ITU and UNCTAD announced the publication of the World Information Society Report 2007
http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/worldinformationsociety/2007/r...

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The London School of Economics has commenced a project to help pave the way for strengthened constitutional rights in Britain. The initiative is to be conducted over the next two years by the School's newly formed Policy Engagement Research Group that was founded earlier this year by Privacy International's Simon Davies and Gus Hosein.

The issue of constitutional reform, particularly a Bill of Rights, is on the agenda of the main political parties. This year, Opposition Leader David Cameron has made a commitment to replace the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights, while the Liberal Democrats are committed to a written constitution. Currently Britain relies on the Human Rights Act as the basis

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More then 350 participants from 10 different countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Czech Republic and Ireland) participated at the second International E-Society.Mk Conference organized by Metamorphosis Foundation in Skopje from 15-17 November 2006.

The focus of the conference was regional approach to ICT policy creation. The conference provided broad participation of experts, policymakers, advocacy groups and other stakeholders from Macedonia, the South-East European (SEE) Region and EU to share knowledge and experiences through series of panel discussions and workshops. It provided an excellent opportunity for different stakeholders from the region to discuss challenges

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On 20 June, Rikke Frank Joergensen (Digital Rights Denmark) and Meryem Marzouki (Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire, IRIS - France) participated as EDRI observers to the 5th Council of Europe meeting of the Group of Specialists on Human Rights in the Information Society (MC-S-IS). Among the many points on the agenda, the following news are worth reporting at this step.

The draft Recommendation on empowering children in the new information and communications environment has been submitted to the CoE Steering Committee on the Media and New Communication Services (CDMC), where some member states (France, Germany, Russia) expressed their willing to make further comments before having it adopted.

The Internet Governance Forum Advisory Group (IGF AG) to the UN Secretary-General, selected by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 17 May, met in Geneva on 22-23 May to discuss the agenda and the programme of the Athens Meeting (31 October - 3 November 2006).

Members of the group and observers had a two-day meeting meeting under the leadership of Nitin Desai and Markus Kummer.

In an open and transparent discussion, the draft of the program included main topics for each day of the coming IGF meeting in Athens. These are :
- Access ( Internet connectivity, policies and costs with following workshops on: open (file) standards, investment incentives, etc.)
- Security ( building trust online, protecting users from spam, phishing, viruses, maintain security while protecting privacy and workshops with

A special panel discussed the role of the developing countries in the WSIS panel at this year conference Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2006 (CFP 2006) that took place in Washington DC between 2-5 May.

The participants tried to identify what was the place of the developing countries in shaping the future of the Internet in the WSIS debate and what were the results of the debate in these countries, but also the role the Internet could have in the economic and democratic development of these countries.

Bill Drake, director of the project on the Information Revolution and Global Governance, summarized some of the benefits of the WSIS process, among them noticing the first high level dialogue in the international arena on the information society and its role in bringing together civil society active

The Council of Europe Group of Specialists on Human Rights in the Information Society (CoE MC-S-IS) held its 4th meeting on 9-10 March in Strasbourg, with EDRI participating in its capacity of non governmental observer. Among the many issues on the agenda were:

- the analysis of answers to the questionnaire sent by the group to CoE member States on their implementation of the CoE Declaration of freedom of communication on the Internet (only 7 out of 46 answers received so far); -the review of the CoE Recommendation on media coverage of election campaigns taking into account new medias, the mapping of human rights issues and guidelines with regards to roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders; - the development of strategies promoting digital inclusion and Internet literacy;

In a public call to action released on 13 February 2006, Annette Muehlberg, European member of At-large Advisory Committee (ALAC) and co-chair network new media asked for public support in building up a regional structure to represent individual's interests and concerns.

The petition with the title "Help to strengthen Civil Rights and Consumer Protection in ICANN's policies! " considers that:

"The question of how Internet Governance is shaped is one of the central sociopolitical tasks of the coming years. It will be a matter of how consumers and Internet users can become involved in the policy making of ICANN.

There is, nevertheless, a civil society element in ICANN, the At-large Advisory Committee (ALAC), composed to represent Internet users, five regions in world each providing 3 representatives. At this point these

Following the agenda of the WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) in Tunis in November 2005, the stakeholders will attend a meeting in Geneva, on 16 and 17 February for consultations regarding the convening of an IGF ( Internet Governance Forum) for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue. The meeting in Geneva is meant to deal with the scope and priorities of the Forum, its programme and character. The Forum will be hosted by the Government of Greece sometime in 2006, probably in Autumn.

The Forum was proposed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to solve the mostly argued and controversial subject of Internet governance occurred in Tunis WSIS. ( see EDRI-Gram 3.23)

Although the Forum has no binding or decision-making power many expect it to bear a large influence and to result in solutions and best practices to

After the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Tunis between 16 and 19 November 2005, a large number of attending civil society organisations decided to write another letter to Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations. During the WSIS the Tunisian government committed serious attacks on human rights and the right to freedom of expression. These attacks included harassment of delegates, assaults on Tunisian and international journalists and human rights defenders, denial of entry to the country, the blocking of websites, the censorship of documents and speeches, and the prevention and disruption of meetings. See also the report on the disturbance of a panel on freedom of expression, in EDRI-gram 3.23.

In the letter they ask him to investigate the attacks on human rights experienced by the participants during the Summit. "We believe it is essential that lessons are learnt from what has taken place here this week and we therefore call upon you, the Secretary General of the United Nations, to launch a full investigation into the attacks on human rights and freedom of expression that we have witnessed in Tunisia both in the run-up to and during the World Summit on the Information Society. We ask you to closely monitor the follow-up period in Tunisia."