International outreach
2009
Workshop on “Code of good practice on information, participation and transparency in Internet governance, Version 1.0”, 4th Internet Governance Forum, Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt 15-18 November 2009
This workshop, organized jointly by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the
Council of Europe and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), takes forward a trilateral
initiative that has been developed since the first IGF in Athens.
The aim of the workshop is to discuss the draft text with a view to an agreement on its format and its
key elements from the perspective of both Internet governance entities and Internet users.
Internet stakeholders and members of the wider public are invited to review and comment online on the draft Code of good practice v1.0 on initiative's wiki.
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Informal consultation on "A Code of good practice on public participation, access to information and transparency in Internet governance", Palais des Nations, Salle VII, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., 13 May 2009
The consultation will launch the next phase of the initiative that the Council of Europe, UNECE and APC launched at the second Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janeiro. Previous work, which drew on experience in established IG bodies and elsewhere to develop thinking about best practice, was discussed at last year's May IGF consultation and in a workshop during the Hyderabad IGF, with platform participation from ISOC, ICANN and the NRO.
The next phase of work is built around mapping existing practice in key Internet governance entities. Based on an initial mapping exercise conducted by Professor David Souter, the project has identified a set of *principles* and *challenges* that will form the basis of the 13 May 2009 discussion.
Agenda ENG
“Towards a code of good practice on public participation in Internet governance - Building on the principles of WSIS and the Aarhus Convention” ENG
2008
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Workshop,
“Towards a code of good practice on public
participation in Internet governance - Building on
the principles of WSIS and the Aarhus Convention”
4 December 2008, Hyderabad, India
The UNECE, the Council of Europe (CoE) and Association for Progressive Communications (APC) have been concerned about issues of
information and participation in Internet Governance since the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) and the Working Group on Internet Governance which informed it during
2005. They initiated discussions and held workshops around this theme at both Athens
(2006) and Rio de Janeiro (2007) meetings of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF); in both
cases drawing particular attention to the Aarhus Convention as a potential starting point for
thinking about the principles and instruments that might apply.
The WSIS principles affirm aspirations for inclusiveness which are generally endorsed within
the Internet space, but offer little in the way of practical approaches to implementation. The
principles set out in the Aarhus Convention are consistent with the WSIS principles, and have
the advantage of being tested in an established, if different, area of national and international
governance. They therefore offer a potentially worthwhile starting point for considering how
the WSIS principles might be more effectively addressed.
The proposition examined in this paper is essentially concerned with process, i.e. with the
means of engagement between stakeholders and decision-making forums. The proposition put forward by UNECE, the Council of Europe and APC is essentially threefold. As summarised in the introduction to the paper, it is:
- that the quality and inclusiveness of Internet governance would be improved by steps
to make information about decision-making processes and practice more open and
more widely available, and to facilitate more effective participation by more
stakeholders;
- that ways of achieving this might be encapsulated in a “code of good practice”
concerned with information, participation and transparency;
- that this “code of good practice” should be based on the WSIS principles as well as
on existing arrangements in internet governance institutions, and might draw on the
experience of developing and implementing the Aarhus Convention.
“Towards a code of good practice on public participation in Internet governance - Building on the principles of WSIS and the Aarhus Convention” ENG
"Towards a code of good practice building on the principles of WSIS and the Aarhus Convention" Stakeholder Consultation on Public Participation in Internet Governance
23 May 2008, 14:00-17:00 – International Telecommunications Union, Geneva
The Stakeholder Consultation on Public Participation in Internet Governance discussed the results of the exploratory research into a “Code of good practice on public participation, access to information and transparency in Internet governance”, undertaken through a trilateral initiative of the Council of Europe, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), initiated at the scond Internet Governance Forum (November 2007).
The aim of the proposed “Code of good practice on public participation, access to information and transparency in Internet governance” would be to enable all the institutions which play a role in some aspect of governing the Internet to commit to ensuring transparency, public participation (of all stakeholders) and access to information in Internet Governance.
The objective of the consultation was to consider the purpose and scope of the proposed instrument and to discuss with panellists and participants its possible opportunities, limitations and risks. Related initiatives in the field of Internet governance, such as UN Working Group on Internet Governance and International Telecommunication Union consultation on public participation in ITU processes, were discussed and analysed in respect of their compatibility or complementarity with the proposed instrument.
The consultation also aimed to identify other interested stakeholders from different stakeholder groups with a view to associating them with the initiative. A representative from the UN Economic Commission for Africa announced that the initiative would be considered at the African Regional Meeting on follow up to WSIS in November 2008.
