Pre-events

The IGF 2012  pre-events will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 5 November 2012 at the Baku Expo Exhibition and Convention Center. A short description and objectives of the pre-events are provided below.

Concertation francophone sur la gouvernance d’Internet / Francophone IGF dialogue

Enhanced Cooperation in Internet Governance: From Deadlock to Dialogue

 

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Concertation francophone sur la gouvernance d’Internet / Francophone IGF dialogue

Time of the event : 9.00 – 18. 00

Room 7

Organizing entity: Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) / French-speaking Countries Organization or International Organization of Francophonie

Description and objective:

The dialogue will be speaking in discussions on the issues, major challenges and emerging issues of Internet governance in a francophone perspective.

The dialogue aims to promote a shared vision of global issues and challenges. It should lead participants to respond to specific questions :

- What are the best practices in the field of Internet governance that Francophone peoples can offer in global discussion ?

- What are the lessons of the great global discussions to promote the development of the Internet in French-speaking areas ?

- How can we put into public policy and major decisions of the member countries as well as those of the Francophonie global themes and messages of the Forum on Internet Governance ?

- What are the francophone specificities  that are not taken into account in global discussions on Internet governance ?

 

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Enhanced Cooperation in Internet Governance: From Deadlock to Dialogue

Time of the event: 10.30 - 17.30

Room 1

Organizing entities: Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Internet Society (ISOC) and International Chamber of Commerce and its Business Action to Support the Information Society initiative (ICC-BASIS) with the support of the governments of Brazil, Egypt, and Kenya.

Description and objective:

This IGF pre-event is open to all participants. For more information and to register visit http://ec-event-igf2012.apc.org/ or email igf-pre-event [at] ists.apc.org.

The objective of this pre-event is to enable frank and constructive dialogue on enhanced cooperation in Internet governance.

It will build on the many discussions that have taken place in the last two years at various UN meetings1 and on reports related to these meetings, including the UN Secretary General’s report of the consultations held in New York in December 20102. It will reflect on recent discussions at the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) consultation on Enhanced Cooperation held on 18 May 20123, and further dialogue that took place during the 15th session of the CSTD in the week of 21 May 2012 in Geneva.  Relevant activities undertaken in multistakeholder bodies and processes (e.g. ICANN, RIRs, IETF) and intergovernmental organizations (e.g. CoE, IBSA, ITU and the OECD4, among others) will also be taken into account.

In preparation for the event, the organizers invite written contributions to deepen participants' understanding of the issues at stake and insight into stakeholder perspectives of enhanced cooperation. These contributions will be made available prior to the event, and will be considered for inclusion in an online publication after the event. We believe that the contributions that address the following would be of particular value:

Mapping enhanced cooperation: an exploration of Internet governance (IG) processes and spaces, which maps gaps, progress, and good and bad practice from various perspectives with regard to enhanced cooperation.

Priorities: which governance institutions and areas of governance are various actors most concerned about and what are the changes they would like to see made and the reasons for wanting these changes?

Principles: what are the core principles that should underpin global Internet governance? How are these defined?

Case studies or scenarios: of how specific IG processes or institutions operate from the perspective of stakeholder inclusion/exclusion and/or scenarios of how IG processes or institutions can change in line with the WSIS principles and the goals of the Tunis Agenda. Case studies or scenarios of what kind of international public policy issues may require resolution and may not be adequately addressed at present are also encouraged.

Next steps: what steps and processes can take this discussion forward in a productive manner?

A programme and registration information will be made available shortly. The Internet Society will invite all participants to a reception after the event.

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eNACSO

Time of the event: 16.30 - 18.00

Room 4

Organizing entity: The European NGO Alliance for Child Safety Online (eNACSO)

Objective:

eNACSO will present The Next Click, its agenda for action and also provide an opportunity for stakeholders and other people interested to mingle and network with each other.

Description:

eNACSO will be making a short presentation of its recently published agenda for action within the European Union. The Next Click highlights several areas of policy in the online space where changes in practice or changes in the law are still needed if we are to make the internet a better and safer place for children and young people. Whilst focused principally on the European Union, European institutions and internet companies that target Europe it is thought that The Next Click may be of interest to wide range of countries. Furthermore our youth delegates will be presenting themselves.

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Human Rights and Internet Governance Must Go Hand in Hand

Time of the event: 10.00 - 12.30

Room 9

Organizing entity: Expression Online Initiative is a consortium of freedom of expression organizations. These organizations are: Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS), Human Rights Club (HRC) and Azerbaijan Media Center (AMC).

Description:

Human Rights and Internet Governance are at the intersection like never before and a growing group of Internet freedom and openness advocates are getting more involved. Now is the time to discuss the important human rights implications of new technologies and aspects of Internet governance.

The event will be kicked off with discussion of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Resolution on the “promotion, protection, and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet.

The event will produce  a multi-stakeholder debate around Internet freedom.

Objectives:

1) Raise awareness on the Internet as a human right, and specifically, on the  United Nations Human Rights Council’s Resolution on the “promotion, protection, and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet;

2) Stimulate debate on internet freedom in countries ranked as “non-free” or “partly free” in terms of internet freedom

3) Develop and shape multi-stakeholder strategies to promote Internet freedom

Participants are expected to include representatives of the host country government, intergovernmental organizations, media, ICT industry, along with non-governmental organizations involved in the protection of freedom of expression in Azerbaijan.

