IGF 2016: Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

General Assembly on Community Connectivity

This session aims at analysing the state of connectivity and move the discussion forward from the traditional Internet access paradigm to the consideration of alternative models to foster connectivity. Particularly, this event will have a threefold structure aimed at collaboratively (i) take stock of the current state of connectivity; (ii) debate the failures of the current model and analysing some alternative solutions; (iii) and crowdsource feedback on the Guadalajara Declaration on Community Connectivity.

 First Segment (15:00 – 16:00)

Setting the Scene: the State of Connectivity

• Alejandro Pisanty, National University of Mexico
• Manu Bardwaj, US State Department
• Bob Frankston, IEEE Consumer Electronics Society

Moderated by Luca Belli, Center for Technology & Society at FGV

Second Segment (16:00 – 17:15)

From Broadband to Connectivity

• Nathalia Foditsch, American University
• Mahabir Pun, Nepal Wireless Networking Project
• Mike Jensen, APC
• Nicolas Echaniz, Altermundi
• Leandro Navarro, Guifi.net
• Percival  Henriques, CGI.br
• Ritu Srivastava, Digital Empowerment Foundation

Moderated by Jane Coffin, ISOC

Third Segment (17:15-18:00)

A new Connectivity Paradigm: Crowdsourcing the Guadalajara Declaration on Community Connectivity

Unconference format facilitated by Luca Belli, Mike Jensen and Jane Coffin

In the last years, the debate in this topic has been increased. A growing number of leaders in government, private sector, technical community, civil society and academia have expressed concerned about the danger for the Internet fragmentation in different islands of connectivity due to the emergence of new trends driven by the technological advances, government policies or commercial practices that have been implemented in all the Internet layers, from the underlying infrastructures and the applications. 
The diversity in these trends has caused that the stakeholders visualize and experiment the Internet fragmentation in different ways. Therefore, it is considered appropriate to conduct a debate that confronts the views that the stakeholders has in this trend. 
In the same way, it is intended that the debate include the discussion of the positive and negative effects of the commercial practices implemented by the Internet service providers (Practices such as zero rating, sponsored data, paid prioritization).
It will be included a special emphasis in the net neutrality in order to differentiate how this could influence in the Internet fragmentation trend and how it could distinguish between the temporal and exceptional congestion, how to differentiate it from lack of investment and proper sizing networks. 

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Moderador: Rodrigo de la Parra, ICANN

-Mario Fromow, IFT.

-Mignon L. Clyburn, Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

-Cristina Monti, European Commission

-Alejandro Pisanty, UNAM

-William J. Drake, University of Zurich, 

-Chinmayi Arun,  Centre for Communication Governance, New Delhi

Mario Fromow, Commissioner, Federal Telecommunications Institute

Mario Germán Fromow Rangel has a professional career of over 20 years of experience, both in the public and private sectors as well as in the national and international level. Mr. Fromow Rangel is an expert in public policy, regulation, and technological development of the telecommunications and broadcasting sector.

Mario Fromow Rangel holds a Master’s of Science degree in Engineering from Keio University, Japan. He also obtained a degree in Communications and Electronics Engineering from the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico. Mr. Fromow Rangel has served as an Optical Communications Researcher at the Research and Technology Development laboratories of the Japanese company Kokusai Denshin Denwa (KDD). He was also Research Associate at the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He has been a member of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) and the College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineers of Mexico.

 On September 10, 2013, he was ratified by the Senate of Mexico as Commissioner of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications for the next seven years.

From April 2011 to September 2013, Mario Fromow Rangel served as General Director of Regulation “B” in the Federal Telecommunications Commission, defining regulatory policies to promote the efficient development of telecommunications infrastructure and services in Mexico. He was also Chairman of the National Consultative Committee on Telecommunications Standardization and Deputy Chairman of the Portability Technical Committee.

Mr. Fromow Rangel has been Head of Delegation, coordinating and defending Mexico's position in more than 10 meetings of CITEL, REGULATEL and APEC-TEL. He was also Delegate to the Mexico-USA High Level Consultative Commission on Telecommunications and Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). He participated as Deputy Head of Delegation to the World Conference on International Telecommunications held on December 2012 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he signed ad referendum the Final Acts, due to the Full Power granted by the President of the United States of Mexico.

From September 2004 to May 2007, Mario Fromow Rangel was Project Coordinator of the Vice Ministry of Communications of the Ministry of Communications and Transport (SCT); he participated in the development of the policy for Wireless broadband services and other applications, as well as the Convergence Agreement of Local Telephone Services and Pay Television/Audio Services.

