[IRPCoalition] Thank you!

[Internet Rights and Principles Coalition]

Dear all, 

I hope that you enjoyed the IGF last week either on site in Berlin, or following remotely.

On behalf of the IRPC Steering Committee I would like to thank you all for your work and for supporting the outreach efforts of the Coalition. It was privilege to talk to so many Coalition members and supporters, and some of you who have been involved since the start of the IRPC and the first drafting of the Charter. 

The IRPC booth was a great success, and it was very inspiring to see how the Charter is being used all over the world, and how it continues to inspire and to resonate with so many people and so many different projects: from civil society, technical community, to academia, business, political parties, and other policy makers around the world. 

Throughout the year we worked on several issues: refugees and migrants, data governance and emerging technologies, and the environment, which were discussed at local and regional meetings such as the EuroDIG. Last week at the IGF2019 we held our annual IRPC meeting, which included the breakout session “Internet Futures and the Climate Crisis - Paths to Sustainability or Extinction?” <https://sched.co/SU3a> and the launch of the French edition of the Charter  translated by SC member Rigobert Kenmogne and supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM). We also held  Workshop #282 Data Governance by AI: Putting Human Rights at Risk? <https://sched.co/SU22> in partnership with Amnesty International and participated in the Dynamic Coalitions' Main Session, “Joint Efforts to achieve the SDGs”  <https://sched.co/SU44> Both the IRPC meeting and the workshop were very well attended with many participants asking to continue the discussions. On the environment session more particularly, many young people are willing to join us, and to work with us to put the issue in the main Internet Governance agendas. Representatives of the European Parliament and national governments also showed interest in advancing IRPC Charter’s Article 4. “Development through the Internet and in particular clause b on “Environmental Sustainability”.   

Continuing our work on a regional level, our SC member Rigobert will be hosting a workshop on the Charter in a couple of weeks in Yaoundé. We wish him the best, and if anyone would like to be more involved or support this workshop, please feel free to let us know here, or via our info at irpcharter.org

Finally, as my co-chair mandate is coming to an end, I would like to thank you all for all your support and for two inspiring, challenging and insightful years. A lot has been achieved since the Charter was first drafted and published, but still so much to be done! The translations continue (the Italian should be ready by mid-2020), the outreach effort is never-ending, and as the online environment gets more and more complex and we work to connect the next billion, this document and all the work of the Coalition around it is ever more pertinent and necessary.

The SC election process is about to start, and I hope that some of you will be inspired to step up to join the Steering Committee and to lead the Coalition, and that this list will continue to be a space for discussion and advancement of the Human Rights and Principles for the Internet.

Best wishes,

Minda
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org/mailman/private/irp/attachments/20191203/2f787f71/attachment.html>