[IRPCoalition] Italy's draft Declaration of Internet Rights

[J.C. DE MARTIN]

Dear All,

If I am not mistaken, this list has not yet been informed about a fairly
recent initiative of Italy's Chamber of Deputies that might interest you.

In July 2014 the President of the Chamber, Hon. Laura Boldrini,
established a study commission made of 10 MPs (one for each
group) and 13 experts (I am one of them) [1].
The chair of the Commission is prof. Stefano Rodotà,
that some of you will remember (Tunis 2005 or Brazil 2007).

The mandate for our Commission was to survey existing
Internet Charters/Declarations (starting with IRPC Charter, of course)
and to produce a draft Declaration of Internet Rights before of the end of
Italy's Presidency of the European Union (31 Dec 2014).
The political aim was to try to influence the Italian Government
to take (or at least facilitate) action in this important area.

While that political aim was not achieved (at least so far),
the Chamber of Deputies indeed published a first draft of the
Declaration in October 2014. Since then the draft
has been undergoing a public consultation
(see http://camera.civi.ci), which will end on March 31.

You can find English, French and German translations
of the draft Declaration, as well as a quite extensive
press overview (also in English), here:
http://nexa.polito.it/declaration-internet-rights

Since October, the study Commission has been holding
several official hearings: we heard from experts (some them
foreigners, e.g., Frank La Rue), associations,
the Chairs of Italy's independent Authorities, companies,
members of Goverment, media, ecc.

We are also in close contact with the Commission de réflexion
sur le droit et les libertés à l’âge du numérique established in
2014 by France's Assemblée Nationale: in the coming days
we will also hold a joint meeting via tele-conference.

The main results of this initiative is that Italy has been discussing
of Internet rights like never before: a remarkable result
in and by itself, if you ask me.

Next steps: process the contributions, produce
a revised Declaration and, above all, contribute to the
global Internet rights efforts, where our main asset
will be the fact that we are an expression of a parliamentary
institution.

Particularly regarding this last point, your feedback and
advice would be most useful.

Many thanks,
best regards,

juan carlos de martin

[1] http://www.camera.it/leg17/1177
[2] http://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/commissions/numerique

prof. juan carlos de martin
co-director / nexa center for internet & society
politecnico di torino - italy
http://nexa.polito.it
office: +39 011 090 7217