IGF 2016: Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

In the online environment, private intermediaries heavily influence the conditions in which human rights are exercised. Companies’ corporate responsibility to respect human rights has been highlighted by international organizations, in documents such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the reports by the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression. These standards offer general principles that should be observed in terms of freedom of expression, privacy (including data protection) and due process, but usually lack procedural orientations on how to implement them. In this context, a remaining challenge seems to be how to enforce the existing international human rights standards in a transnational environment and make them be reflected in concrete practices and policies such as Terms of Service, transparency reports, internal audits, etc. This workshop will gather different stakeholders to discuss how the ICT sector can effectively implement their responsibility to protect human rights. The proposal is to understand what are the challenges faced by companies in this aspect and how they can be jointly addressed. In the occasion, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression will give a keynote about his report on ICT sector corporate responsibility to protect and respect human rights launched in June 2016. Empirical evidence produced by the project Terms of Service and Human Rights, developed by CTS-FGV will also be presented to stimulate the debate.

Speakers are:

David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression
Jamila Venturini, Center for Technology and Society at FGV Rio Law School (CTS-FGV)
João Brant, OBSERVACOM - Observatorio Latinoamericano de Regulación, Medios y Convergencia
Katie Shay, Yahoo
Peter Micek, Access Now
Pranesh Prakash, Centre for Internet and Society (CIS India) - TBC

Moderator: Luca Belli, Center for Technology and Society at FGV Rio Law School (CTS-FGV)

Some countries in Latin America have recognized the access to the Internet as a human right. For example, Mexico introduced the right to access the Internet in its Constitution and Costa Rica's Constitutional Court recognized it in a ruling. 

However, there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding what a right to access the Internet means. Particularly, there is a need to develop and understand the scope and the State obligations derived from the recognition of this right. This is particularly relevant since the recognition of a right to access the Internet might become a trend in Latin America and it would be useful to open the discussion about the implications of such recognition.

R3D, a digital rights organization in Mexico is preparing a paper developing a proposal for understanding the obligations to respect, protect, promote and guarantee the right to access the Internet as recognized in Mexico's Constitution. 

The objective of the panel is to present the proposal and open a multi-stakeholder dialogue. Discussants would receive the draft paper in advance since it would guide the public discussion at the IGF 2016. The outcomes of the dialogue will help R3D to develop and publish a final proposal for understanding the right to access the Internet from a Latin-American perspective that can serve as a guide for implementation around the region.

The room should have an online participation station, several roaming microphones to capture audience questions/comments and video/audio capabilities to facilitate the initial presentation and to facilitate possible remote participation.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Carrillo, Arturo
Del Campo, Agustina
Erramuspe, Alejandra
Huerta, Erick
Ruiz, Claudio

We will explore whether and how human rights frameworks and inclusive governance processes should play a role in the drive to achieve universal connectivity. 

Sustainable Development Goal 9 targets “universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020.” Upon the SDG launch, global opinion shapers and business leaders released a Connectivity Declaration to “connect the world,” launched the Global Connect Initiative, and continued striving to Connect the World. These initiatives prize public-private partnerships, and laud maxims like “dig once” to ensure that diverse stakeholders plan and execute development projects efficiently.

But efficient connectivity alone cannot be the only priority in global ICT development. The digital pipeline that is essential to economic development also connects, and threatens, members of vulnerable groups worldwide. The challenge is building a framework for human rights in the digital age that allows the internet’s current billions and next 4 billion users to connect seamlessly, securely, affordably, and openly.

We posit that respect for privacy, freedom of expression, and inclusive governance processes must go hand in glove with the drive to connect. For that to occur, bridges must be built between connectivity, development, and human rights communities, and internet governance expertise must help create more inclusive models and structures.

This workshop will approach SDG9 through a lens of inclusivity and respect for rights. We will theorize practical solutions to connecting the last mile, capacity building among vulnerable groups, and more, and take the answers to the major stakeholders committed to connecting the world.

