[Chapter-delegates] UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Internet

Markus Kummer kummer at isoc.org
Fri Jul 6 02:47:18 PDT 2012


Dear all,

You have already commented on the adoption of the Resolution by the UN Human Rights Council on "the promotion,  protection and enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet". We welcome this Resolution as a positive step forward to foster a rights-based Internet. The Internet Society was one of the few non-governmental actors which took advantage of the opportunity to participate in some of the public drafting sessions leading to the adoption of this new Resolution. Sweden was the key driver, supported by a Core Group of countries (U.S., Tunisia, Turkey, Brazil and Nigeria).

The intent from the authors of the Resolution was to have a very concise and narrow text, with the objective to find a broad consensus consolidating some of the key principles that have emerged in the Council in the last two years (including the reports by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and two cross-regional statements,) with regard to the significance of the Internet as a space for the exercise for Human Rights. The Resolution emphasizes that offline Human Rights are fully applicable online and that the Internet is a driving force for development. It recommends that States should promote and facilitate access to the Internet and that Special procedures of the Human Rights Council (e.g. Special Rapporteurs, thematic or country mandates) should take into consideration the fundamental rights of citizens online as well as offline.

During the drafting process, a few countries insisted for the Resolution to provide more "balance", emphasizing that there can be abuses of free speech threatening e.g. security or social safety, and calling for the notion of limitations to the rights to freedom of expression to appear explicitly in the text. This language was not retained in the final Resolution. This seems to be the reason why some of the strongest proponents of this restrictive approach have not co-sponsored the text (e.g. Russia, China, Belarus, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa). Another point worth mentioning is that some countries wanted to have an explicit reference to Internet Governance and digital divide in the text.

The Resolution was adopted by consensus during the closing plenary, and no country formally opposed to the Resolution. 

Non-governmental organizations have very limited possibilities to influence Human Rights Council processes. However,  Nicolas Seidler from Public Policy team participated in the drafting group and was able to introduce the notion of the "open Internet" which found its way into the final text of  the Resolution ("Recognizes the global and open Internet as a driving force in accelerating progress towards development in its various forms"), 

We are currently preparing a press release welcoming the adoption of the resolution. Nicolas will prepare a Public Policy blog post on the resolution and other developments in the Human Rights Council.

Best regards,
Markus

Markus Kummer	 
Vice President, Public Policy
Internet Society, Geneva
Email: kummer at isoc.org		
www.isoc.org




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