The work of the Council of Europe on internet governance centres on human rights issues, most notably freedom of expression, data protection, accessibility and cybercrime.

With the Convention on Cybercrime, the Council of Europe created the first (and so far only) binding international treaty on the subject. The convention outlines guidelines for governments wishing to develop legislation against cybercrime. It entered into force in July 2004, has been signed by 43 states and ratified by 20 countries.

Other relevant treaties are the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, which entered into force in July 2010, has been signed by 42 states and ratified by 12 countries, the Convention on Cybercrime, which entered into force in July 2004, has been signed by 47 states and ratified by 31 countries, and the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing, which entered into force in October 1985, has been signed by 46 states and ratified by 43 countries.

The judgements of the European Court of Human Rights related to new technologies constitute another main pillar of the Council of Europe’s work on digital governance. The Court maintains a fact sheet (pdf) on all rulings on Articles 8 (Right to respect for private and family life) and 10 (Freedom of expression) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

The Committee of Ministers and Parliamentary Assembly have adopted a number of declarations and recommendations related to internet governance, among them:

• Declarations by the Committee of Ministers
• Declaration, September 2010 on the Digital Agenda for Europe
• Declaration, May 2005 on human rights and the rule of law in the information society
• Declaration, May 2003, pdf on freedom of communication on the internet
• Recommendations by the Committee of Ministers
• Recommendation (2010) 13 on profiling and data protection
• Recommendation (2009) 1 on electronic democracy
• Recommendation (2008) 6 on measures to promote the respect for freedom of expression and information
• Recommendation (2007) 16 on measures to promote the public service value of the internet
• Recommendation (2004) 15 on electronic governance
• Recommendation (2004) 11 on legal, operational and technical standards for e-voting
• Recommendation (2001) 7 on measures to protect copyright and combat piracy
• Recommendations by the Parliamentary Assembly
• Recommendation 1950 (2011) on the protection of journalists’ sources
• Recommendation 1906 (2010) on rethinking creative rights for the internet age
• Recommendation 1860 (2009) on electronic democracy
• Recommendation 1670 (2004) on internet and the law

The Council of Europe is publishing an “Internet Literacy Handbook”, a guide intended to explain how to get the most out of the Internet and, at the same time, how to protect and maintain privacy. It has developed “Human Rights Guidelines for Internet Service Providers (pdf)” and “Human Rights Guidelines for Online Game Providers (pdf)”. The organisation also co-hosts the European dialogue on Internet Governance, “an open platform for informal and inclusive discussion and exchange on public policy issues related to Internet governance between stakeholders from all over Europe.”

Internet Freedom Conference

In May 2009, the Council of Europe organised a conference of ministers responsible for media and new communication services in Reykjavik, for which a background document on internet governance (pdf) was prepared and which led to a declaration by the ministers (pdf).

In April 2011, an Internet Freedom Conference – From Principles to Global Treaty Law? took place in Strasbourg to discuss internet governance principles and to “explore viable options for creating an architecture for multi-stakeholder participation in international Internet-related public policy-making” (Source). A draft document on internet governance principles (pdf) and a draft document on the protection and promotion of the internet’s universality, integrity and openness (pdf) were prepared for debate at the conference.

An information document entitled Internet Governance — Developing the Future Together (pdf) is regularly updated, last in May 2011.

The Council of Europe’s work on internet governance is coordinated by Lee Hibbard and his team on information society and internet governance.

In 2005, a discussion document on intercultural learning was published in follow-up to the Council of Europe’s Directorate of Youth and Sports Long Term Training Course “Intercultural Learning” — LTTC ICL (the paper is available here).

In this document, Dr Gavan Titley argues that, while intercultural learning has become a key work area in European youth training during the last fifteen years, approaches that have been consolidated and widely reproduced during this period are no longer adequate to the realities in which young people live and practice youth work.

At the occasion of the DYS seminar entitled «Intercultural learning – which ways forward?», Gavan was invited to revisit the paper and its main conclusions and bring it in relation to the current educational practice of intercultural learning. Again, we recorded his intervention as a podcast for the world out there.