[Updated] Speakers confirmed:

Bhardwaj, Manu - U.S. Department of State
Jorge, Sonia - Alliance for Affordable Internet
Micek, Peter - Access Now
Nguyen, Carolyn - Microsoft
Solomon, Brett - Access Now
Viola, Mario - Institute for Technology & Society (ITS Rio)

Most societies are truly based on the rule of law, elected governments rely on the judicial branch to deliver on its obligations to its citizens and to protect and promote universal human rights. As stated in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Goal 16: Peace, stability, human rights and effective governance based on the rule of law are important conduits for sustainable development. It is therefore central that this branch is strengthened, giving it greater responsibility and relevance to address new challenges related to the Internet and freedom of expression. Such new challenges concerning the relationship between governments and social media networks have led, as one example, to the shutting down of these applications, violating freedom of expression and other correlated rights, after decisions of Courts, for instance.

Over the last few years UNESCO and the Interamerican Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression has teamed with a number of judicial systems in IberoAmerica, including supreme courts and judicial training schools and institutions in strengthening the capacities and knowledge of judicial operators hindered by new challenges associated with the Internet and freedom of expression, access to information and the safety of journalists.

UNESCO proposes this session, in coordination with Freedom of Expression Rapporteurs and Regional Human Rights Courts, to address the role of Judiciary System in protecting Freedom of Expression in the Cyberspace. This is ground-breaking, inspiring, new work with a new group of stakeholders.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Botero, Catalina
Caldas, Roberto
Díaz de León, Eugenia
Lanza, Edison
Lemos, Ronaldo

This joint DCAD and G3ict workshop will suggest to develop possible sustainable accessibility goals for persons with disabilities in the use of the Internet. 
Though accessibility improvements in many areas have been made since the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) was adopted in 2006, and certain levels of awareness on the importance of accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities are recognized in general, there are still a lot of barriers that persons with disabilities often encounter. Such barriers are created without any intention, but often due to the lack of information on experiences and efforts already made, as well as challenges that occurred in implementing accessibility projects in countries or regions, etc. Unless we share what we have done globally in a recognized international forum like IGF, we can’t achieve the goal of “Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth” in a real global interoperable manner that lets persons with disabilities have functional equivalent access and full participation in life no matter where they live.
The workshop will facilitate to share such up-to-date information, and discuss possible five areas of sustainable accessibility goals. This will include: general status of accessibility; accessibility for SDGs; public procurement of accessible ICTs; relay services; and challenges in small islands. All of those topics will be presented in depth by international accessibility experts, then followed by interactive discussion.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Astbrink, Gunela
Ellis, Gerry
Okite, Judy 
Saks, Andrea

Intentional disruptions of internet and electronic communications -- also called internet shutdowns -- significantly impact the economy and free expression. Disruptions stifle sustainable growth and hamper inclusivity by cutting off marginalized voices, serving as an early warning mechanism of human rights violations. Conservative estimates of a recent shutdown indicated losses as much as $25 million per day for the disruption to mobile banking services alone.

Largely ordered by government ICT ministries, internet shutdowns are defined as an intentional disruption of internet or electronic communications, rendering them inaccessible or effectively unusable, for a specific population or within a location, often to exert control over the flow of information. At other times, application-specific shutdowns are ordered by public officials – judges, for instance – in order to impose sanctions on a specific company, unaware of the disproportionality of such a measure.

Access Now documented nearly 20 shutdowns in 2015 and over 15 in the first half of 2016, including in South Asia, North America, Asia-Pacific, Central Asia, and MENA.

