Internet Governance Forum - september 2010 - Council of Europe

Internet Governance Forum - 5th meeting

14-17 September 2010, Vilnius (Lithuania)

“Internet should be a space of freedom, justice and democracy”, said Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General, at the opening of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held in Vilnius (Lithuania) from 14 to 17 September.

During the IGF, the Council of Europe engaged in an open dialogue with representatives of governments, business and civil society on how to safeguard freedom on the Internet - as well as security, openness and privacy - while also protecting users from its risks.

Contributing to the overall theme 'Developing the future together' of this United Nations event - the Council of Europe presented its most recent work to protect human rights online and to provide an adequate legal framework for the Internet.

This work includes a convention for protecting children from sexual abuse – which entered into force in July 2010 - and two new conventions to be adopted soon, one for fighting violence against women, and the other for combating counterfeit medicines, including those sold online.

The Council of Europe also presented at the IGF a draft recommendation on data protection and profiling, an update of ongoing work to implement the Cybercrime Convention worldwide, and the development of an international legal framework for the protection of critical Internet resources and cross-border flow of Internet traffic. (more ...)

• Speech by Maud de Boer-Buquicchio
• Video of the speech by Maud de Boer-Buquicchio

• Susan Pointer, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations at Google, commenting on protection and freedom of expression on the Internet
• Richard Allan, Director for Privacy in Europe at Facebook , commenting on protection and Freedom of Expression on the Internet

The Council of Europe provides the secretariat of the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) in cooperation with European Union institutions and other organisations.

EuroDIG is a platform for discussing and shaping a European perspective to Internet governance. In its last edition, participating stakeholders concluded that the protection of human rights, ensuring universal access to the Internet as a public service and promoting media literacy should be key priorities for Internet governance in Europe.

• 2010 EuroDIG
• 2009 EuroDIG
• 2008 EuroDIG