Internet Rights

At the IGF Consultations held in Geneva on 26 February 2008, the Coalition released a statement outlining a vision, a mission and some future actions.

The statement describes the Coalition as a multi-stakeholder set of actors sharing the objective of making rights on the Internet and their related duties, specified from the point of view of individual users, a central theme of the Internet Governance debate held in the IGF context. 

This leads to the view of a “bill of rights” as a set of several documents, some existing, some new – some substantial, some procedural or related to enforcement. These documents can accomplish a multi-faceted mission described as follows:

• Bring awareness and promote fundamental human and civil rights and liberties on the internet;
• Identify ways in which these rights and liberties can be translated on the Internet, and evaluate the applicability of existing legislation;
• Promote the addressing of issues of human and civil rights in policy-making proposals by all stakeholders;
• Promote the specification of how the existing rights can be applied and what they practically imply in the context of new ICT technologies;
• Identify ways in which new rights and principles deriving from the innovations caused by the Internet can be defined, agreed and promoted when necessary;
• Seek to identify measures for the protection and enforcement of these rights;
• Seek to engage the various stakeholders within the Coalition’s mission and express the Coalition’s interest to work with them.

The Coalition invites any interested stakeholder to join and participate in the discussion!