Access to the internet and communications technologies is essential to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth. When services are disrupted, the ICT economy is significantly impacted by these government orders. A concerted, organized response as well as norm building is necessary to address this challenge in order to promote the internet as a platform for achieving the sustainable development goals. The rise of shutdowns is especially troubling given our increasing reliance upon internet connectivity to enjoy basic human rights and document their abuses.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Aaronson, Susan
Ahmad, Shahzad
Doneda, Danilo
Duru Aydin, Deniz
Hiselius, Patrick
Lichtenberg, Judith
Ming, Sze
O’Connell, Andy 
Pietikainen, Milka

Sextortion is based on nonconsensual pornography and refers to sexually explicit images and videos disclosed without consent and for no legitimate purpose. Involves footage obtained by hidden cameras, consensually exchanged images within a confidential relationship, stolen or leaked photos and recordings, social media manipulation, blackmailing, threating communications, computer hacking, use of malware and key loggers. It is a violation of privacy and a form of often gendered sexual abuse from objections based on negative perceptions of nudity or displays of sexual conduct.

The current architecture of internet and social media enabling these increased forms of exposure can create a world where people are more vulnerable to harm. These vulnerabilities leads to scalability, replicability and searchability of private information. Although existing privacy-preserving mechanisms have been developed and improved over the years, they are still not helping users in distinguishing a self disclosure behavior that might put them into risk.

Considering the internet’s role as a forum for public discourse, it is clearly undisputed that cyber harassment, such as sextortion, interferes with expression, even as it is perpetrated via expression. Given that it is profoundly damaging to the free speech and privacy rights of the people targeted. Accordingly, sextortion is a growing concern and needs a coordinated multi-stakeholder efforts to bring about greater levels of internet safety.

In this IGF workshop, we aim to disrupt the sextortion dialogue by implementing solutions that stems from interdisciplinary research, analysis of evidence based policy and effective multi-stakeholder good practices in tackling the problem. Seeking to bring together and engage technologists, civil society, public policymakers, government affairs, representatives from internet intermediaries to brainstorm over alternate technological focused projects and legal and policy solutions for countering sextortion which will be addressed during our social engineering demostration and panel discussion.

The following questions will be triggering debate in this workshop:

Technical & Behavioral track:

To what extent social engineering, webcam blackmail or other technical application can be instrumental to sextortion?

What is online self-disclosure and how is related to sextortion?

What make users disclose more online than in offline context?

What can be done to prevent excessive self-disclosure behavior?

What are the challenges and opportunities of using preventative technology to deal with certain forms of harmful content?

What are the challenges and opportunities of using instructional awareness approach in relation to online behavior that may create vulnerabilities?

Legal & Policy track:

What are the reasonable expectations of privacy users have in social media?

Are individuals’ difficulty expressing themselves in the face of online assaults absent from discussions about the Internet’s speech-facilitating role?

What are the challenges and opportunities around the criminalization nonconsensual pornography?

In relation to terms of services what are the expected due diligence standards with regard to privacy, due process and adjudication?

Which online platforms good practices based on content monitoring and take down tools should be boosted to tackle sextortion?

Is there any specific good practice in relation to  the youth?

Panelists:

*Panel moderator & panelist: Catherine Garcia van Hoogstraten, Digital Governance, Information Technology & Cybersecurity advisor, researcher and lecturer at the Hague University of Applied Sciences- Centre of Expertise for Cybersecurity and Women in Cybersecurity (WiCs) 
*Maria Cristina Capelo, Public Policy & Government Relations at Google
*Jamila Venturini, Researcher at Center for Technology & Society at FGV Rio Law School                      
*Arda Gerkens, Senator at the Dutch Parliament and Managing director Expertise Bureau Online Child Abuse 
*Hanane Boujemi , Hivos Senior Manager Internet Governance Programme MENA 
*Nicolás E. Díaz Ferreyra, PhD Fellow at the User-Centred Social Media RTG, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
*Alejandra Cantón Moreno, CISO at Giesecke & Devrient
*Panel rapporteur & panelist: Su Sonia Hering, ISOC IGF Ambassador 2016, Internet Governance Youth Delegate, Editor, Social Media Specialist  

This workshop is organized by  Women in Cyber Security (WiCs), the Netherlands IGF & e-Commerce Platform.

