By: Gayathry Venkiteswaran, CIJ Executive Director

Hyderabad, India (7 December 2008): Rights to the internet, gender perspectives and pornography were among the hot issues that dominated the recently concluded 3rd Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad, India.

From civil society groups, to academics and governance institutions, there was somewhat a feeling that the debates around internet and information society had to take a step back to reflect on the fundamentals of human rights.

These reflect some of the developments and issues in many societies, including Malaysia where the lack of data protection and rights to privacy couple with strong efforts to control the Internet is bound to make the space highly contested and challenged.

The rights-based approach was a constantly heard phrase in a number of the main sessions and the workshops as well as the dynamic coalitions that had formed in the last three years around specific issues.

"The issue of internet access and use is not within the human rights framework, and I wonder about the absence of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression," said Prof Wolfgang Benedek, one of the advocates of the Dynamic Coalition on Internet Bill of Rights.

Former European Union Privacy Commissioner Stefano Rodota said that it is not sufficient to reinterpret the UN Declaration on Human Rights on freedom of expression, and that "some contribution through this (IGF) process could be important as the new generation of fundamental rights cannot be compromised."

K. Gurumurthy of IT for Change, India said that the internet should be viewed as a fundamental right like and linked to right to express, right to information, right to education etc.

The Dynamic Coalition of Gender also made its representation on the issue that "ultimately, a rights based approach to Internet governance is the only safeguard for women to fully enjoy the potential benefits of the Internet."

"Two of the five themes clearly illustrated the ways in which Internet governance implicates rights of central concern to women - on access and the questions of openness, privacy and security", said the coalition, in a statement read out on 6 December on taking stock of the IGF.

A statement prepared ahead of the IGF and endorsed by 107 organisations and individuals also called for serious attention to address the "threats against the publicness and egalitarian nature of the Internet," and how the unconnected billions are being impacted by these threats.

At the same time, other rights to multilinguism, child protection and development were also highlighted as needing more attention in the IGF forum.

The annual forum was held from 3 to 6 this month in the midst of high security alert in various large cities in India following the 26 November attacks in Mumbai. The first two forums were held in Athens, Greece and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, respectively. The IGF was set up as an outcome of the second phase of the World Summit on Information Society to provide a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue. The next IGF will be held in Egypt.

The three themes for the forum this year were"Reaching the Next Billion" through access and multilinguism; "Promoting Cyber-Security and Trust" discussing cyber security and cyber crime, openness, privacy and security; and "Managing Critical Internet Resources" with the transition from the IPv4 to IPv6 and other emerging issues.

Attending the opening of the forum was UN Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, Jomo Kwame Sundaram who represented the UN Secretary General.

Transcripts of the some of the main sessions can be found at the IGF website.

Gayathry (left) participated in the IGF under the auspices of the Association for Progressive Communications - Women's Networking Support Programme (APC-WNSP) and with the support of the OpenNet Initiative project. She also read out the statement on behalf of the Gender Dynamic Coalition on the session on Taking Stock of the IGF. With in the picture is Dr. Heike Jensen, a project team member at the convention centre hosting the forum.