[kictanet] Anti-Shutdown Policy and Human Rights

Thu May 25 13:59:52 EAT 2017

or better yet, recommend to Operators to shut down the links to the
decision-makers (but keep hosted services alive for citizens!)

my 2 bob,

McTim

On Thu, May 25, 2017 at 1:13 PM, waudo siganga via kictanet
<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
> How about a proposal to refer these people who abuse human rights to
> existing institutons like the Hague? Just a thought.
>
> W.
>
>
> On Thu, May 25, 2017, at 12:42 PM, Andrew Alston wrote:
>
> Waudo,
>
>
>
> As we have stated as the authors – we KNOW the punitive measures in the
> policy are flawed and draconian – and we don’t expect the policy to pass in
> it’s current form.  What we want from this policy is to generate more and
> more debate until we come up with ways that WILL work that don’t have the
> same level of collateral damage.  The policy in the form it is in is meant
> to generate discussion and debate to finding the real solution – and without
> putting anything in there – the debate would never have gotten to where it
> is now.
>
>
>
> So yes, we know the current policy is flawed – but we are hoping as time
> goes on and the debate rages that we will find solutions that will have the
> same effect and these shutdowns will end.
>
>
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
>
>
> From: waudo siganga [mailto:emailsignet at mailcan.com]
> Sent: 25 May 2017 12:39
> To: Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>; Andrew Alston via
> kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Anti-Shutdown Policy and Human Rights
>
>
>
> Thanks.
>
> 13.2 Entities to which this policy applies
>
> a.   The actions specified in section 13.3 shall apply to the government of
> the country in which the shutdown is occurring, and to any entities in which
> the state holds greater than 50% shareholding.
>
> I am not really an expert on the intersection between human rights and
> technology so I can only make a general comment: if resources for government
> internet services are denied is it not the ordinary citizen (the human who
> requires his/her rights to be observed) who suffers? Think e.g. of
> e-government services.
>
>
>
>
>
> Waudo
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 25, 2017, at 11:00 AM, Andrew Alston wrote:
>
> Sure,
>
>
>
> The actual revised policy document can be found here:
>
>
>
> https://afrinic.net/en/community/policy-development/policy-proposals/2127-anti-shutdown-02
>
>
>
> The human rights declaration that is referred to can be found here:
>
>
>
> http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
>
>
> From: waudo siganga [mailto:emailsignet at mailcan.com]
> Sent: 25 May 2017 10:38
> To: Andrew Alston via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Cc: Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Anti-Shutdown Policy and Human Rights
>
>
>
> Hi Andrew - could you share the document with Kictanet list? I personally
> have not seen it.
>
>
>
> W.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 25, 2017, at 10:06 AM, Andrew Alston via kictanet wrote:
>
> For me, in Art 12 the word "correspondence" should be replaced with
> "communication" which is wider and more encompassing, more so when it comes
> to protection of human rights and matters ICT;
>
> Agreed on the above point, but we have to work with what we’ve got J Though
> it would be good to see the declaration of human rights updated to reflect
> this.
>
> On Art 19 in my opinion, it should be indicated that you can exercise that
> freedom subject to your observance of the right of others to protection
> against unbridled publication of personal opinions. In other words you
> cannot publish false and defamatory material against me in the name of
> exercising your freedom of expression/media.
>
> Agreed – and this is covered in Article 29.3 – which is covered “In the
> exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such
> limitations as are determined by low solely for the purpose of securing due
> recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting
> the just requirement of mortality, public order and general welfare in a
> democratic society”
>
> On Art 20, the interpretation of the Higher German Court was right in my
> view. Assembling in the current era of IT advancements must be taken to
> encompass online assemblies. Indeed people are daily  "assembling" more on
> social media than physical assembling.
>
> Again – agreed – though the debate about distributed denial of service is a
> tricky one – because it has collateral damage and if the denial of service
> were to take place against a blogging site for example, it would run afoul
> of the clauses in Article 19.
>
>
>
> Obviously I’m not a lawyer – but these are my interpretations, and I’d love
> to hear legal analysis on this
>
>
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
> On 25 May 2017 08:07, "Andrew Alston via kictanet"
> <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
>
>
> As some of you may have seen – the latest draft of the anti-shutdown policy
> has been published on the AFRINIC lists.
>
>
>
> While once again, the authors need to draw attention to the fact that we
> know that the policy isn’t perfect – and we know that it still needs a lot
> of revision before it can ever become reality, we still hope that the dialog
> created by the policy will continue to spur the debate until real solutions