On December 7th from 12:30-13:30 at room #5 join us in the disruptive dialogue on sextortion during the Internet Governance Forum 2016. Register to attend to our workshop here: http://sched.co/8htT

Also participate with your comments via Twitter by using: #IGF2016 #sextortionworkshop @WomenInCyber @NLIGF

UNESCO Workshop, Internet Governance Forum: December 2016, Mexico

 Workshop Title: Encryption and Safety of Journalists in the Digital Age

 15:00 – 16:30, Wednesday, 7 December 2016, Workshop Room 6

 Topic Summary

 Over the last decades, encryption has proven uniquely suitable to be used in the digital environments. It has been widely deployed by a variety of actors to ensure protection of information and communication for commercial, personal and public interests. From a human rights perspective, there is a growing recognition that the availability and deployment of encryption by relevant actors is a necessary ingredient for realizing a free and open internet. Encryption supports free expression, anonymity, access to information, private communication and privacy. As a result, limitations on encryption need to be carefully scrutinized.

As recommended by UN Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Expression and Privacy in their several reports, encryption remains a key issue to explore further as an important measure to protect freedom of expression, privacy and other human rights online.

Digital harassment is an increasingly frequent occurrence that has forced journalists to abandon stories or even the profession. This type of intimidation is especially acute for women journalists, who often face graphic rape and death threats that include personal details when they publish work online in multiple ways including social media.

Encryption plays a crucial role in protecting online safety for all users including journalists and media actors. UNESCO aims to carry forward the human rights discussion on encryption by launching its new edition of the Organization’s Internet Freedom Series publication: Human Rights Aspects of Encryption. The journalistic dimension will be highlighted to address the safety of journalists online and explore the existing mechanism and legislation to protect journalists from digital harassments.

It will be an interactive discussion built on a brief introduction of the research at the beginning and short remarks from panellists. Majority of the time will be dedicated to the Q and A with the audience and remote participants.

Resources and links:

 Link to UNESCO Internet Study “Keystones to foster inclusive Knowledge Societies”: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/internetstudy/

 UNESCO Series on Internet Freedom:

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/publications-and-communication-materials/publications/publications-by-series/unesco-series-on-internet-freedom/

 Link to UNESCO Concept note on Internet Universality:

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/crosscutting-priorities/unesco-internet-study/internet-universality/

 Link to ConnectingtheDots Outcome documents of UNESCO: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/outcome_document.pdf

 In-Person Moderator: Guy Berger, UNESCO

 Remote Moderator: Guilherme Canela De Souza Godoi, UNESCO

 Rapporteur: Xianhong Hu, UNESCO

 Speakers

 Mr. Frank La Rue, Assistant Director-General of  UNESCO

Mr. Wolfgang Schulz, Hans-Bredow-Institut fur Medienforschung

Mr. Amos Toh, Legal assistant to UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom Of Expression

Ms. Courtney Radsch, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

Mr. Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

Ms. Amalia Toledo, Karisma Foundation and FLIP

Mr. Sebastián Bellagamba, Internet Society (ISOC)

Mr. Janis Karklins, Vice President of Human Rights Council

Agenda

 Preparation  meeting with panelists, 15 mins before the session

5’ Opening remarks from the Chair Mr Guy Berger, UNESCO Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development 

5’ Introduction by Mr. Frank La Rue, Assistant Director General for Communication and Information, UNESCO.

10’ Presentation by Mr. Wolfgang Schulz, Hans-Bredow-Institut fur Medienforschung

Remarks by panelists

5’ Mr. Amos Toh, Legal assistant to UN Special Rapporteur on FOE

5’ Ms. Courtney Radsch, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

5’ Mr. Marc Rotenberg,  Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

5’ Ms. Amalia Toledo, Karisma Foundation and FLIP

5’ Mr. Sebastián Bellagamba, Internet Society (ISOC)

5’ Mr. Janis Karklins, Vice President of Human Rights Council

Open floor to other stakeholders at present

40’

Q&A

Connecting the Next Billion is a key milestone for the Internet Community. Primary factors being addressed towards this objective include infrastructure, capacity building, policy coherence, access devices (such as mobile phones) and technology. Of secondary enabling factors, an important one is Open Source, both in technology (Free/Open Source Software, FOSS), as well as in terms of approach.