Tentative agenda (as of 9/19/2012)

10:00-10:20 Registration and informal discussions

10:20-10:30 Welcome by Expression Online

10:30- 11:00 Key note speech by Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE Freedom of the Media Representative: Online expression as a fundamental and indivisible right to freedom of expression (participation confirmed)

11:00- 12:00 Panel Debate: Promoting Human Rights in the Digital Age

Moderator: Gulnara Akhundova, Programme Manager, International Media Support

Presentation of the of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Resolution on the “promotion, protection, and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet”, by Frank La Rue, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. (participation confirmed)

Where Internet policy touches upon human rights issues? Integration of internet human rights criteria into internet governance and corporate decision-making, by John Kampfner, former chief executive of Index on Censorship, external adviser to Google on free expression and culture and an adviser to the Global Network Initiative (participation confirmed)

Recent trends in state attacks on internet/digital freedom, cyberactivism, case studies from MENA countries, by Courtney Radsch, Senior Advisor for Freedom House (participation confirmed)

State of the internet freedom in the IGF 2012 host country, by Emin Huseynov, Expression Online member, Chairman of Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (participation confirmed)

12:00-12:30 Brainstorming recommendations. Participants jointly develop policy recommendations by civil Society and academia for each stakeholder group to promote and implement Human Rights in the digital age. Moderator: Avri Doria, Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and IGF expert (participation confirmed)

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The Privatisation of Censorship: the online responsibility to protect free expression

Time of the event: 14.30 - 16.00

Room 9

Organizing entity: Index on Censorship

Description:

Much is known about state censorship, but increasingly private corporations are implementing censorship either at the behest of governments, or as part of a ‘walled garden’ approach. This censorship takes many guises: whether the proactive take-down of entirely legal material, the blocking of websites by overly zealous ISPs, mobile filters that cut access to websites such as Index on Censorship and the use of surveillance technology on behalf of autocratic states. The combination of state-led censorship with the privatisation of censorship requires a debate on the responsibilities of corporations and the framework needed to protect free expression online.

This side session will focus on two key areas:

1. Take-down, blocking and filtering of content

2. The export of surveillance technology, privacy

The panel will explore the ways in which the above can affect free expression online, and how civil society, governments and corporations can and should approach these issues, addressing the following questions:

1. Whether, why and in what ways censorship and surveillance is either as or more pervasive, intrusive and chilling than offline, and the impact on free speech and press freedom?

2. The inappropriate, intrusive or excessive use of filters and firewalls including how these impact directly and indirectly on access to media and the nature of news provision

3. Criminalisation of free speech and free expression – chilling use of takedown requests (impacting on public online debates, on media freedom including investigative journalism), and constraints on comment and debate (twitter, trolls, comment threads etc);

4. Excessive and blanket surveillance and data-gathering

5. Regulations and laws including intermediary responsibility that curtail digital free speech

Chair:

Michael Harris, Head of Advocacy, Index on Censorship

Panellists:

• Dr Hosein Badran, Regional Chief Technology Officer, Cisco Systems International, covering MENA
• Pranesh Prakash, Policy Director at the Centre for Internet and Society
• Nair Abhilash, Northumbria University, UK
• Camino Manjon Sierra, International Relations Policy Officer, Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission
• Andrew Puddephatt, Global Partners and Associates

 

 

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Cybercrime and the rule of law safeguard

Time of the event:

09:30 - 18:00; 5 November

Room 2



Organising entity:

Data Protection and Cybercrime Division

Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law

Council of Europe



Description, objective:

The aim of the conference is to promote respect for rule of law and human rights when applying criminal justice measures against cybercrime: what conditions are to be met and what safeguards are to be established to meet rule of law and human rights requirements when investigating cybercrime and securing electronic evidence?



States have a positive obligation to protect the rights of individuals. This includes their protection against crime but also against arbitrary interference into rights by public authorities.



The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime helps states meet this challenge with regard to cybercrime: it requires governments to take measures against offences against and by means of computer data and systems, to provide law enforcement with procedural powers for effective investigations and to engage in efficient international cooperation.



At the same time, Article 15 protects individuals against arbitrary intrusion: the procedural powers adopted by Parties to the Convention are to be “subject to conditions and safeguards provided for under its domestic law which shall provide for the adequate protection of human rights and liberties”.



The conference is to review specifically how such conditions and safeguards are implemented in countries of Eastern and South-eastern Europe. Results will be documented following the conference. Lessons learnt should be of benefit to any country.



Participants:

Policy makers and representatives of criminal justice and civil society organisations participating in the IGF are invited to share their experience.



The Council of Europe and the European Union through the CyberCrime@IPA and Cybercrime@EAP regional joint projects are supporting countries and areas of Eastern and South-eastern Europe to meet the challenge of cybercrime. Representatives of public authorities and civil society of these regions are the primary addressees of the Conference.  Representatives from ministries of justice, prosecution services and/or cybercrime units from these countries are expected to present their system of conditions and safeguards limiting investigative powers.

 

 

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GIGANET Annual Symposium

Time of the event : 5 November, 9 am - 6 pm

Room 5

Organizing entity: GigaNet (Global Internet Governance Academic Network)

Description and objective:

Since 2006, GigaNet has organized an Annual Symposium to showcase research about Internet Governance, focusing on an interdisciplinary approach. As in previous years, this year's symposium will provide room to discuss current and future questions as well as the challenges encountered and results achieved in Global Internet Governance.

Website: http://giga-net.org/page/2012-annual-symposium

 

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Freedom House IGF Incubator Challenge