Confronting the digital divide (2) – Refugees, human rights and Internet access – WS 10 2016

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Please use your own words to describe this session. You may use external references, websites or publications as a source of information or inspiration, if you decide to quote them, please clearly specify the source.


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Session teaser

In light of discussions in Workshop 2, if human rights indeed should apply online as they do offline (UNHRC 2014) then what sort of techno-legal and sociocultural challenges arise in order to enable, and protect the rights of minorities - in particular migrants, refugees and newcomers to Europe - to access the internet and, once online, to be able to participate fully in the online environment?

Session description

For some commentators a striking feature of the current refugee and migrant crisis is how central a role mobile phones and internet access play in providing information, and contact with family back home as they seek refuge from war and conflict. Keeping these devices working, and being able to use various sorts of social media, is a vital lifeline for displaced persons on the road. They also play an integral role in being able to start a new life as newcomers in another part of the world.

But providing internet and mobile phone access to these communities raises a number of questions for policy makers and service providers, be it for physical access and online service provision for people on their way to safety, whilst awaiting the outcome of their applications throughout the world, or for their needs such as education and information on public services once resettled. This flash panel brings together a range of views and expertise on the legal and technical challenges that arise when providing internet access and mobile phone provisions to refugees.

Who protects asylum seekers, refugees and undocumented people's human rights online, if they fear/are in conflict with both their home countries and EU countries? - The interaction with politics and legal situation. Including fear and myths about digital surveillance 'I can be tracked even in my phone is off', internet access in detention/immigration removal centres/camps, Facebook profiles and online content being used in asylum cases, lack of the right to work thus preventing those with technical and other skills from using them.

These themes include, but are not restricted to the following issues, and in light of the outcomes of Workshop 2:

  • The refugee crisis had brought the issue of access on one side and, on the other, technological innovations in the service of humanitarian relief to a new level of debate; e.g. many apps are being developed which is leading to a fragmentation of initiatives. These offers then suffer from issues in terms of the quality of content (is it accessible, verified, updated?) and other terms of use. Meanwhile, humanitarian workers on the field, both from international and local organizations, lack adequate technical training to allow them to understand the potential misuse, or risks related to how refugees actually use their personal devices, or mobile apps. This can lead to personal and sensitive data being shared because of urgency but without suitable safeguards based on human rights norms for access and use of the internet.
  • Who provides access and online services for populations in urgent need and in temporary and traumatic circumstances? What needs to be done to clarify the respective roles and appropriate balance between the work of UN agencies and commercial service provision of internet access in refugee camps? When does urgency outweigh larger issues around ownership and control, appropriate human rights provisions for these circumstances?
  • How can policy-makers and humanitarian aid-workers respond to assumptions that refugees are more likely to be IT illiterate or functionally illiterate and thereby unable to enjoy the range of services that European citizens take for granted? Should internet access come before food/cloths and housing, is this an either/or under the circumstances?
  • How can access to the internet be combined in sustainable ways with existing human rights frameworks such as the right to education, privacy, and cultural diversity? In light of points raised in Workshop 2, how can public access in institutions such as libraries be developed in order to bring new citizens into contact with other services (e.g. language support, help with up-skilling and jobs, and of course support in learning how to use online services available to other citizens)?
  • In cases where access to social media, or to communications platforms like VOIP provide crucial social tools for people to mitigate the dislocation they experience when disconnected from their normal social environment, how can access be enhanced and encouraged to enable these necessary interactions for being able to flourish within a new environment?
  • What is the private sector’s role in providing this digital divide at all points of a refugee’s journey to safety? What are these service providers’ obligations with respect to host governments? E.g. who should provide WiFi access to large populations on the move, and on which terms?
  • How do these practical solutions relate to more intransigent issues e.g. the intersection of existing socioeconomic inequalities with digital exclusion and howq these are both exacerbated for asylum seekers, migrants and refugees?
  • Where to distinctions such as age, education, gender hierarchies, language needs, or knowledge about terms of consent to free services require particular attention for newcomers?
  • In terms of knowledge and awareness about the current crisis, and how refugees are perceived in an increasingly hostile way, how can the internet provide spaces for individual and community expression of experience, testimonies by asylum seekers, and other undocumented people in order to address the tensions and conflicts around developing humane policies for refugees arriving, and those settling in Europe?

This workshop is in tandem with workshop 2. Themes discussed will draw on the following submissions to the EuroDIG program: ID 11; 55; 60; 90; 30; 33; 41; 132

Keywords

refugeerights, internetaccess, netrights, humanrights, refugeesandminorities, digitaldivide, digitalinclusion, disabilityrights, publicaccess

Format

Roundtable Discussion with key participants, and invited audience members; Proposed output to be up to 6 recommendations to the European Parliament, EC and Council of Europe.

Further reading

Until 30 April 2016. Links to relevant websites, declarations, books, documents. Please note we cannot offer web space, only links to external resources are possible.

People

Name, institution, country of residence

  • Focal Point: Marianne FRANKLIN, Internet Rights and Principles Coalition/Goldsmiths (University of London), UK
  • Key participants
    • Fatuma Musa Afrah; Civil society (tbc)
    • David Krystof, Freifunk Rhein-Main; Civil Society (tbc)
    • Marianne Franklin, Goldsmiths/Internet Rights and Principles Coalition; Academic
    • Nick Ashton-Hart - Technical Community (tbc)
    • Amnesty International Sweden Representative (tbc)
    • Youth Representative
  • Moderator
    • Julia Reda, MEP (European Pirate Party)
  • Remote moderator

Until 15 May 2016. The remote moderator is in charge of facilitating participation via digital channels such as WebEx and social medial (Twitter, facebook). Remote moderators monitor and moderate the social media channels and the participants via WebEX and forward questions to the session moderator. Please contact the EuroDIG secretariat if you need help to find a remote moderator.

  • Org team
  • Marianne Franklin, Internet Rights and Principles Coalition/Goldsmiths, UK
  • Frederick Donck, ISOC
  • Maarit Palovirta, ISOC
  • Wolf Ludwig, EuroDIG Programme Director
  • Julia Brungs, International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA)
  • Stuart Hamilton, IFLA
  • Stephen Wyber, IFLA
  • Julia Reda, MEP
  • Sebastian Raible, European Parliament
  • Mattias Bjarnemalm, European Parliament
  • Justus Roemeth, European Parliament
  • Olivier Crepin-Leblond, GIH
  • Didier van der Meeren, Le Monde des Possibles ASBL
  • Charles McCathie-Nevile, Yandex
  • Hanane Boujemi, Hivos/IRP Coalition)
  • Ruth Hennell, Youth/University Cardiff)
  • Dixie Hawtin, Minority Rights Group International)
  • Valentina Vale, One World Platform
  • Reporter

Until 15 May 2016. The reporter takes notes during the session and formulates 3 (max. 5) bullet points at the end of each session that:

  1. are summarised on a slide and presented to the audience at the end of each session
  2. relate to the particular session and to European Internet governance policy
  3. are forward looking and propose goals and activities that can be initiated after EuroDIG (recommendations)
  4. are in (rough) consensus with the audience
  5. are to be submitted to the secretariat within 48 hours after the session took place

Please provide short CV of the reporter of your session at the Wiki or link to another source and contact the EuroDIG secretariat if you need help to find a reporter.

Current discussion

See the discussion tab on the upper left side of this page.

Conference call. Schedules and minutes

Both Workshop 2 and 10 have emerged out of an interactive drafting and conferral process online

Supplementary discussions via the email list.

Mailing list

Contact: ws10@eurodig.org

Remote participation

Final report

Deadline 2016

Session twitter hashtag

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