FOSS provides many advantages, including:

- Low-cost, robust, cost-effective, customizable, public software
- Liberal licensing
- No-cost community support
- Enables building of group/community applications
- Enables privacy, anonymity and confidentiality
- Provides the software 'community' model, combining developers, maintainers and users

There lurks numerous risks when a large number of first-generation Internet neo-literates--ordinary users, children, girls/women, differntly-abled, and the aged, civil society activists--join the network, including cyberstalking, surveillance, loss of confidential information, lack of anonymity, cyberbullying, malware, spam, scams, identity theft and more.

FOSS provides numerous technolgy tools & social models that helps building resilience in commmunities to become empowered users. These include general applications such as browsers, messengers, media players and office suites, to specialized software such as ToR, Freenet or I2P. 

The BoF session will focus on ways in which communities can deploy FOSS and build capacity within the community to meet the challenges arising out of joining the Internet. The speakers are drawn from IGF participants from previous meetings. There exists a distinct group of IGF participants--judging by previous workshops on similar topics--who are interested in FOSS, who will constitute the audience.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Astbrink, Gunela
Crépin-Leblond, Olivier M.J.
Datta, Bishakha
Jayakumar, Arjun
McKnight, Glenn
Teelucksingh, Dev Anand

Moderators: Judi Okite, Satish Babu

 

A strategic approach to advocacy work is crucial for all human rights defenders that aim to influence public policy. 

The current Internet Governance ecosystem is not only complex, it presents a mixed picture with regard to participation and interests. There is a growing number of civil society actors advocating for human rights in the digital age. But there are also increasingly geopolitically motivated state actors and well-resourced international corporations who shape a more politicised and securitised Internet Governance system. Additionally, resources for effective engagement for advocacy work are limited and some spaces are not open to multistakeholder engagement - making strategic approaches even more crucial.

To effectively engage in these spaces, human rights defenders need to be aware of the ecosystem they operate in, the actors involved and the barriers they face - and develop strategies to overcome these. 

The workshop aims to strengthen strategic advocacy for human rights online in relevant internet governance debates. It aims to offer an opportunity for human rights defenders of all stakeholder groups to share lessons learned about their advocacy work, map barriers they are facing and jointly develop strategic approaches to overcome these. Advancing strategic engagement strategic engagement skills is likely to also benefit new voices of human rights defenders with limited resources to participate meaningfully.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Cunningham, Laura
Ojo, Edetaen
Varon Ferraz, Joana 
Vermeer, Lisa

This session will provide an overview of how electronic surveillance has been approached by international human rights bodies. This includes a discussion on the trends, challenges and opportunities for the development of standards in international human rights law. 

International human rights law and bodies are becoming increasingly influential at the national level and they have are particularly well positioned to address this issue with legitimacy due to the growing international dimension of surveillance. Therefore it is important to analyse how the universal and regional human rights systems are approaching the subject, which differences and shortcomings can be identified, how are governments and national courts interacting with them and how civil society is using them to challenge unchecked surveillance.

David Kaye will talk about developments in the UN system. Elvana Thaci will talk about the developments in European human rights bodies. Katitza Rodriguez will speak about how the 13 Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance have been recognized, applied or ignored by national systems and international bodies. Eduardo Bertoni will speak from the government perspective on how an agency such as a data protection authority relates to standards developed in international human rights bodies. Finally, Luis Fernando García will speak of the coming opportunities to develop surveillance case law in the Inter-American system of human rights.

