PARALLEL EVENT

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• PARALLEL EVENT
• From here to e-democracy promoting
  e-participation,
• and
• dealing with harmful content and the risk of
  harm from online and related offline activities
  responsible behaviour by key actors
• Tunis, 17 November 2005

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THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

• Origins and membershipThe Council of Europe is
  the continent's oldest political organisation,
  founded in 1949. Headquarters in Strasbourg.
• 46 member states,
• has granted observer status to 5 more
  countries Canada, Japan, Mexico, the United
  States and the Holy See,
• is distinct from the 25-nation European
  Union, but no country has ever joined the Union
  without first belonging to the Council of Europe.
  

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THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

• Mission
• Promoting and protecting Human rights,
  democracy and the rule of law
• Council of Europe Summit (May 2005), Action
  Plan
• on e-democracy
• We will also take initiatives so that our
  member states make use of the opportunities
  provided by the information society. In this
  connection the Council of Europe will examine how
  ICT can facilitate democratic reform and
  practice.

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THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

• Council of Europe Summit (May 2005), Action Plan
  
• on human rights in the information society
• The Council of Europe shall further elaborate
  principles and guidelines to ensure respect for
  human rights and the rule of law in the
  information society. It will address challenges
  created by the use of information and
  communication technologies (ICT) with a view to
  protecting human rights against violations
  stemming from the abuse of ICT.

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RECOMMENDATIONS / DECLARATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE
OF MINISTERS TO MEMBER STATES

• Recommendation Rec(2004)11 on legal, operational
  and technical standards for e-voting (September
  2004)
• Recommendation Rec(2004)15 on electronic
  governance ( e-governance ) (December 2004)
• AND
  Declaration by the
  Committee of Ministers on Human Rights and the
  rule of law in the information society (May 2005)

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Recommendation Rec(2004)15 on e-governanceMain
lines with regard to e-democracy

• - Implementing e-democracy offers new
  opportunities to citizens to obtain information
  from public authorities, express their views,
  debate issues of public importance and influence
  decision-making.
• - The use of ICT in democratic practice should
  create new opportunities for enhancing the
  transparency and the responsiveness of democratic
  institutions.

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E-democracy / e-participationASSUMPTION

• ICT are not in themselves carriers of democratic
  values or relationships, but used in the right
  way, they can enable and facilitate democratic
  practice

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First session E-democracy New channels for
voting and civic participation (3 5 pm)

• 1510 Keynote speech
• Phil NOBLE, Charleston (SC), USA, Founder and CEO
  of PoliticsOnline
• E-democracy state of the art and future
  development
• 1530 Panel discussion
• Julian BOWREY, Head of UK National Project on
  Local e-democracy
• The UK national local e-democracy project
• Lawrence PRATCHETT, De Montfort University,
  Leicester, UK
• The barriers to e-democracy
• Alexander TRECHSEL, Professor, EUI, Florence,
  Italy
• E-voting and new forms of e-participation in
  Europe and Latin America
• 1640 Conclusions
• 1645 Close of session

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Second Session Harmful Content And The Risk
Of Harm From Online And Related Offline
Activities - Responsible Behaviour by Key Actors
(5 7 pm)

• 1700 Introduction and overview
• Lee HIBBARD, Council of Europe
• 1705 Harmful content and the risk of harm
• Joanne BRYCE, and Rachel OCONNELL, Cyberspace
  Research Unit, University of Central Lancashire,
  UK
• 1730 Harmful content and responsible behaviour
  - Introduction by the moderator,
• Mark KELLY, Director, Human Rights Consultants,
  Ireland
• 1740 The roles and responsibilities of key
  actors in the Information Society
• Divina FRAU-MEIGS, Professor, Université Paris
  3-Sorbonne Sociologue des Médias,
  vice-présidente, AIERI/IAMCR (Ass.Int.des Etudes
  et Recherches en Info-com), PARIS, France
• Heleen JANSSEN, Legal Specialist/Adviser,
  Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations,
  The Netherlands
• 1840 Concluding remarks by the moderator
• 1845 - Close of session