 

IGF Guadalajara 2016
 
Open Forum Germany
 
Tuesday, December 6, 2016, 10.45, WS 5, PALCCO

 
Germany supports the Multistakeholder approach to Internet Governance. The German government has supported this concept at the 2016 summit meetings of the G 7 (May in Japan) and G 20 (September in China), at the WSIS 10+ and the OECD Ministerial Meeting (June 2016 in Cancun). Germany chairs the G 20 in 2017 and will host a G 20 ministerial meeting on the digital economy. A German diplomat chairs the 2016/2017 Group of Government Experts on Information and Communication Technology in the Field of International Security. Likewise, it was a German-Brazilian initiative which led to the renewed adoption of a UN resolution on the Right to Privacy in the Digital Age in the 3rd Committee in November 2016.    
 
The German national IGF (IGF-D) takes place since 2008. In February 2016, a new Multistakeholder Steering Committee was established to professionalize the IGF-D. The Steering Committee has 26 members. It includes four representatives each from government, national parliament, business sector, technical and academic community as well as civil society, plus two representatives from a youth stakeholder group. The Steering Committee prepares the annual IGF-D but is also a platform for discussion of Internet Governance issues in Germany. 
 
There is a number of non-governmental initiatives which were initiated or promoted by the German Internet Governance community, and which have contributed to the global Multistakeholder discussion on Internet Governance. A Multistakeholder joint paper on the IANA stewardship transition was co-authored by German experts and played a significant role in discussions at ICANN. Germany hosted EuroDIG in 2013. Since 2008, the European Summer School on Internet Governance (EURO-SSIG) takes place in Germany. Just recently experts drafted a "Charter for Fundamental Rights in the Digital Age" and sent it to the European Parliament to launch a discussion.
 
The Open Forum Germany will give an overview about the various activities of German stakeholders in their respective fields of expertise and competence and present best practices. There will be an opportunity for interactive discussion. 
 
 
Speakers:
 
Introduction & Moderation:
Prof. Wolfgang Kleinwächter, Member of the Steering Committee
 
The German IGF and its Multistakeholder Steering Committee Lorena Jaume-Palasì, Secretary of the Steering Committee
 
Business Community:
Prof. Michael Rotert, Chair of Eco
Thomas Grob, Deutsche Telekom
 
Technical Community:
Jörg Schweiger, CEO of DENIC
 
Academic Community:
Prof. Jeanette Hofmann, Humboldt Institut Internet & Society
 
Civil Society:
Matthias Spielkamp, iRights
 
Youth:
Isabel Skierka, Digital Society Institute
 
EURO-SSIG:
Sandra Hoferichter, EURODIG
 
Government:
Constanze Bürger, Federal Ministry of the Interior, Peter Stentzler, Federal Foreign Office

UNESCO Workshop, Internet Governance Forum: December 2016, Mexico

 Workshop Title: Social Media and Youth Radicalization in the Digital Age

 12:00 – 13:30 Tuesday, 6 December 2016, Workshop Room 5

 Topic Summary

 UNESCO has a mandate to defend freedom of expression, instructed by its Constitution to promote “the free flow of ideas by word and image”. In 2013, UNESCO’s General Conference of 195 Member States adopted Resolution 52, which recalled Human Rights Council Resolution A/HRC/RES/20/8, “The Promotion, Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet”, affirming that the same rights that people have off-line must also be protected online.

 Following the fruitful discussion on mitigating online hate speech and youth radicalization at the IGF 2015, UNESCO received many calls to further the discussion and deepen the understanding of the hot issue of youth radicalization and the role of social media in this process.

UNESCO proposes this session to share the initial outcome in terms of Internet Governance from its commissioned research on the subject, and trigger discussion on where the Internet relates to youth radicalization including gender issues, the counter measures taken, as well as to the youth empowerment actions taken through a holistic approach, in the light of achieving SDG goal 16 on inclusive and peaceful societies.