> can be found.  As we have said in other forums, we also believe that the
> timing is right for this debate, especially since there are limited places
> on the continent where this debate could be held where the debate itself
> would not get instantly shut down – and Kenya is one of those places, since
> the Kenyan government has shown a willingness to dialog and discuss when
> compared to certain other places.
>
>
>
> There are however some interesting parts in the new draft which I thought
> I’d elaborate on a little bit, specifically the fact that in the
> introduction paragraph, we have opted to make reference to the Universal
> Declaration of Human Rights.  My thanks to the individuals who contributed
> and drew our attention to certain parts of this.
>
>
>
> Specifically – I thought that for the sake of discussion, I’d point out
> certain things here and see what the rest of the KictaNet community thought
> about the interpretation we are using when we apply these clauses to our
> thinking.
>
>
>
> So, firstly, Article 12 reads “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary
> interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to
> attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the
> protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”
>
>
>
> Now, the most interesting part of that is where it reads “or
> correspondence”, because it can certainly be argued that internet
> communication is a form of correspondence.  Email, whatsapp, social media,
> all of them amount to methods of correspondence between individuals.
>
>
>
> Then, moving to Article 19.  “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion
> and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without
> interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through
> any media and regardless of frontiers.”
>
>
>
> Again, the Internet is a form of media – and by stating that individuals
> have the right of expression through any media, this can be extrapolated to
> say that the removal of a form of media in an attempt to remove freedom of
> expression is a violation of the declaration of human rights.
>
>
>
> Finally, moving to Article 20, specifically Article 20.1, it reads: “(1)
> Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.”
>
>
>
> This is probably the most contentious assertion – can a virtual online
> meeting place be considered an assembly and hence protected under this
> right.  I did a fair amount of research into this and there is some very
> interesting case law about this.
>
>
>
> Specifically – In 2001, a guy called Andreas-Thomas Vogel ran a website in
> Germany that called for action against Lufthansa Airlines (basically denial
> of service) – he was arrested on charges of coercion, and initially a lower
> court in Frankfurt found him guilty, primarily due to the economic losses
> suffered by Lufthana Airlines during the online campaign.  However, on
> appeal, a higher court overturned this ruling, stating that the online
> demonstration did not constitute a show of force, but was intended to the
> influence public opinion – effectively stating that online demonstrations
> were both a legitimate form of protest and real.  Effectively, the attack
> that was encouraged was viewed as a form of virtual sit-in against the
> airline. A Libertad spokesperson then went on to say “Althought it is
> virtual in nature, the Internet is still a real public space”
>
>
>
> Now, obviously, that’s in Germany and not in a lot of other countries,
> indeed in the US, under the CPAA they have taken a completely opposite
> approach to things like denial of service – however, it does raise an
> interesting question.  If you can in fact have a virtual sit-in online –
> then it stands to reason that the right of peaceful assembly extends to the
> virtual world – and would include virtual assembly on the Internet – and
> hence an internet shutdown would be a violation of Article 20.1
>
>
>
> I’d love to see more interpretations and debates on this issue though – and
> I’m hoping to see some debate on this at the PDP meeting on Nairobi on the
> 31st – all of you are welcome at that PDP meeting by the way, at the Boma
> Hotel, starting at 9am and running through to 5:30pm where we will be
> debating a whole range of policies including the anti-shutdown policy.
>
>
>
> Hope to see you all there!
>
>
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet
> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/
>
> Unsubscribe or change your options at
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/fmwangangi1%40gmail.com
>
> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for
> people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> kictanet mailing list
>
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet
>
> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/
>
>
>
> Unsubscribe or change your options at
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/emailsignet%40mailcan.com
>
>
>
> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for
> people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
>
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet
> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/
>
> Unsubscribe or change your options at
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/dogwallah%40gmail.com
>
> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for
> people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.