Principles for governing the Internet: a comparative analysis

23 August 2016

As the sixth edition in the UNESCO Internet Freedom series, this study encompasses both quantitative and qualitative assessments of more than 50 declarations, guidelines, and frameworks. The issues contained in these documents are assessed in the context of UNESCO’s interested areas such as access, freedom of expression, privacy, ethics, Priority Gender Equality, and Priority Africa, and sustainable development, etc.

This publication shows that while each of the reviewed Internet documents has its own value, none of them fully meet UNESCO’s interests and mandate. The study proposes therefore the concept of “Internet Universality” as the Organisation’s own clear identifier for approaching the various fields of Internet issues and their intersections with UNESCO concerns.

Internet Universality highlights the contribution that can be made by an Internet that is based on four principles, recognised by UNESCO governing bodies. An Internet developed on these principles would be: human Rights-based; Open; Accessible to all; and governed through Multi-stakeholder participation (summarized in the acronym R.O.A.M.).

This concept has relevance to the Organization’s work in many areas – including online freedom of expression and privacy; efforts to advance universality in education, social inclusion and gender equality; multilingualism in cyberspace; access to information and knowledge; and ethical dimensions of information society.

Download:
-English
-French

Details:

-Bibliographic reference
-Author: Weber, Rolf H.
-Collation: 89 p.
-Publication year: 2015
-ISBN: 978-92-3-100125-3 (print/web); 978-92-3-100036-2 (ePub)
-Series title: UNESCO Series on Internet Freedom
Building Knowledge Societies
Internet governance

Permanent link: http://en.unesco.kz/principles-for-governing-the-internet-a-comparative-analysis