The moderation and composition of the panel will have representatives of civil society, academia, governments and companies and will be balanced in terms of gender.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Bertoni, Eduardo
Rodriguez, Katitza
Thaci, Elvana

Over two years have passed since the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled, in the Google Spain case, that the search engine must “de-list” certain search results on request in order to honor the requesters’ data protection rights. The policy consequences of that high profile ruling have been felt around the world. This panel will examine how the so-called “Right to Be Forgotten” ruling has been embraced, criticized, and adapted in other countries. In particular, it will ask how different cultures and legal systems have addressed the role of private Internet intermediaries in resolving difficult conflicts between privacy and free expression -- and what lessons can be learned from their experiences. 

This topic highlights a key issue for Internet governance and inclusive and sustainable growth: the role of Internet platforms in defining and enforcing individual Internet users’ rights online. Governments are increasingly turning to these private companies as de facto regulators of a broad swath of speech. The “Right to Be Forgotten” has been a high profile, large scale test case. From this discussion, we can learn what benefits and what costs Internet users have seen, and how to move toward sustainable models going forward.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Keller, Daphne
Malcolm, Jeremy
Marrey Moncau, Luiz Fernando
Ornelas, Lina
Park, KS
Borggreen, Christian (CCIA, Director of International Policy) 

Connecting the next billion raises questions on the importance of creating an enabling environment. On-going connectivity efforts need to ensure that those coming online have access to a safe, secure and open Internet. Internet governance plays an important role in setting the rules of the game. 

But what happens when some players ignore or bypass these rules?

Over the last few years, there has been increasing evidence that specific agencies and authorities have direct, unimpeded access to data for intelligence gathering and law enforcement purposes without an operational role for telecommunications service providers. Moreover, data held by over-the-top providers and other institutions, such as financial bodies and air operators, may already be a reality.

From a legal perspective, this undermines efforts deployed by multi-stakeholder processes working to ensure that the governance of the internet is in accordance with the rule of law, and respects, protects and promotes human rights. By having direct access there is little or no incentive for governments to go through the existing legal framework to request communications data of their citizens, thus significantly undermining legal safeguards.

From a technology perspective, governments having direct access with or without the knowledge of service providers directly threatens the integrity, security and privacy of communications systems. Especially as compromising security for State purposes almost always compromises security more generally.

What are the legal frameworks which currently permit governments direct access? What are the current surveillance capabilities in place? Who sells this equipment? What are the human rights implications?

Speakers confirmed:

Adnan Chaudhri, Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan (Civil Society)
Carolina Botero from Fundación Karisma, Colombia (Civil Society)
Edin Omanovic, Privacy International (Civil Society)
Judith Lichtenberg, Global Network Initiative (Private Sector)
Patrick Hiselius, Telia Company (Private Sector)
Collin Anderson, Independent Expert (Technical Community)

There is an emerging need to develop, enhance and defend legal frameworks to ensure a free and open internet against attempts to restrict internet freedoms and silence expression online. Freedom of expression, especially, is universally acknowledged as a demandable human right guaranteed whether offline or online.

Strategic litigation – which involves the deliberate initiation and litigation of court cases with the goal of establishing judicial precedents that are favorable to democratic rights -- has emerged as a key tool to counter increased attacks on freedom of expression online. Our panelists, who work out of Southeast Asia, will share their own experiences in strategic litigation within their own respective countries. Through the panel discussion and the participation of the attendees, there would be useful exchanges and sharing of information about best and most effective practices in strategic litigation for online rights.

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) will host a roundtable on economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs) and the internet to discuss the implications of ESCRs on internet policy development. We expect this to be a robust and wide-ranging discussion on the importance of the internet as an enabler of ESCRs drawing from the diverse experiences of those who will participate in the roundtable. We expect about 15-20 participants in the roundtable. These include country-level authors for the 2016 Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) report which focuses on ESCRs and the internet, experts in the field of copyright, cultural rights, and gender rights, government representatives from Uruguay, Colombia, India, South Africa and Kenya, and one participant who has served as a Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression at the Human Rights Council. The GISWatch authors represent experiences in countries as diverse as South Korea, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Costa Rica, the Balkan region, Yemen, and Canada, and include a mix of journalists, academics, internet-rights activits and organisations working on ESCRs. The objective of the roundtable will be to extract high-level policy considerations from the discussions.
The latest edition of the Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) report will look at the role of the internet in realising economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs), will be  launched during the roundtable, and used to illustrate perspectives where appropriate.
This roundtable is part of APC's three-year research and capacity building project on ESCRs and the internet. More on the project can be found here: http://www.apc.org/en/projects/internet-rights-are-economic-social-cultural-rights. 

