Your Excellency Secretary-General Guterres, Your Excellency the High Commissioner for Human Rights, We write to…
CSTD is a UN-housed body that provides the General Assembly and ECOSOC with high-level advice on relevant science and technology issues. It’s 16th annual session will address 1) Science, technology and innovation for sustainable cities and peri-urban communities, 2) Internet broadband for an inclusive digital society, and 3) Progress made in the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). In addition, the Commission will hear presentations on national science, technology and innovation policy reviews. The participants will include representatives of Governments, civil society, the private sector and international organizations. For more information, please visit http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=213
To register, click RSVP above.
In a year when the confidence of Internet users in the Internet governance status quo was shattered by revelations of systematic and indiscriminate governance surveillance, there is a greater need than ever before for civil society organisations engaged on Internet governance and Internet rights freedom issues to come together to share and strategise. The 2013 meeting of the Best Bits network will address key issues at the intersection of Internet policy and human rights, for direct application over the next twelve months.
Through the shared outputs of this meeting and the indirect benefits of participation, we expect to empower civil society organisations and individual activists to create more informed, effective, inclusive and complementary advocacy outcomes, in which the public interest is better reflected in high-level policy discussions and in the outputs that these discussions produce. The meeting will also place Best Bits itself on a firmer institutional footing, in order to enhance its legitimacy as a broad-based civil society advocacy network and improve its long-term sustainability.
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Global Internet governance principles, enhanced cooperation and the IGF
Facilitators: Parminder Jeet Singh and Joy Liddicoat
Output: Further submission to the CSTD Working Group on model/s for a new enhanced cooperation framework or mechanism.
Output: Statement to the IGF, MAG, UNDESA, etc about the imperative of addressing funding consistency and transparency and other issues related to the future of the IGF.
Lunch and networking break
The ITU and the WSIS+10 process
Facilitators: Joana Varon Ferraz and Matthew Shears
Output: (Draft) BB action plan/ strategy for ITU PP and WSIS+10 (or other processes, depending on what the group decides is important). To start with, what are our joint priorities and goals for each process? What counts as a ‘win’ and what counts as a ‘loss’ (what are our red lines)? This can be done both in terms of process and substance.
Output: Setting up task forces based on this action plan and processes by which they would operate in context of the larger BB network.
State surveillance and human rights
Facilitators: Andrew Puddephatt and Deborah Brown
Output: Action plan for next intervention.
Lunch and networking break
Best Bits
Facilitator: Jeremy Malcolm and Anja Kovacs
Output: Draft statements of goals and procedures.
To register, click RSVP above.
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On Monday, March 2, in Paris, a group of civil society organisations including Global Partners Digital (GPD), Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Internet Democracy Project, KICTANet, Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University Delhi, and the Internet Rights and Principles (IRP) Coalition – in collaboration with the Internet Society (ISOC) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) – will be holding a 1-day event focused on the WSIS+10 Overall Review.
For more information about the WSIS review and why it matters, follow this link. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness of the review process and to facilitate coordination and strategy development for effective civil society engagement. Part of the event will be dedicated to facilitating cross-community dialogue with representatives from the technical community, the business sector and governments.
A rough agenda for the day is as follows:
| Time | Session |
| 09:00-12:00 | Civil society awareness raising and coordination session 1 |
| 12:00-13:00 | Lunch |
| 13:00-14:00 | Cross-community session 1: Setting the scene for the WSIS process in 2015: what is at stake?* |
| 14:00-15:00 | Cross-community session 2: Sharing strategies and finding synergies* |
| 15:00-15:30 | Break |
| 15:30-17:30 | Civil society awareness raising and coordination session 2 |
A detailed agenda for the civil society sessions as well as info on speakers for the cross-community sessions will be shared closer to the date. The event will be held on the margins of UNESCO’s CONNECTing the Dots conference.
To participate remotely at the cross-community sessions, please follow this link: http://www.
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UNESCO has undertaken a consultative study on Internet-issues that will be discussed at this multi-stakeholder conference on 3-4 March 2015 in Paris. The study draws on 30 questions on Internet-related issues in the four areas of access to information and knowledge, freedom of expression, privacy, and ethical dimensions of the information society. The questions also explore the intersections between these areas and options for future UNESCO action in these fields.
This comprehensive Internet-related study was mandated by UNESCO’s 195 Member States through Resolution 52 of the Organization’s 37th General Conference Resolution in November 2013. The questions and design of the study have been elaborated through a five-month multi-stakeholder consultation process with civil society, academia, the private sector, the technical community, inter-governmental organizations and UNESCO’s Member States. In addition to written submissions from a range of stakeholders, consultation events were held in a dozen global fora, including the World Press Freedom Day International Conference, the Stockholm Internet Freedom Forum, the Freedom Online Coalition Meeting, and the WSIS+10 High Level Review Event.
A civil society side meeting will take place on the preceding day, 2 March 2015, focusing on the WSIS plus 10 process, for which UNESCO are keen for their study to be an input. Its objective is to produce a civil society strategy for what we want from the process.
There are no upcoming events.
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Best Bits was a global civil society network on the topic of Internet governance, that was formed in 2012 and closed in 2019. Many of the former members of Best Bits participate in the Internet Governance Caucus.
