Status:
IGF Theme(s) for workshop:
- Internet Governance for Development [IG4D] cross cutting priority
- Emerging Issues
- Security, Openness and Privacy
- Access and Diversity
- Taking Stock and the Way Forward
Main theme question address by workshop: Emerging Issues Question 1, as political agreements between telecoms and governments affect the free flow of info.
Concise description of the proposed workshop:
With great new powers over information dissemination and communications networks, telecom companies are facing new responsibilities to governments, customers, and investors. After several telecoms complied with Egyptian government requests to restrict access to networks and to send pro-government propaganda, the need for a framework for future situations became clear. In response, several panelists from legal, NGO, and investor relations backgrounds created the Telco Action Plan (attached as background paper). Using the Ruggie Framework, the recent UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the GNI Principles as a basis, the Plan intends to prepare and guide telecoms through the most turbulent situations their users and businesses face, no matter what region they are in. The Plan was delivered to members of the new Industry Dialogue, consisting of about 10 international telecoms.
Discussing the Plan and other ongoing multistakeholder efforts like the Global Network Initiative, this workshop will further the theme of “Internet Governance for Sustainable Human, Economic and Social Development.” Restrictions on users’ fundamental human rights of freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy have direct implications for development, innovation and confidence in online commerce, education, and public discourse. Telecoms will shy away from working environments where they are constantly bombarded with unreasonable and rights-restricting requests from governments, further leaving those countries in a digital backwater. Any rights-respecting telecom policy should apply in times of crisis as well as times of prevention and before entering markets. The discussion will help map the options for sustainable, rights-respecting service and infrastructure provision by private actors in varying situations.
Background Paper: Telco Action Plan.pdf
Name of the organiser(s) of the workshop and their affiliation to various stakeholder groups:
Organizers include staff of internet freedom NGO Access Now, which has lobbied telecoms for better respect of human rights, such as Jochai Ben-Avie, Policy Director, and Brett Solomon, Executive Director.
Have you, or any of your co-organisers, organised an IGF workshop before?: Yes
Please provide link(s) to workshop(s) or report(s):
IGF 6: Workshop 212 - Privacy and Security in an Open Real-time Linked Data World
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=…
Provide the names and affiliations of the panellists you are planning to invite:
• Brett Solomon (Access - U.S. based international NGO)
• Sarah Altschuller or Vivek Krishnamurthy (Foley Hoag, LLP - U.S law firm)
• Ase Bergstedt (Millicom)
• Matthew Kirk (Vodafone)
• Olga Cavalli (Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, Argentina)
• Ragnhild Handagard (Telecom Industry Dialogue)
Name of Remote Moderator(s):
Keisha Taylor, Access