 

 

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Abraham, Sunil 
Antonov, Pavel
Barrera, Lourdes Vianney
Oh, Byoung-il
pellizzer, valentina

On 25 September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the milestone document called “Transforming our world; the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. The said document consists of 17 goals, also known as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and 169 targets which all countries aim to achieve by 2030. One of 17 goals emphasizes on reducing inequality that fits perfectly with theme of IGF 2016 “Enabling inclusiveness and Sustainable Growth” 
The Health Equity Monitoring Project report (2013) conducted by International Health Policy Program showed that the blind who are in labor market in Thailand was approximately 12.9% compared with total workforce ages. In addition, 58% of the blind completed only primary school that led for gaining lower-income. Consequently, they have encountered on inequality and unwell-being in their quality of life.
In order to reduce inequality for the blind; as one of marginalized groups in Thai society, enhancing internet accessibility for the blind, who have encountered with unfriendly internet accessibility, leads for improvement of their quality of life and well-being as well. Therefore, Thailand through Thailand Association of the Blind collaborated with Information technology experts has introduced an innovative technology solutions in order to reduce inequality of internet accessibility among the blind.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Amornvivat, Natwut

Blanket shutdowns of Internet services, usually as a means to forestall violence and civic unrest, have been gaining traction in recent times, especially in developing countries. This practice has been heavily condemned in international policy circles as being unjustifiable under human rights law, yet the shutdowns continue to occur with ever-increasing frequency. Restricting Internet access to large sections of the population has several wide-ranging consequences, including compromising the right to free speech and freedom of information and knowledge, in addition to making for an inhospitable environment for businesses and other entities that rely on the Internet for functioning. It also discounts the possibility of targeted content filtration as a means to achieve similar ends, choosing instead to restrict all access to online content and services en masse. This has dangerous implications for the future of the Internet, as frequent disruptions in service threaten to undermine its stability and reliability, thereby impacting its role as a universally accessible platform for delivery of content and services. This panel aims to explore the causes and ground-level impacts of Internet shutdowns with a view to uncovering the motivations behind such measures, laws and policies that allow them to happen and ways to prevent them.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Avila, Renata
Mathews, Rajan
Rydzak, Jan
Sambuli, Nanjira

With one in three Internet users worldwide aged under 18 it is a fact one cannot deny that inclusive and sustainable growth can only be achieved under the pre-condition that children’s rights are secured. The UN Charter on the Rights of the Child addresses in Art. 12 to 17 and 19 the rights of children to freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy, and their right to be safeguarded and protected from violence. When the UNCRC was elaborated media did play a role in children’s life but none that is comparable to the Internet of today. Therefore Internet Governance must take into account the impact of the Internet on children’s lives and the assertion of their rights to privacy, safety and freedom of expression. Achievement of the IGF goal of connecting the next billion of Internet users will obviously mean a lot more young people online considering the demographic structure of the population in countries not yet fully connected. In order to benefit from the Internet’s potential to strengthen democracy and social participation children need both physical access and digital literacy education in order to avail themselves to the rights they are given by the UNCRC.
The Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the UN General Assembly on Sept. 25th, 2015 mentions children and youth as a vulnerable group whose needs to be empowered are reflected in the measures to be undertaken. Ensuring inclusive and sustainable growth by enforcement of children’s rights will therefore pay directly into the SDGs.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Blackler, Ellen
Gerkens, Arda
Kane, Cissé
Lemineur, Marie-Laure
Livingstone, Sonia
Nair, Abhilash