Organized by the African Civil Society Conversation on Internet Governance (APC), this dialogue conversation takes place from September 12th- 31st December 2012. Interested participants are invited to join the dialogue which will include among African civil society, media and other people who care about a free, open and accessible internet to share views and increase their understanding of current trends in internet regulation and governance.
The UN’s Human Rights Council adopted a landmark resolution in 2012 that ‘human rights apply online as well as offline’. This is something that people need to be aware of this and help promote the application of this decision at all levels of internet policy and regulation.
The dialogue intends to help consider questions such as:
1. What are the implications of the HRC resolution for our work?
2. How does it relate to broader debates on human rights, governance and development?
3. What do you think are the fundamental principles that should frame and guide the decision-making processes that shape the evolution of the internet – at infrastructure level as well as at access and usage level?
4. What are your suggestions to improve the participation of African constituencies in the coordination of the internet global resources as well as in related policy-making processes?
5. What are the specific changes you would like to see, if any, across the range of entities and processes that carry out the governance of the internet?
Aside from these broader questions it is also crucial that one considers upcoming processes such as the African Internet Governance Forum (Oct), the global Internet Governance Forum (Nov) and the review of the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs) at the ITU’s World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) (Dec).
It is hoped that this platform will strengthen African civil society’s engagement with internet governance processes at national, regional and global levels and enable us to contribute to shaping the future development of the internet and the telecommunications networks most of us depend on for access.
To join this discussion do one of the following:
1) Go to https://lists.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/africs-ig and follow the
instructions to join the mailing list.
2) Write to Mawaki Chango at mawaki@apc.org and he will add your email to the list.
3) Visit the background page: http://africa-ig.wiki.apc.org/index.php/Main_Page to learn more about this process.