A Comment on the 2009 IGF Draft Programme Paper
The Centre for Internet and Society is part of a broad group of civil society actors that submitted a comment on the Draft Programme Paper of the fourth Internet Governance Forum (IGF), taking place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in November 2009. The IGF is a forum for multistakeholder policy dialogue on Internet governance issues. The comment decries the complete absence of attention for Internet Rights and Principles in the agenda as it stands as of today, and this despite repeated requests from a wide range of stakeholders to make this theme a central one. All stakeholder groups were invited to submit their comments on the Draft Programme Paper of the 2009 IGF to the IGF Secretariat by 15 August.
The comment submitted reads as follows:
Re: IGF Draft Programme Paper, August 2009
We, the undersigned would like to express our surprise and disappointment that Internet Rights and Principles was not retained as an item on the agenda of the 2009 IGF in any way. Although this topic was suggested as a theme for this year's IGF or for a main session by a range of actors during and in the run-up to May's Open Consultations, this widespread support is not reflected in the Draft Programme Paper, which does not include Internet Rights and Principles even as a sub-topic of any of the main sessions. The WSIS Declaration of Principles, 2003, and the Tunis Agenda, 2005, explicitly reaffirmed the centrality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to an inclusive information society. To make these commitments meaningful, it is of great importance that a beginning is made to explicitly building understanding and consensus around the meaning of Internet Rights and Principles at the earliest. We recommend that the Agenda of the 2009 IGF provide the space to do so.
Signatories:
Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore
Association for Progressive Communications
IP
Justice
Bytesforall, Pakistan
Instituto Nupef, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Jacques Berleur
Ginger Paque
Fouad Bajwa
Milton L Mueller
Willie Currie
Michael Gurstein
Jeanette Hofmann
Eric Dierker
Jeffrey A Williams
Charity Gamboa, chairperson Internet Governance Working Group, ISOC Philippines
Ian Peter
Tracy F. Hackshaw
Shaila Rao Mistry, Internet Rights and Principles
Lee W McKnight
Jeremy Malcolm
Tapani Tarvainen
Shahzad Ahmad, ICT Policy Monitors Network
Carlos Afonso
Dina Hovakmian
Rui
Correia
Lisa Horner
Deirdre Williams
Jaco
Aizenman
Nyangkwe Agien Aaron
Siranush Vardanyan, Armenia
Kwasi
Boakye-Akyeampong
Linda D. Misek-Falkoff
Baudouin
Schombe
Stefano Trumpy