Download the podcast below to find out why using culture as a concept is dangerous and often inherently racist, why Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay has an intercultural policy and what this means for intercultural learning in non-formal education (and probably elsewhere, too!).

standard version | mp3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link

Enjoy listening, and stay tuned!

In case you need some help with what to do:

A podcast is nothing else than a digital recording of a radio broadcast or a similar programme which is then made available on the internet. While the name is coming from both broadcasting and iPod, a podcast is not restricted to an iPod or any other media player, in fact. You can listen to it easily, using one of many different ways.

If you wanna know more about podcasting, head over to Wikipedia.

The only thing that you need is a computer which can play mp3-files. Millions of programmes do that for you – Windows Media Player (or Jetaudio if you are on the outlook for a better and free alternative) on PC computers or Quicktime on MAC machines or iTunes on both.

Normally your computer knows very well what to do anyway, so just go ahead and download the mp3 file — your machine will take it from there, most likely. If not, ask a geeky character in your vicinity.

Just be aware that audio podcasts are usually not the smallest files (also true for ours: 21 Megabytes), so download might take a moment or two. The good news: It happens in the background, so you can continue to work away!

For you iTunes users out there, we have also included the iTunes link. For you nerdy friends of ours, we also have a more modern version of the soundfile available. And for all friends of RSS and feed readers, we also have a link especially for our podcasts.

“The future of democracy in Europe – trends, analyses and reforms” is the title of a Green Paper published by the Council of Europe about 24 months ago.

It is one the key outputs of the Council’s integrated project on “Making democratic institutions work”, the second one being a closely related publication entitled “Developing democracy in Europe – an analytical summary of the Council of Europe’s acquis”.

Based on the analysis presented in the latter book, the Green Paper puts forward twenty-eight democratic reform proposals which were critically explored and reviewed at “The Future of Democracy in Europe Conference” in Barcelona 20 months ago. On the basis of the discussions at the conference, suggestions were made on how to proceed from there.

The conference brought together policy makers and civil servants, researchers and academics and civil society representatives. Its main outcomes have been published in a third book “Reflections on the future of democracy in Europe”. One outcome of the conference is the current “Forum on the future of democracy” of the Council of Europe which was established in 2005.

Professor Philippe Schmitter of the European University Institute in Florence used this quote of Karl Popper as an entry point to his keynote presentation in Barcelona.

(Schmitter, Philippe (2004): Democratic Reforms – Que Faire? Où faire? In: Reflections on the future of democracy in Europe. Strasbourg, Council of Europe Publishing. P. 37 ff)

By means of his intervention, Schmitter introduced the backdrop of the integrated project, the shared assumptions of the expert group and the recommendations developed by the experts for the project. If this sounds a little technocratic, don’t be mislead because it is thoughtful and inspiring! While I couldn’t be in Barcelona, I wish I could have after reading through the keynote presentation…

But not only the speech, also the topic is very exciting and thought-provoking. After all, there is general agreement that our polities and democracies need to evolve on the one hand – and a similarly mutual conformity that such reforms are to happen democratically. Or in the words of Professor Schmitter:

“Ironically, [the] much more favourable regional context [of Europe] presents dilemmas of its own for democracy. Many (if not most) of the major historical advances in democratic institutions and practices came in conjunction with international warfare, national revolution and civil war. Fortunately, none of these Archimedean devices for leveraging large-scale change seems to be available in today’s pacified Europe.”

But how can political and democratic institutions and practices be fundamentally reformed by democratic means? How can progress and development be ensured and norms and practices changed and improved by using these very same rules and norms to do so? How can the current rulers be convinced to change the ruley they have benefited from so far?

Historically these questions remain largely unanswered, and the challenges and opportunities hiding behind these questions are exceptionally diverse and strong. As Professor Schmitter puts it:

“Certainly, we are condemned to live in “interesting times” in which both the rate, and the scale and scope of change seem to be unprecedented and, most important, beyond the reach of traditional units that have heretofore dominated its political landscape.”

In these interesting times, the Council of Europe brought together a group of experts from policy, research and practice to produce a Green Paper on reforming democracy. In more detail, the tasks of the expert group were to:

• identify the challenges and opportunities posed to contemporary European democracy by rapid and irrevocable changes in its national, regional and global contexts;
• specify the processes and actors in both the formal institutions and informal practices that are being affected by these external challenges and opportunities, as well as by internal trends that are intrinsic to democracy itself;
• propose potential and desirable reforms that would improve the quality of democratic institutions in Europe.

