The United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a prestigious forum that brings people together from various stakeholder groups to discuss public policy issues relating to the Internet. The 17th annual IGF meeting will take place in a hybrid format, hosting stakeholders present onsite in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and participating online, from 28 November to 2 December 2022. This year's overarching theme is: Resilient Internet for a shared sustainable and common future. The meeting programme is guided by five themes drawn from the Global Digital Compact in the UN Secretary-General's Our Common Agenda report and aligned with the UN's envisioned Global Digital Compact, i.e. Connecting All People and Safeguarding Human Rights; Avoiding Internet Fragmentation; Governing Data and Protecting Privacy; Enabling Safety, Security and Accountability; and Addressing Advanced Technologies, including AI.
Prof. Dr. Georgios Terzis & Dr. Mihalis Kritikos representing the VUB Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) and the Centre for Digitalisation, Democracy and Innovation (CD2I) as well as Olga Gkotsopoulou, researcher at the VUB Law, Science, Technology and Society Research Group and the Health and Ageing Law Lab will speak about their work at the IGF 2022 Networking Session #32 'Internet’s contrasts: rights/obligations, inclusion/exclusion, in/accessibility, dis/connection, ...'. The session is co-organised by a consortium led by the Universiteit Gent – Human Rights Centre.
The networking session will take place on Tuesday, 29 November 2022 (06:00-07:00 UTC) in Room 'Banquet Hall B' and can be also followed online. It will revolve around the following IGF22's theme: Connecting All People and Safeguarding Human Rights. It addresses, both from theoretical and practical viewpoints, the need to respond to a series of societal challenges, recently emerged or escalated, concerning internet (access), which are called here ‘contrasts’: rights/obligations, inclusion/exclusion, in/accessibility, dis/connection, in/equality, in/efficiency, progress/regress, etc. The first part of the session will sketch the problem(s) and offer possible solution(s) in the format of a few short interventions per ’contrast’. The second part will critically analyse them during an informal coffee break devoted to each of the ‘contrasts’. Moderator’s remarks gathered during both parts will close this networking session.
More information on the session, consortium of co-organisers and speakers can be found here. Information about registration and how to participate in-person or online at the session and the IGF Ethiopia 2022 can be found here.
