The United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) brings people together from various stakeholder groups to discuss public policy issues relating to the Internet. The 17th annual IGF meeting will take place in a hybrid format from 28 November to 2 December 2022, hosting stakeholders present onsite in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and participating online. This year's overarching theme is: Resilient Internet for a shared sustainable and common future. The meeting programme is guided by five themes drawn from the Global Digital Compact in the UN Secretary-General's Our Common Agenda report and aligned with the UN's envisioned Global Digital Compact, i.e. Connecting All People and Safeguarding Human Rights; Avoiding Internet Fragmentation; Governing Data and Protecting Privacy; Enabling Safety, Security and Accountability; and Addressing Advanced Technologies, including AI.
LSTS and HALL Researcher Olga Gkotsopoulou will participate as speaker and online moderator at the IGF 2022 Networking Session #32 'Internet’s contrasts: rights/obligations, inclusion/exclusion, in/accessibility, dis/connection, ...' organised by a consortium led by the Universiteit Gent – Human Rights Centre. The session takes place on Tuesday, 29 November 2022 (06:00-07:00 UTC) in Room 'Banquet Hall B' and can be also followed online.
Speakers include: Dariusz Kloza, Universiteit Gent – Human Rights Centre (Belgium); Georgios Terzis & Mihalis Kritikos, Vrije Universiteit Brussel – Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) – Centre for Digitalisation, Democracy and Innovation (CD2I); Giovanni De Gregorio, University of Oxford – Centre for Socio-Legal Studies – Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) (United Kingdom); Evelyne Tauchnitz & Peter Kirchschläger, University of Lucerne – Institute of Social Ethics (Switzerland); Rosanna Fanni, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) – Digital Forum (Belgium); Paolo Passaglia, University of Pisa – Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza (Italy); Agustina Del Campo, Universidad de Palermo – Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (Argentina).
This networking session will revolve around the following IGF22's theme: Connecting All People and Safeguarding Human Rights. It addresses, both from theoretical and practical viewpoints, the need to respond to a series of societal challenges, recently emerged or escalated, concerning internet (access), which are called here ‘contrasts’: rights/obligations, inclusion/exclusion, in/accessibility, dis/connection, in/equality, in/efficiency, progress/regress, etc. The first part of the session will sketch the problem(s) and offer possible solution(s) in the format of a few short interventions per ’contrast’. The second part will critically analyse them during an informal coffee break around a few coffee tables devoted to each of the ‘contrasts’. Moderator’s remarks gathered during both parts will close this networking session.
More information on the session can be found here. Information about registration and how to participate in-person or online at the IGF 2022 can be found here.