Many different crucial Internet governance documents, from the WSIS + 10 review to the NetMundial multistakeholder statement, to the latest report of UN Special Rapporteur Kaye say that the infrastructure of the Internet must be managed such that it serves the public interest. Some Standard Developing Organizations (SDOs) clearly state what they believe this public interest to be and how to achieve it, see for instance IETF RFC 1958: “The current exponential growth of the network seems to show that connectivity is its own reward, and is more valuable than any individual application such as mail or the World-Wide Web. The key to global connectivity is the inter-networking layer.” Global standards that ensure interoperability are crucial to maintain the Internet as a human rights enabling medium. Yet, the debate about the impact of the Internet on issues like human rights and SDGs, mostly takes place on a political, regulatory or commercial level, seemingly ignoring the power of the Internet’s infrastructure and the organizations managing it. This session will explore the relation between SDOs and Internet Governance Bodies (IGB) building and influencing the Internet’s infrastructure and human rights. More specifically we will discuss the following issue: what is the role of different SDOs in maintaining a global Internet based on global standards? The debate will foster discussion on how the, often contravening interests and objectives of SDOs and IGBs, can be balanced such that it allows them to maintain the Internet’s technical architecture, while enabling human rights and SDGs.
