EDRI welcomes the creation of a Human Rights Agency within the European Union, adopted by the Council of the European Union on December 12th 2003.

In his opening address to the UN general assembly on 21 September 2004, UN General Secretary Kofi Annan stated that not since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 has the pro­tection of human dignity, liberty and equity been under such pressure. As the use of Information and com­munication technologies increases in all fields and sectors, and as the "information society" evolves and de­velops, human rights are being particularly challenged by more invasive technology, greater control and surveillance, and more visible inequality.

The Unesco is working on a draft convention on cultural diversity, the Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions. The draft contains many references to copyright, intellectual property rights and access to information. On 15 November 2004 the campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS) has presented a critical paper to the Unesco delegates, endorsed by many EDRI-members and other civil rights organisations.

The Unesco convention was originally designed to ensure that culture, in the age of globalized culture industries, is not reduced to a commodity. Its aim is to allow each country to implement cultural, media, and communications policies that foster cultural diversity. However, some governments have proposed dangerous revisions that would transform the

Representatives of the European Parliament's Social Democrat, Liberal, Green and Left Groups uttered harsh words after the Parliamentary hearing of Rocco Buttiglione (Italy), Commissioner-designate for Justice, Freedom and Security and designated Vice-President of the European Commission. He was interrogated a second time by the parliamentary Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) on Wednesday 5 October.

"The groups representing the majority of the Members of the Parliamentary Committee estimate that the moral and political convictions of the Vice-president-designate do not offer in any manner the guarantee that he will engage against discrimination, in particular with regard to sexual orientation, as actively as the Parliament would wish. The standpoint of the vice-president-designate on the role of women in society and on the supposed immorality of homosexuality causes apprehensions with these groups that the Commission's capacity of legislative initiative be emptied of all or part of its reality." Mr. Buttiglione, a staunch right-wing Catholic, had angered the MEPs with his remarks on conservative family values.

How does the work of WIPO - the World Intellectual Property Organisation - affect the daily lives of the world's six billion plus consumers? Is WIPO's mission and work inherently exclusive, benefiting only the richer countries and consumers and harming the poor? Does WIPO need a new mission to embrace new information technologies and to benefit poor countries and consumers? These were some of the questions asked at an international workshop organised by the TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) in Geneva on 13 and 14 September 2004. The workshop consisted of nine panels, each with five or six speakers, each dealing with a separate aspect. The speakers came from a wide range of backgrounds, there were many lawyers and academic researchers, with others drawn from areas of medicine, arts and civil society, including consumer organisations. There were also government officials from the US and EU countries, while developing country delegates to WIPO were invited as guests (none wished to be panellists). Very creditably, WIPO itself recognised the validity of the issues discussed and top WIPO officials took part in the workshops and sat on several panels.

The German government is promising to finally implement a freedom of information law, according to an article published in Berliner Zeitung from 3 July 2004. After many years of debate within the red-green coalition, a legal proposal will be sent to parliament (Bundestag) after the summer break. Mrs Stokar, an MP for the Green party, is quoted to say that the project could be finalised before the end of the year 2004. "We wish to expand civil rights. That's why the decisions from the ministries must become accessible."

The German e-zine Heise adds that a freedom of information law was already announced in 1998, in the coalition agreement between the Social Democrat Party (SPD) and the Greens. The project was stalled many times, until the national ministry of internal affairs released a discussion draft in the summer of 2001. The legal proposal was rejected in June 2002, according to the Greens because of ministries led by social democrats.

Is there any proven link between hate speech on the Internet and committed hate crimes ? This was the difficult question faced by a meeting organised by OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) on the relationship between racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic propaganda on the Internet and hate crimes, which was held in Paris on 16-17 June 2004. The answer to this question is of high political importance since it could impact the U.S. position and legislation, which protects free speech - be it hate speech - under the First amendment.

The OSCE meeting, which was held in preparation of a further OSCE conference on the same issue to be held by the end of this year in Brussels, did not provide a definitive answer to this question. While the French representatives presented the direct relationship between hate speech and hate crime as obvious - without providing any evidence, however -, the U.S. representatives made it clear that only crime, not speech can lead to prosecution under U.S. legislation. Between these two extreme positions, most of the participants to the meeting called for in-depth research on this issue, so that the critical question raised by the OSCE could be discussed on a sound basis.

Under rules established by ICANN, any entity that registers a domain name has to provide contact information that can be queried through the WHOIS service - by any data user and for any legitimate purpose. Data users remain anonymous, and there is no enforcement of the few limitations imposed on using the data.

This policy is currently up for review. Three separate task forces are dealing with access modes to WHOIS data, with a review of data elements, and with data accuracy enforcement. Preliminary reports from these Task Forces are open for public comment, until 5 July 2004.

On access and data elements, representatives from ICANN's Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC, representing non-commercial domain name holders) and At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC, advocating the interests of individual Internet users) have worked to replace unaccountable and anonymous access to sensitive data by a model that is designed to balance data users' and data subjects' interests. Core design goals here are to enable accountability of data users, and to make sure that WHOIS does not become a tool exclusively available to intellectual property-holders and other corporate interests.

One of the results of the European elections is the loss of some excellent Members of Parliament. EDRI wishes to thank a number of MEPs that have struggled hard to defend privacy and digital civil rights, but have not been re-elected.

As rapporteur of the Directive on privacy and electronic communications, the Italian MEP Marco Cappato worked very hard to insert important privacy-guarantees and fiercely opposed mandatory retention of telecommunications traffic data. Author of the report on the right to privacy and data protection (approved by Parliament on 9 March 2004 by 439 votes in favour, 39 against and 28 abstentions), organiser of an important civil society meeting in Parliament, staunch protester against the transfer of PNR-data to the US without strong privacy-protection, and tabler of many key amendments on the IPR Enforcement Directive at the first reading, Cappato deserves a lot of credit as a champion for digital rights. Mister Cappato's Lista Bonino lost almost three quarters of its voters, compared to the 1999 EU Parliament elections, and will send only two MEPs to Brussels. Mr. Cappato held place three on this list and may come back to Brussels as a substitute MEP if one of the two others should be replaced.