On 13 May 2005 the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers adopted a declaration on human rights and Internet that was prepared by a special committee of academic experts and government representatives. According to the press release, "the declaration is the first international attempt to draw up a framework on the issue and breaks ground by up-dating the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights for the cyber-age."

Indeed the declaration contains a very reassuring confirmation of the fact that "all rights enshrined in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) remain fully valid in the Information Age and should continue to be protected regardless of new technological developments" and a firm statement that "Both the content and traffic data of electronic communications fall under the scope of Article 8 of the ECHR and should not be submitted to restrictions other than those provided for in that provision."

From 17 to 19 May UNESCO organised a large conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, 'Between two phases of the World Summit on the Information Society'. The 450 participants from all over the world were invited to the luxurious Konstantinovsky Palace.

In her opening speech Françoise Rivière, the Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, described the context of St. Petersburg conference and the special involvement of UNESCO Paris head quarters with a session on cultural diversity.

Opening speech by Françoise Rivière

This session was the 4th of a series of thematic meetings held in 2005 in the Information for All programme. In February Paris head quarters hosted a conference on freedom of expression (see EDRI-gram 3.3), early in May the capital of Mali (Bamako) hosted a conference on multi linguism in cyberspace and on 10 May Paris head quarters debated about the use of ICT for capacity building. The Bamako conference produced as main result a clear recognition that the debate about the level of IT development must be changed and in stead of just counting internet usage equal attention should be given to lesser used languages, education and literacy programs. The third meeting in Paris was dedicated to effective use of new methods for learning, focussing on groups such as refugees, the visually impaired, rural areas and the urban poor.

URGENT PRESS RELEASE WHAT THE HACK (23.05.2005)

The organisers of 'What the Hack', the 2005 edition of a series of famous Dutch outdoor hacker conferences, were told that their conference will not receive the municipal permit needed for the event to happen. 'What the Hack" is planned to take place on a large event-campground in Liempde (The Netherlands), between the 28th and 31st of July 2005. About 3.000 participants from all over the world are expected. 'What The Hack' is appealing the decision.

What The Hack is scheduled to take place near Boxtel, a village near Den Bosch in the south of The Netherlands. The mayor of Boxtel, J.A.M. van Homelen, cites "fear of disturbances of law and order and danger to public safety". This is noteworthy because the previous editions of the event saw no incidents of any kind – neither at the event itself nor on the Internet.

On 20 April 2005 the civil liberties group Statewatch, together with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and two other NGOs launched the Campaign Against Mass Surveillance (ICAMS), calling on all national governments and intergovernmental organisations to turn away from antiterrorism efforts that are oriented around mass surveillance.

The campaign started with an in-depth report on 'The emergence of a global infrastructure for registration and surveillance'. "Driven largely by the United States, a growing web of anti-terrorism and security measures are being adopted by nations around the world. This new 'security' paradigm is being used to roll back freedom and increase police powers in order to exercise increasing control over individuals and populations." The report describes 10 signposts that clearly mark the general erosion of human rights. To some extent, all of the signposts have already been realised. To another extent, the report reads like a manual for an awesome uncle of Big Brother.

On 6 and 7 April 2005 a committee of the Council of Europe debated on the merits of a new recommendation on human rights and Internet. On behalf of European Digital Rights Meryem Marzouki from the French digital rights organisation IRIS attended, in fact as the only NGO present. This second meeting of the Multidisciplinary Ad-hoc Committee of Experts on the Information Society (CAHSI) ended with a statement that will be presented to the CoE Committee of ministers, probably to be adopted by the CoE Summit of heads of states in mid May 2005.

The meeting was foremost an intergovernmental meeting, with EDRI in an observer role. Besides government representatives (of which the UK, the Netherlands and Norway were the most active), the secretariat of the group and the Culture and Media divisions of the CoE were present, as well as a

After two weeks of intense debate in Geneva tomorrow the second preparatory conference to the WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) ends. The second and final World Summit will take place in Tunisia in November 2005.

The Human Rights caucus (a loose coalition of currently 59 human rights organisations) devoted its time in the first week to express concerns about the WSIS process and accreditation issues. They also organised a press conference and a panel debate. During the second week intensive discussions took place about the official documents (political chapeau and operational part, financing mechanisms report, internet governance report).

On 14 February all the civil society representatives were briefed by Congo, with the participation of Mr Geiger (Executive Director of WSIS and head of the executive secretariat) and Ambassador Karklins (President of the WSIS 2nd phase process). The HR caucus raised the sensitive issue of accreditation, both of member HRIC (see below) and of Tunisian independent civil society organisations that are not legally recognised. Both Mr Geiger and Mr Karklins seemed very supportive.

The Council of Europe has adopted a recommendation on e-governance on 15 December 2004. The Council recommends that member states "Work together with the appropriate international, national, regional and local stakeholders, to develop a shared vision of e-governance that upholds human rights, democracy and the rule of law." Member states should use e-governance to strengthen democratic institutions at all levels and make them more accessible, transparent, accountable and responsive. E-governance is not one-sided, but should provide opportunities for all to participate in the process of decision-making. Finally member states should use information and communication technologies to "improve public administration and services by making them more accessible, user-centred, transparent,

The Article 29 Working Party of data protection authorities in the EU has developed an interesting and useful model for a standard EU privacy notice, consisting of a short, a condensed and a full legal notice.

Under the European Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC data subjects must be informed of their rights to data protection. The Directive distinguishes between essential and further information. Essential is information about the identity of the controller and of his representative, if any, as well as the purpose of the data processing. 'Further information' includes the recipient of the data, the response obligation and the existence of access and rectification rights, having regard to the specific circumstances in which the data are collected. Going beyond this, there is also a third category of information which is nationally required and goes beyond the Directive’s requirements. This includes information such as the name or address of the data protection commissioner, details of the database and reference to local laws.