[IRP] Call for support - Brazilian civil rights framework in Congress

Tue Aug 7 13:59:54 EEST 2012

Dear all

I strongly support IRP signing the letter. Marcelo, thanks a lot for the
information. I was not aware of these potential limitations.. good to be
aware.

Bruce Girard, a colleague from Latin America, presented a paper on the
process used to develop the legislation at the IAMCR conference earlier
this month. Very impressive!  Many congrats to Brazilian colleagues,
particularly to CTS who facilitated the process.

Anriette

On 07/08/2012 11:53, Dixie Hawtin wrote:
> Hi all -
> 
> Re: signing on to the Internet Freedom Declaration - so far there has been unanimous support for signing on to the Declaration (although with some reservations about the process and content of that Declaration - nonetheless the consensus appears to be that it is an important initiative to join and support). I'll keep that call open until tomorrow so if anyone else wants to throw your opinion in, do so now, otherwise we will sign on tomorrow!
> 
> Re: Marco Civil - from my perspective too this has been a truly remarkable initiative and a very inspiring example of how the democratic process can work in the internet era. Notwithstanding the important points made by Marcelo, this is another important flagship initiative that we could really support if we can move quickly (given that the vote is coming to the National Congress tomorrow!) If you would like the IRP to sign on please respond and say so in the next 5 hours (by 4pm BST) and if there is rough consensus I will let CTS-FGV know.
> 
> Thanks!
> Dixie
> 
> From: irp-bounces at lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org [mailto:irp-bounces at lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org] On Behalf Of Marcelo Thompson
> Sent: 07 August 2012 10:21
> To: Marilia Maciel
> Cc: igcbp-talk at googlegroups.com; irp; governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> Subject: Re: [IRP] Call for support - Brazilian civil rights framework in Congress
> 
> Dear All,
> 
> As a Brazilian, I could not be prouder of what my colleagues have accomplished. If you have not heard of Marco Civil by now (what I trust is highly unlikely), the first thing you may like to learn is that Marco Civil is the outcome of a truly democratic process, be it in terms of the wealth of good intentions reflected in it, be it in terms of the range of social actors that have been able not only to contribute to the final text, which is common, but to be heard, which is rare indeed.
> 
> If I may, I would strongly endorse the plea of my friends from the CTS-FGV in asking the international community to support Marco Civil.
> 
> At the same time, however, I would also like to bring to your attention what I trust to be quite an ink of stain in an otherwise excellent initiative. The intermediary liability provision, which is explained in the attachment to be a lucid and balanced set of provisions, may be rather far from being so. I briefly explain its problems here<https://bitly.com/O6YLdp>. What the provision may see as lucid is the evasion of more in-depth inquiry of the kind the EU is conducting now in its consultation on intermediary liability.
> 
> The way Marco Civil does so is by simply stating that there is no such a thing as intermediary liability -- except for contempt of court. Whether this is a lucid and balanced solution to such a central problem of contemporary life, I leave up to colleagues to decide. What I dare say, and have argued elsewhere<http://ssrn.com/abstract=2101322>, is that, in all its breadth, this is something internationally unprecedented, which violates the Brazilian Constitution and Brazil's human rights obligations, and which will have immediate and pervasive impacts upon Brazilian society, if not upon the international community altogether.
> 
> As the beauty of this process is precisely that it is such an open consultation, I am sure colleagues in Brazil will wholeheartedly welcome any views the international community may have on this issue, which is not any side issue, but one which is central indeed to Marco Civil's reading of the boundaries of freedom of expression and its relation with other human rights.
> 
> Other than that, I wish my colleagues -- and myself! -- every luck tomorrow.
> 
> All best wishes,
> 
> Marcelo
> 
> 
> --
> Marcelo Thompson
> 
> Research / Assistant Professor
> Deputy Director, LLM (IT&IP)
> 
> Faculty of Law
> The University of Hong Kong
> 
> http://marcelothompson.hk
> 
> 
> On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 11:24 AM, Marilia Maciel <mariliamaciel at gmail.com<mailto:mariliamaciel at gmail.com>> wrote:
> On behalf of Joana Varon, from CTS-FGV
> 
> Dear Colleagues,
> 
> Please find attached a letter of support for the Civil Rights Framework for Internet in Brazil, drafted in partnership with the following Brazilian civil society organizations: Institute of Consumers Defense - IDEC; Intervozes and the Center for Technology and Society - CTS/FGV, but with growing support from a list of others.
> 
> Next Wednesday, August 8th, the bill shall be voted at a Special Committee of National Congress. It would be the first step in the creation of a legal text that goes in the opposite direction to the trend of criminalization and imposing intermediary liability on the web. As you might already know, we had expected it to be voted a month ago, but it did not happen due to lack of quorum. And nowadays, though it is the product of a highly democratic process, approval of the text is not guaranteed.
> 
> We believe international support can help us put pressure on Congress for approval. So, if you agree, I would kindly ask your institution to sign this letter. Sorry for not having being able to propose it as a document to be edited in partnership, but we are in a rush, as the idea is to have a version with institutional signatures of international civil society organizations by tomorrow to deliver it to the Special Commission on Wednesday. Signatures can be sent directly to my email (joana at varonferraz.com<mailto:joana at varonferraz.com>), preferably indicating the link to the website of the supporting institution.
> 
> ps. sorry for any eventual cross-posting
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Joana
> 
> --
> 
> Joana Varon Ferraz
> Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade (CTS-FGV)
> http://direitorio.fgv.br/cts/
> <https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/goog_946507056>www.freenetfilm.org<http://www.freenetfilm.org>
> @joana_varon
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade
> FGV Direito Rio
> 
> Center for Technology and Society
> Getulio Vargas Foundation
> Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
> 
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-- 
------------------------------------------------------
anriette esterhuysen anriette at apc.org
executive director, association for progressive communications
www.apc.org
po box 29755, melville 2109
south africa
tel/fax +27 11 726 1692