 It will be an interactive discussion built on a brief introduction of the research at the beginning and short remarks from panelists. 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: Indrajit Banerjee, UNESCO 

 Remote Moderator: Cedric Wachholz, UNESCO

 Rapporteur: Xianhong Hu, UNESCO

 Speakers

Ms. Divina Frau-Meigs, Universite la Sorbonne, France 

Mr. Sunil Abraham, Center for Internet and Society 

Ms. Lillian Nalwoga, Internet Society (ISOC) Uganda 

Mr. William Hudson, Google 
Mr. Barbora Bukovska, Article 19
Ms. Rebecca MacKinnon, Ranking Digital Rights
Mr. Guy Berger, UNESCO Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development

Agenda

Preparation  meeting with panelists, 15 mins before the session

5’ Opening remarks from the Chair 

Remarks by panelists

15’

Presentation by Ms. Divina Frau-Meigs, Universite la Sorbonne, France

5’

Mr. Sunil Abraham, Center for Internet and Society

5’

Ms. Lillian Nalwoga,  Internet Society (ISOC) Uganda

5’

Mr. William Hudson, Google

5’

Ms. Barbora Bukovska, Article 19

5’

Ms. Rebecca MacKinnon, Ranking Digital Rights

5’

Mr. Guy Berger, UNESCO Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development

Open floor to other stakeholders at present

40’

Q&A

 

The workshop session should look into the following topics and cause:

1. How to address and acknowledge the Cyber Evidence, where virtual and real-life activities should be treated equally with logical sequence of happenings and identity confirmation;

2. Whether the modernization and/or amendment of classical criminal procedure, evidence law, etc. are good enough to manage the human rights and criminal activities in internet domain (i.e. co-existence of real and virtual domain);

3. Whether the law enforcement activities e.g. surveillance, intelligence, policing, defense, etc. are going to require separate legal and administrative frameworks (i.e. drafted from scratch to separate the real and virtual domain) for the sustainable eco-system;

4. The short-term and long-term governance model for the internet legislature and internet eco-system.



The outcome / recommendation of the workshop should be based on following items:
1. Points/Remarks raised from the each group of participants;
2. Recommendation given by the Rapporteurs;
3. Counter-Logic and answers given by the Rapporteurs;
4. Conclusion drawn by the Moderator.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Al-Saqaf, Dr. Walid
Aryal, Babu Ram
Bari, Md. Emdad Ul
Hackshaw, Tracy F.
Lemineur, Marie-Laure
Sabir, Sumon Ahmed

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

This purpose of this workshop is to explore collaborative programs that will focus on women and technology and its implications for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth among players in Central and South Asia (CASA). 

Majority of the women in Central and South Asia do not have access to education, technologies, sustainable livelihoods and live below poverty line. Access to internet is considered a luxury, with women and poor comprising the underserved. Issues include: digital literacy, local technologies, local content, poor infrastructure, cost of bandwidth, quality of service and inadequate policies. 

The Internet and information, communication, and knowledge technologies have provided innovative ways to address the challenges faced by women in these countries but most of these innovations are not shared widely. This workshop will bring entrepreneurs, women executives, and technology thought leaders from across Central and South Asia to discuss: (1) What is going on with policy and practice regarding women and technology in central and south Asia; (2) Share research reports on gender, technologies, technical knowledge and what the workshop participants have done for women and technology in the region; (3) Foster collaboration among target countries by creating a network of women in technology; (4) Explore capacity building ideas, including online learning that could be done on a collaborative basis in the region; (5) Explore what technologies could facilitate collaboration among women, for example a platform for networking, an online repository of resources.

AGENDA

The workshop agenda/ format will include: 

1) Overview of the Session (6 minutes): The moderator will introduce the session objectives, topics, agenda, and the speakers. (Moderator: Maria Beebe)

Session Objective: To explore collaborative programs that will focus on women and technology and its implications for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth among players in Central and South Asia (CASA).

Overview of Internet Governance (IG) Topics:

• Decision Making Processes and Fora  - the most important decision-making processes and flora whose outcomes affect the way in which the Internet works and develops in the country 
• Issues - the most important issues with which Internet Governance is concerned 
• Stakeholders - the most important stakeholders (men, women) who participate in the discussion of those issues and who are affected by the decisions

2) Country Presentations (30 minutes): The country presentations will summarize Status of IG in their country and Implications for Women: 

• Overview of Internet Governance (IG) by country: Framework 
• Decision Making Processes and Fora  - the most important decision-making processes and flora whose outcomes affect the way in which the Internet works and develops in the country Issues - the most important issues with which Internet Governance is concerned Stakeholders - the most important stakeholders (men, women) who participate in the discussion of those issues and who are affected by the decisions
• Overview of Gender, Policy and Practice: (1) What is going on with policy and practice regarding women and technology in their respective countries; Share research reports on gender, technologies, technical knowledge; and, (2) What is the workshop participant's organization doing for women and technology in the region. 
• Suggestions & Action Required: What is needed to build capacities of TechWomen, create enabling environment for TechWomen, and foster collaboration to share knowledge, experiences etc. 

