Tag: Business & Human Rights

This briefing document provides an analysis of the outcomes of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), an overview of its geopolitical context, and a preview of upcoming internet governance debates at the United Nations.

This document describes the ways that civil society may participate in the upcoming World Telecommunication Policy Forum (WTPF), a high-level international meeting organized by the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Civil society organizations and individuals express their concerns about the appointment of directors in the federal authority for ICT regulation in Argentina.

The 26th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC26) will take place in Geneva from 10 to 27 June. A wide range of internet-related human rights issues will be discussed at this HRC26 session, including racism and the internet, online freedom of expression during elections processes, and technology-related violence against women. These discussions signal a continuing trend at the HRC of a focus on the internet and human rights.

The 25th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) will take place in Geneva from March 3rd to 28th. This briefing note provides information on internet related human rights issues in the upcoming session of the HRC. Overall, we can see the continuing trend of the HRC addressing internet and human rights issues in increasingly diverse aspects of its work. This is the Council’s 25th session and will see internet issues considered across a broad range of topics, including in the context of peaceful protest, good governance, freedom of region and belief, the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, human rights defenders, cultural rights, and the rights of persons with disabilities to education. The right to privacy in age of mass government surveillance is also increasingly on the Council’s agenda. This briefing note was prepared by Deborah Brown (Access), Joy Liddicoat and Shawna Finnegan (Association for Progressive Communications)

Access, together with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Reporters Without Borders (RWB), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and Privacy International have submitted a written statement to the UN Human Rights Council’s 24th session. The statement highlights the need to bring surveillance practices in line with international human rights norms, in a manner consistent with the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance, and makes specific recommendations to the HRC.

Access and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) have prepared a short briefing on the internet related human rights items that will be addressed at Human Rights Council 24, as well as some background on the Council’s work on the internet and human rights.

UN draft resolution A/C.2/68/L.40 with modalities for the WSIS+10 review was released in the General Assembly’s Second Committee on November 14, 2013. The draft resolution clearly calls for a WSIS Summit to be held in 2015, and for the preparatory process to be led by inter-governmental committee. Access worked with the Center for Technology & Democracy, Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade (CTS | FGV), and Global Partners Digital on initial analysis of the draft resolution.