This is a brief summary of the Dynamic Coalition meeting held at the Rio IGF on 12 November 2007.
1. Reports
Various people reported about the events and activities that were held in the months leading to the Rio IGF.
2. Vision
The meeting brainstormed to a certain length on the vision that should shape the future steps of the coalition.
The meeting found the conclusions of the Rome meeting (see http://www.internet-bill-of-rights.org/en/report_20070927.php ) to be broadly shared and acceptable as a basis for further work. In other words:
- Conceive the Bill of Rights as a set of documents of different kinds, rather than as a single statement, and as an ongoing and continuous process;
- Conceive the campaign as a "glue" or "common roof" among all the Dynamic Coalitions and the work they are doing on specific areas, which will not be duplicated by this coalition;
- Not reopen existing statements of rights, but build on them;
- Consider the work that was already done in the past, in terms of Internet / ICT rights charters, and cooperate with other coalitions and efforts;
- Work on additional documents to specify better how the existing rights apply in the Internet environment, including the issues of how to ensure that they are kept into account when drafting Internet policy, and how to enforce the existing rights;
- Work on additional documents to define and recognize the new emerging principles of Internet governance (network neutrality, interoperability etc.);
- Contribute to monitoring and enforcement activities regarding the existing rights and principles and those that might be established during the work;
- Work on a process framework for the production of the above documents.
It was agreed that the purpose of the coalition is to convene the multi-stakeholder discussion on the above vision, and its implementation process; as such, it is necessary to also work to promote such vision, to gain recognition and support for it, and to expand open participation by all stakeholder groups (while paying attention to avoid potential capture or impression of capture by private sector actors).
3. Name of the coalition
The proposal to change the name of the coalition, to address the misconceptions that the use of the expression "bill of rights" may cause, was discussed. Some people proposed "Internet rights" or "Internet rights framework" or "Rights on the Internet". On the other hand, changing the name creates confusion and the same effort might be better spent in dispelling the misconceptions altogether. In the end, it was agreed to keep the current name, trying to do some outreach to explain better what we plan to do, and rediscuss the issue if necessary in some months from now.
4. Plan of action for 2008: outreach and organization
To further the outreach and expansion of the coalition, these actions were agreed:
1) Inventories: In an academic environment, an inventory of the existing coalitions, an inventory of the existing document base regarding the issue (statements of rights, Internet policies that affect rights, Internet Bill of Rights proposals...), and an inventory of the existing instruments for the enforcement of rights in the current frameworks when applied to the Internet, should be conducted, and the result should be published via Web by the coalition;
2) Publishing: If possible, the academic components of the coalition should publish scientific articles on this matter on the appropriate journals;
3) Promoting enforcement: Compatibly with available resources, coalition members could pressure countries and companies who violate rights to respect them, and provide education on existing legal instruments that can be used to uphold and enforce our existing rights.
4) Direct outreach: Participants should ensure that their organizations join the coalition as members (note: an expression of support and participation to the mailing list is sufficient to that!) and should try to contact at least five organizations each to propose the same;
5) Diplomatic outreach: The governmental/parliamentarian component of the coalition will try to hold meetings with countries and global public institutions, to try to obtain declarations of support;
6) Outreach material: VB will prepare a brief informational statement reflecting the vision and work plan agreed in the meeting, for general distribution (if possible, at the coalition workshop already). Max and others will work on other communications material, such as for example a banner or logo and a campaign to spread it around the Web.
It was recognized that funds are necessary to the campaign, however for the moment the strategy is to exploit in-kind donations or ad hoc funding for specific activities (e.g. research grants).
Coalition members are invited to take stock and volunteer for any of the above activities.
5. Plan of action for 2008: substance
There was some discussion on whether the coalition should start to work on substantive issues as well.
For the moment, there was agreement on two deliverables, which could constitute the first issues of a series of coalition documents:
- IBR-1: A formalization of the vision above and of the process;
- IBR-2: The result of the inventories described above.
These documents will be drafted and discussed on the coalition list - or better through a coalition wiki - in the upcoming months. (VB can take the Rome conclusions and turn them into an initial draft for IBR-1.)
6. Request to the IGF
The meeting confirmed the request that Internet rights and their formalization may become one of the IGF's main themes starting from the next IGF in Delhi.
7. Workshop
The coalition will host an IGF workshop tomorrow (13 November). The workshop will run as follows:
- Welcome and introduction (VB) (1 min)
- Remarks by three panelists: Gilberto Gil, Stefano Rodotà, Catherine Trautmann (15-25 min)
- Reports and statements by coalition members: Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza, Robin Gross, Vittorio Bertola (15 min) (VB also to report on today's meeting)
- Open discussion (50 min)
8. Next meetings
The Italian delegation suggested that Italy might be able to host a coalition meeting next March / April. That could be the main intermediate step leading to the Delhi IGF.
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