IGF 2018 WS #132 Towards a Decentralized Internet Constitution?
Format:
Panel - 90 Min
Theme:
Human Rights, Gender & Youth
Subtheme:
DEMOCRACY
Organizer 1:
Dennis Redeker
, Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS)
Organizer 2:
Mauro Santaniello
, University of Salerno
Organizer 3:
FRANCESCO PIRRO
, AgID
Speaker 1:
Lisa Garcia
, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 2:
Primavera De Filippi
, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3:
Suzor Nicolas
, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 4:
Guy Berger
, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Speaker 5:
Andrea Beccalli
, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Relevance:
The need to address the challenges of fundamental rights protection in the digital ecosystem is a constant theme of the policy arena which has been emerging around Internet governance, and it has been addressed from multiple perspectives within the IGF since its foundation. In the last five editions of the Forum, a number of workshops have been held around the trajectories discussed in this panel, i.e. decentralizing technologies and their impact on fundamental rights protection; and digital constitutionalism initiatives originated in an increasingly heterogeneous political setting. Although this workshop is not a direct continuation of previous IGF workshops, it aims at building on foregoing efforts and discussions in order to develop a more encompassing understanding about future opportunities and challenges for digital rights. [for more details see background paper]
Session Content:
The workshop will discuss the issue of human rights online from the perspective of two recent decentralizing trends. The first one is a technological decentralization, enabled by new technologies - especially blockchain - allowing tech-ingrained human rights protection (“blockchain constitutionalism”) through smart contracts and the extensive use of cryptography. The second trend is a political decentralization which is transforming the landscape of digital constitutionalism, i.e. “a set of otherwise divergent initiatives; that each one seeks to engage with political rights, governance norms, and limitations on the exercise of power on the Internet in some fundamental way” (Gill, Redeker, Gasser 2015). Particularly, recent cases of digital constitutionalism originate in local authorities (such as New York City), national parliaments (as in the case of Italy and the Philippines), and regional blocs (the African Union and the European Union). The workshop aims to produce and disseminate new knowledge and ideas about the interplay between technological and political decentralization, and to foresee future trajectories in terms of convergence and fragmentation of constitutionalization processes related to the Internet. As a result the workshop will explore how decentralized technologies can be deployed to support, not undermine, ongoing efforts to protect Internet-related fundamental rights, locally and globally. The workshop involves digital rights advocates, technical and academic experts in the emerging field of technology-based human rights protection (including inter alia blockchain technologies, smart contracts), government officials concerned with this from a policy perspective, and representatives of International Organizations who facilitate processes of norm and regulatory convergence. Specifically, we have now five provisionally confirmed panelists.
The agenda is comprised of short thought-provoking presentations by the panelists and an extensive discussion between them and the audience in the room and remotely around the world. 1st Part: Introduction of the theme of the discussion and the panelists (5 minutes) 2nd Part: The panelists provide their thought-provoking insights based on their specific perspective and knowledge (25 minutes) - see “Interventions” for a description of their specific inputs. Panelists: Lisa Garcia, Nicolas Suzor, Primavera De Filippi, Guy Berger, Andrea Beccalli 3rd Part: Comments and questions to the panelists from the audience both in the room and around the world (remotely) (30 minutes) 4th Part: Panelists react to each other, the comments and questions (each 4 minutes) and react to the following question “How can technical decentralization (blockchain) and decentralized digital rights advocacy lead to better human rights protection on the Internet?” (each one minute) (total: 25 minutes) 5th Part: Summary/synthesis provided by the moderators of the discussion in the room and online (5 minutes).
Interventions:
Interventions are provided by five speakers who have provisionally confirmed their participation.
Lisa Garcia, Foundation for Media Alternatives (Philippines) will report from a national initiative of digital constitutionalism to realize human rights in the Philippines (Philippine Declaration on Internet Rights and Principles) and transnationally by a coalition of feminist activists (Feminist Principles of the Internet). She makes the case for ensuring human rights protections on the national, regional and grassroots levels.
