The Hague, Netherlands – The Global Commission on Internet Governance (GCIG) today called for a new global social compact to protect digital privacy and security.
Toward a Social Compact for Digital Privacy and Security was presented at a press conference in The Hague today by Carl Bildt, chair of the GCIG and former prime minister of Sweden, on behalf of the GCIG. The entire statement can be read at: www.ourinternet.org/social-compact.
“It is now essential that governments, collaborating with all other stakeholders, take steps to build confidence that the right to privacy of all people is respected on the Internet,” the document states. The commission’s social compact is a proposed framework in which all actors worldwide — governments, individuals, private corporations, the technical community and Internet users — have a responsibility to act not only in their own interests, but also in the interest of the Internet ecosystem as a whole.
The GCIG statement on digital privacy and security calls for governments to act in the following areas:
- privacy and personal data protection as a fundamental human right
- the necessity and proportionality of surveillance
- legal transparency and redress for unlawful surveillance
- safeguarding online data and consumer awareness
- big data and trust
- strengthening private communications
- no back doors to private data
- public awareness of good cyber-security practices
- mutual assistance to curtail transborder cyber threats
The Global Commission on Internet Governance is meeting in The Hague April 14 and 15, 2015. The meeting coincides with The Hague Security Delta’s Cyber Security Week and the 2015 Global Cyber Space Conference in The Hague.
In addition to the proposed new global social compact, the GCIG at its meeting in The Hague is also discussing:
- Geopolitically motivated cyber attacks
- Critical infrastructure protection and the role of governments, private actors and individuals
- Building trust through international agreements and security solutions
The GCIG is a two-year initiative launched by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Chatham House. With twenty-nine commissioners and thirty-six research advisers, the GCIG will produce a comprehensive stand on the future of multi-stakeholder Internet governance. To read the GCIG’s communiqué from The Hague and for more information on the GCIG, please visit: www.ourinternet.org. Follow the Commission on Twitter @OurInternetGCIG.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Kevin Dias, Communications Specialist, CIGI
Tel: +1.519.497.9112, Email: [email protected]
Tammy Bender, Communications Manager, CIGI
Tel: +1.519.885.2444, ext. 7356, Email: [email protected]
For media in The Hague, please contact CIGI Vice President of Public Affairs Fred Kuntz at [email protected].
The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) is an independent, non-partisan think tank on international governance. Led by experienced practitioners and distinguished academics, CIGI supports research, forms networks, advances policy debate and generates ideas for multilateral governance improvements. Conducting an active agenda of research, events and publications, CIGI’s interdisciplinary work includes collaboration with policy, business and academic communities around the world. CIGI was founded in 2001 by Jim Balsillie, then co-CEO of Research In Motion (BlackBerry), and collaborates with and gratefully acknowledges support from a number of strategic partners, in particular the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario. For more information, please visit www.cigionline.org.
Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is based in London. Chatham House’s mission is to be a world-leading source of independent analysis, informed debate and influential ideas on how to build a prosperous and secure world for all. The institute: engages governments, the private sector, civil society and its members in open debates and confidential discussions about significant developments in international affairs; produces independent and rigorous analysis of critical global, regional and country-specific challenges and opportunities; and offers new ideas to decision-makers and -shapers on how these could best be tackled from the near- to the long-term. For more information, please visit www.chathamhouse.org.
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