Internet Democracy Project

Last week, a large group of civil society organisations wrote to the ITU’s leadership, requesting them to ensure greater transparency and openness of the upcoming ITU Plenipotentiary Conference. Today, we received the below response from ITU’s Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré to our call. Though our request to allow members of the public to participate as observers in all aspects of the conference has still not been granted, we are grateful to Dr. Touré for the support he has expressed in his letter for our demands. Will the ITU Member States now, too, display such support at the ITU Plenipot when they discuss the openness and transparency that the ITU can and will display in the longer term? We will keep you updated as more details on the discussions emerge. The text of Dr. Touré’s letter below can also be found on the ITU website.   More

The Internet Democracy Project has joined forces with organisations from around the world to request the ITU’s leadership to ensure greater transparency and openness of the ITU Plenipotentiary, which will take place in Busan, South Korea, from 20 October to 7 November 2014. The letter was addressed, and delivered, to Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun Touré, and Deputy Secretary-General of the ITU, Mr Houlin Zhao. The full list of signatories can be found here. The text of the letter is reproduced below.    More

In 2015, an Overall Review of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society — held in two phases in 2003 (Geneva) and 2005 (Tunis) — will take place. What exactly will this WSIS+10 Review address, and why is it of importance for ongoing Internet governance debates? On 3 August 2014, Anja Kovacs addressed the Asia-Pacific Internet Leadership Program to explain just this. Watch the video below to learn more.    More

The Internet Democracy Project has joined forces with a range of civil society organisations and individuals from across the world to release, during the Internet Governance Forum, the following statement on the Internet Governance Forum, related processes and human rights and development. The complete list of signatories to the statement can be found here.   More

In a previous post, Anja Kovacs used the widely accepted working definition of Internet governance that is contained in the Tunis Agenda as a starting point to highlight three conceptual moves that the Internet governance community should make to address current controversies regarding multistakeholderism head-on while at the same time strengthening its democratising potential. In the current post, she in addition makes four practical proposals to strengthen multistakeholderism’s legitimacy and accountability. This is the second part of a two-part post that draws on Anja’s intervention in the session ​‘Multistakeholder Internet Governance: The Way Ahead’ at the 2014 Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum.   More

Multistakeholderism has become a deeply contested term and practice. How can we fully address the controversies that surround it, especially regarding the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders, so as to retain its democratising potential? Takes as her starting point the working definition of Internet governance included in the Tunis Agenda, Anja Kovacs provides three conceptual pointers that can help us move forward. This is the first part of a two-part post that draws on Anja’s intervention in the session ​‘Multistakeholder Internet Governance: The Way Ahead’ at the 2014 Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum.   More

The Internet Democracy Project is proud to be a signatory to the Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development, which was developed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and which has been publicly released today. The Declaration calls on the UN Member States ​‘to make an international commitment to use the post-2015 development agenda to ensure that everyone has access to, and is able to understand, use and share the information that is necessary to promote sustainable development and democratic societies’. The complete list of signatories and more information about the Declaration can be found on the Declaration website. The text of the Declaration is below.   More

Together with other civil society organisations from India, Brazil and South Africa, the Internet Democracy Project has called on the BRICS countries to ensure that Internet and human rights concerns are reflected in the Fortaleza Declaration of the Sixth BRICS Summit, Fortaleza, 14 – 16 July 2014.    More

Following the WSIS+10 High Level Event, the Internet Democracy Project, together with other colleagues in civil society who have been closely engaged in the preparatory processes for that event, has released the following statement, reflecting on the important gains we believe have been made in the process as well as on the way forward. The statement was shared with the ITU Secretariat as well as publicly distributed.   More

During the WSIS+10 High Level Event, the Internet Democracy Project was given the opportunity to deliver a policy statement in the meeting’s High-Level track. As an active participant in the preparatory process, the WSIS+10 Multistakeholder Preparatory Platform (MPP), we used this opportunity to critically reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the outcome documents that were developed by the MPP and endorsed at the High-Level Event. These documents are the ​‘WSIS+10 Statement on Implementation of WSIS Outcomes’ and the ​‘WSIS+10 Vision for WSIS Beyond 2015’. Below is what we said. The statement can also be found on the official website of the WSIS+10 High Level Event.   More