Nicolas Suzor, Queensland University of Technology (Australia) will discuss the conditions under which initiatives of digital constitutionalism may positively impact the realization of human rights on the Internet on a national level (Australia) and in relationship with social media platforms.
Primavera De Filippi, CNRS (France) and Harvard University (USA) will provide a short introduction into the current state of art of ingraining human rights protections into smart contracts on a blockchain. She will discuss the conflict that arises between blockchain-based smart contracts and national/other legislation as well as the legal system.
Guy Berger, UNESCO will discuss the role of international organizations in supporting efforts to realizing human rights online through, among other efforts, UNESCO’s Internet Universality indicators that represent an effective international stock-taking exercise. The Internet Universality indicators point to a convergence of norms around human rights protections online.
Andrea Beccalli, ICANN will discuss the relevance of the multistakeholder approach to Internet Governance and human rights protection from the perspective of the Internet technical community, particularly the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
Diversity:
Our five-speaker panel is highly diverse. Specifically, our speakers, by nationality, come from Africa (1), Oceania (1), Asia (1) and Europe (3). Two out of five are female and they represent civil society (3), the technical community (1) and an international organization (1). They represent various policy perspectives (for their perspectives see IX.)
The organizing team is made up of first-time IGF organizers.
Online Participation:
The task of managing online participation lies with our online moderator, who is a member of the organizing committee. The online moderator and the workshop moderator are in constant contact about the state and content of the online discussion. As our agenda (see VIII.) indicates, there will be a round of audience comments and questions (i.e. interventions) after the first round of short interventions by the speakers. These comments will be sourced the on-location audience and the online audience in equal parts. We proceed to take each two comments/questions each from on-location and online audiences at a time until the maximum time of thirty minutes is reached. In general, we aim to take comments and questions from people with diverse perspectives (as far as this can be determined), according to criteria such as gender, stakeholder group, youth, and nationality.
Discussion Facilitation:
As indicated in VIII., our agenda foresees three distinct phases for exchanges between speakers and the audience (both on-location and online). First we, will allow each speaker to make a short 5-minute introductory speech (time limit strictly enforced by the moderator). Afterwards, we hand over the active role to the audience, with comments or questions made by participants online and on-location in equal measure (see XIV.). We aim to take comments and questions from people with diverse perspectives (as far as this can be determined), according to criteria such as gender, stakeholder group, youth, and nationality. The third phase allows our speakers to answer questions and react to comments from the audience. After these three distinct phases, the moderators will provide a synthesis of the discussion including the online discussion that may have occurred at the same time.
Onsite Moderator:
Dennis Redeker
Online Moderator:
Mauro Santaniello
Rapporteur:
Dennis Redeker
Background Paper
Reference Document:
http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/gazb/80/4
Agenda:
The agenda is comprised of short thought-provoking presentations by the panelists and an extensive discussion between them and the audience in the room and remotely around the world.
1st Part: Introduction of the theme of the discussion and the panelists (5 minutes)
2nd Part: The panelists provide their thought-provoking insights based on their specific perspective and knowledge (25 minutes) - see “Interventions” for a description of their specific inputs. Panelists: Lisa Garcia, Nicolas Suzor, Primavera De Filippi, Guy Berger, Andrea Beccalli
3rd Part: Comments and questions to the panelists from the audience both in the room and around the world (remotely) (30 minutes)
4th Part: Panelists react to each other, the comments and questions (each 4 minutes) and react to the following question “How can technical decentralization (blockchain) and decentralized digital rights advocacy lead to better human rights protection on the Internet?” (each one minute) (total: 25 minutes)
5th Part: Summary/synthesis provided by the moderators of the discussion in the room and online (5 minutes)
Session Time:
Tuesday, 13 November, 2018 -
16:40
to
18:10
Room:
Salle IV