The presenters will be as follows: 

• Afghanistan (Omar Ansari and Shabana Mansoory) - 6 min
• Tajikistan (Zuhra Halimova) - 6 min 
• Kyrgyzstan (Lira Samykbaeva and Tattu Mambetalieva) - 6 min 
• India (Subi Chaturvedi) - 6 min 
• Pakistan (Sahar Habib and Naumana Suleman) - 6 min

3) Breakout into Small Groups (15 mins)

The participants will break out into three discussion groups (DGs), including Remote Groups, to discuss challenges and responses to regional collaboration Among Women. Each group should have a moderator, rapporteur, and a representative to make a report back to the main group. 

Each small discussion group will take one of the following topic outlined in the description above: 

• DG# 1: Foster collaboration among target countries by creating a network of women in technology;
• DG# 2: Explore capacity building ideas, including online learning that could be done on a collaborative basis in the region;
• DG# 3: Explore what technologies could facilitate collaboration among women, for example a platform for networking, an online repository of resources.

4) Report Back: Suggestions for Next Steps and Action Plan (15 minutes)

The groups will report back to the main group in the following order:

• DG# 1: 5min
• DG# 2: 5min
• DG# 3: 5min

5) Action Planning (30 minutes)

After the main group hears the small group reports, following resource persons will speak about how they and their organizations can contribute to create an action plan and execute it in CASA:

• Marilyn Cade - IGFSA, Global Connect, DNS Women- 2min 
• Sylvia Cadena - APNIC- 2min
• Joseph Gattuso - Department of Commerce - 2min
• Sheen Handoo - Facebook India
• Karen McCabe - IEEE
• Carolyn Nguyen - Microsoft - 2min
• Lorrayne Porciuncula - OECD- 2min

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Abdurahmanova, Mavzuna - Open Society Initiative (Tajikistan)
Ansari, Omar Mansoor - Technation Afghanistan (Afghanistan)
Habib, Sahar - Islamabad Civic Innovation LabCode for Pakistan (Pakistan)
Halimova, Zuhra - Open Society Initiative (Tajikistan)
Mambetalieva, Tattu - Civic Internet Policy Initiative (Kyrgyzstan)
Mansoory, Shabana -Technation Afghanistan (Afghanistan)
Samykbaeva, Lira - Soros Fooundation (Kyrgyzstan)
Suleman, Naumana - Bytes for All (Pakistan) 

A prerequisite for attaining inclusive and sustainable growth through the power of the Internet is the trust all stakeholders have in the stability, security and availability of the network. The Global Commission on Internet Governance has undertaken an extensive program of research and through its deliberations believes that the necessary level of trust and confidence can only be achieved through a normative process. All stakeholders must collaborate to arrive at a broadly agreed social compact ensuring that the Internet continues on track to become more accessible, inclusive, secure and trustworthy. This social compact will require a very high level of agreement among governments, private corporations, civil society, the technical community and individuals. Governments can provide leadership, but cannot alone define the content of the social compact. Achieving agreement and acceptance will require the engagement of all stakeholders in the Internet ecosystem. The social compact must offer a framework where each actor understands that they have the responsibility to act not only in their own interest, but also in the interest of the Internet ecosystem as a whole. 

This workshop will bring together members of the Global Commission and researchers who contributed to their work, to describe their reasoning and their conclusions, and to engage in an active debate and problem solving session with participants on the topic of the essential elements of a social compact, mechanisms to achieve agreement, and the best ways to build on that agreement to make Internet governance more inclusive and supportive of sustainable growth around the world.

Read the Global Commission's statement: Toward a Social Compact for Digital Privacy and Security
Read the Global Commission's final report and find more of its research: One Internet

Speakers:

Moderator: Laura DeNardis, American University - Director, Global Commission on Internet Governance

Ambassador Latha Reddy, Commissioner, Global Commission on Internet Governance
Ambassador Eileen Donahoe, Commissioner, Global Commission on Internet Governance
Emily Taylor, Research Advisory Network, Global Commission on Internet Governance
Pablo Hinojosa, Strategic Engagement Director, APNIC
Sally Wentworth, VP of Global Policy Development, Internet Society

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

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