The consultation laid the groundwork for a proposed workshop to be held at the third Internet Governance Forum, in Hyderabad, India, from 3-6 December 2008.
Read the Report of the conference "Towards a code of good practice building on the principles of WSIS and the Aarhus Convention".
Click here for a list of speakers and discussants.
Participants attending the session were invited to intervene during the discussion, which following the presentations and discussants' interventions took the form of an open dialogue.
For background to the initiative, see the Council of Europe press release of 13 November 2007, report of the Council of Europe/UNECE/APC Best Practice Forum to the Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro, publication " Encouraging Implementation of the WSIS Principles" by William J. Drake and "Exploratory Report on...a Code of Good Practice" by David Souter.
Stakeholder consultation and background documents
Report of the consultation "Towards a code of good practice building on the principles of WSIS and the Aarhus Convention"
List of participants
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Information note on Stakeholder consultation on public participation in Internet governance (23 May 2008, Geneva)
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Council of Europe press release (dated 22 May 2008) announcing the stakeholder consultation
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Exploratory Report on the Concept and Possible Scope of a Code of Good Practice on Participation, Access to Information and Transparency in Internet Governance - Discussion paper for the Skakeholder Consultation on Internet Governance, 23 May 2008, Geneva
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Report of the IGF-2 Best Practice Forum (13 November 2007, Rio de Janeiro)
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Council of Europe/APC press release (13 November 2007)
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"Encouraging Implementation of the WSIS Principles" by William J. Drake, from The Power of Ideas: Internet Governance in a Global Multi-stakeholder Environment, Wolfgang Kleinwächter (Ed.), with a foreward by Nitin Desai, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Internet Governance, (Berlin, Marketing für Deutschland GmbH, pp. 271-280).
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For more information, please contact public.participation@unece.org.
OECD Task Force on PRTR - Eleventh meeting
12-14 March 2008, Paris
The Task Force discussed the utility of geographic information system and web mapping applications for future communication of PRTR information, within the context of the high-level portal on pollutant release and transfer registers launched in December 2007. The Nordic PRTR Group reported on a scoping study of chemicals in products. The International PRTR Coordinating Group reported on its planned contribution to reporting PRTR capacity building activities to the second International Conference on Chemicals Management, in May 2009.
2007
"Public Participation in Internet Governance: Emerging issues, good practices and proposed solutions" Best Practices Forum, 2nd Internet Governance Forum
12 November 2007, Rio de Janeiro
The Council of Europe and and civil society organisations proposed a self-regulatory mechanism to foster participation, access to information and transparency in Internet governance at the Internet Governance Forum, featuring the European practices under the Aarhus Convention.
To see the Council of Europe's press release of the event, click here.
OECD Task Force on PRTR - Tenth meeting
27 February - 1 March 2007, Copenhagen
The Task Force reviewed the design of a high-level portal on pollutant release and transfer registers provided byEnvironment Canada, among other topics addressing PRTR development.
2006
Symposium on public participation in environmental decision-making
15-17 August 2006, Beijing, China
The purpose of the symposium was to gather comments and to fine-tune a draft regulation for public participation in environmental decision-making under State Environmental Protection Agency of China. The symposium was part of a
6-month project to develop such a regulation for China.
PRTR Implementation Problems and Perspectives
5-7 July 2006, Volograd, Russian Federation
Representatives of NGOs and regional authorities, mainly from European part of Russia, discussed pollutant release and transfer registers in the workshop organized by Ecopress and European ECO Forum.
2005
Third Meeting of the Partnership for Principle 10
Committee of the Whole
4-5 October 2005, London, England
Co-hosted by Capacity Global and the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the meeting brought together 54 participants representing 11 governments, 7 international organizations (including the Aarhus Convention secretariat), and 21 non-governmental organizations committed to implementing Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration. It addressed strategies for moving the Partnership forward.
2003 - 2004
Human Rights and the Environment
A resolution on Human rights and the environment as part of sustainable
development was adopted by the Commission on Human Rights
in April 2003. It requested the Secretary-General to submit to the Commission at its sixtieth session in spring 2004 a report "on the consideration being given to the possible relationship between the environment
and human rights", taking into account the contributions that concerned international organizations and bodies.
The activities carried out under the Aarhus Convention are of great relevance
to this topic. To a certain extent, the Convention may be said to embody the link between human rights
and the environment, being an instrument which on the one hand aims to ensure better protection of the
environment, and on the other, attempts to achieve this goal by seeking to guarantee specific rights
of individuals. Hence a submission to the report was made recently by the secretariat, on behalf of UNECE.