agree with this core concept? What is the relevance of this resolution to Internet public policy making? What has been the impact of the revelations of wide-spread mass surveillance been on taking the implications of this resolution forward?
5. How can all stakeholders, taking their different roles and responsibilities into account, respect, protect and promote human rights on the Internet nationally, regionally and globally?

Speakers:

• Host Country Chair: Prof. Dr. Harkristuti Harkrisnowo (Director General of Human Right, Ministry of Law and Human Right)
• Moderators: Anja Kovacs, Internet Democracy Project, New Delhi and Johan Hallenborg, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Stockholm, supported by Anriette Esterhuysen, APC, Johannesburg.
• Remote Moderator: TBC
• Rapporteur: Joy Liddicoat, APC, Wellington (The rapporteur will summarise the session at the end and report into 'Taking Stock')

PART 1: Regional perspectives on human rights on the Internet [45 minutes]

To get the discussion going, the moderators will ask the following people to respond, from a regional perspective, to the question: What are/have been the main themes at the nexus of the Internet and human rights in 2013 in your region?

• Eduardo Bertoni, CELE, University of Palermo, Buenos Aires
• Fadlah Adams, South African Human Rights Commission, Cape Town
• Gayathry Venkiteswaran, Executive Director, Southeast Asian Press Alliance, Bangkok
• Jochai Ben-Avie, Access, New York
• Moez Chakchouk, ATI, Tunis
• Lee Hibbard, Council of Europe, Strasbourg

PART 2: Delving into specific issues [45 minutes]

What is working well to promote human rights, freedom of expression and the free flow of information on the Internet? What are areas for concern? What HR standards can be applied in the digital environment?
Potential Speakers from the Audience:

• Freedom of expression: Guy Berger, UNESCO, Paris; Cynthia Wong, Human Rights Watch, Washington DC; Beryl Aidi, Kenyan Human Rights Commission, Nairobi; Ramiro Alvarez Ugarte, Association for Civil Rights, Buenos Aires.
• Internet intermediary liability: Gbenga Sesan, Paradigm Initiative, Lagos; Zahid Jamil, Barrister-at-law, Karachi; Malcolm Hutty, LINX, London.
• Sexual rights (rights of LGBT communities): Bishakha Datta, Point of View, New Delhi; Nadine Mouawad, EROTICS, Beirut.
• Free flow of information, access to knowledge and IP issues: Stuart Hamilton, International Federation of Library Associations, The Hague; Nick Aston Hart, International Digital Economy Alliance (IDEA), Geneva; Pranesh Prakash, CIS, Bangalore; Claudio Ruiz, Derechos Digitales, Santiago.

Network neutrality (in terms of free flow of information): Lisl Brunner, GNI, US/Europe; Luca Belli, Dynamic Coalition on Net Neutrality, Tech and academic community, Europe; Paul Mitchell, Microsoft, US.

Surveillance and transborder access to data: global and national dimensions: Nicolas Seidler, ISOC, Geneva, Ross LaJeunesse, Global Head of Free Expression and International Relations, Google, Mountain View; Seth Bouvier, US Dept. of State, Government, Washington DC; Meryem Merzouki, EDRI (European Digital Rights), Paris.

PART 3: Input from IGF workshops, dynamic coalitions, open forums and other focus sessions [45 minutes]

Organisers of workshops etc. related to Human Rights will be asked to respond to further questions from the moderators, from the perspective of the outcome of their workshop/event.

How can all stakeholders, taking their different roles and responsibilities into account, respect, protect and promote human rights in Internet related public policy making nationally, regionally and globally?

What are some points of consensus; points of convergence; points of further action/research/referral to other institutions or actors that emerged from their sessions?

PART 4: Discussion and going forward [45 minutes]

The following questions will be addressed:

The Human Rights Council adopted a milestone resolution in which governments agreed that the same HR apply online as offline. Do all stakeholders agree with this core concept? What is the relevance of this resolution to Internet public policy making? What has been the impact of the revelations of wide-spread mass surveillance been on taking the implications of this resolution forward?

What do you think we should do next and what is the role of the IGF?

The rapporteur will be given 6 minutes at the end to summarise.