During its work, the expert group used a generic working definition of democracy which should not prefer or exclude any of the three main contemporary models of democracy but rather focus and guide the work of the diverse group.

“Modern political democracy is a regime or system of governance in which rulers are held accountable for their actions in the public realm by citizens, acting indirectly through the competition and co-operation of their representatives.”

On the basis of this broad and common understanding, the group developed a set of twenty-eight reform proposals which are not meant to be seen as single and disconnected measures but rather as an interwoven package of reforms. Of course not all reforms make sense in all situations, and therefore the constellation of each reform package is highly context-sensitive: “It is the mix that matters.”

Independent of the specific packaging in a given situation, reforms could and should happen simultaneously and/or sequentially, thus influencing each other in ways which are, experience seems to tell, difficult to calculate and fully predict.

The reform proposals range from lotteries for electors to participatory budgeting by citizens and vouchers for funding civil society organisations. In the order presented in the Green Paper, the expert group’s “wish list” is this (follow the link to read more about each proposal):

01. Universal citizenship
02. Discretionary voting
03. Lotteries for electors
04. Shared mandates
05. Specialised elected councils
06. Democracy kiosks
07. Citizenship mentors
08. Council of Denizens
09. Voting rights for denizens
10. Civic service
11. Education for political participation
12. Guardians to watch the guardians
13. Special guardians for media guardians
14. Freedom of information
15. A “yellow card” provision for legislatures
16. Incompatibility of mandates
17. Framework legislation
18. Participatory budget by citizens
19. A Citizen’s Assembly
20. Variable thresholds for elections
21. Intra-party democracy
22. Vouchers for funding organisations in civil society
23. Vouchers for financing political parties
24. Referendums and initiatives
25. Electronic support for candidates and parliaments (“smart voting”)
26. Electronic monitoring and online deliberation systems
27. Postal and electronic voting
28. An agent for the promotion of democratic reform

Some of these ideas I agree with enthusiastically, others I am more hesitant about. Such differing degrees of enthusiasm were also present in the expert group, but while I am tempted to argue some of the recommendations I won’t. In doing so I would replace the collective and interdisciplinary work of the authors of the Green Book with my individual opinion. In the framework of this article, which aims at introducing the Green Book and the suggestions it contains, I feel such a personalised attempt would be erroneous and egocentric.

Having said this, let me conclude by adding one reform proposal to the list of twenty-eight:

0. Democratic education

This proposal would reform educational institutions (kindergarten, schools, universities etc) to be democratic and participatory in nature. It has been the collective assessment of the expert group developing the Green Book that

“the major generic problem of contemporary European democracy concerns declining citizen trust in political institutions and participation in democratic processes”.

Educational institutions are part of society and part of democratic polities. Political education about democracy will never achieve trust and confidence if it happens in a non-democratic environment. Citizens will not believe in the efficacy of controlling rulers if they have never experienced such control having positive effects or any effects at all.

In other words: As long as we request from our children to recite and remember the principles of our democratic system in an environment which is deeply undemocratic, we should not be astonished that young people do not believe in the power and added value of democracy. As long as we have to learn in institutions in which power-relations are lopsided and constantly abused and in which voluntary engagement results in pressure and downgrading, young people will continue to disengage from what we call democracy and they experience as hegemonial control.

This is, for me, the largest challenge of the world we are condemned to live in: Without an empowering system of education which provides a framework to live and experience democracy, our polities will continue to tumble and topple, and they will never be truly democratic either.

The three books online:

Developing democracy in Europe – An analytical summary of the Council of Europe’s acquis
The future of democracy – Trends, analyses and reforms
Reflections on the future of democracy in Europe

The three books as pdfs:

Developing democracy in Europe – An analytical summary of the Council of Europe’s acquis
The future of democracy – Trends, analyses and reforms
Reflections on the future of democracy in Europe

The three books in the COE bookstore:

Developing democracy in Europe – An analytical summary of the Council of Europe’s acquis
The future of democracy – Trends, analyses and reforms
Reflections on the future of democracy in Europe

Note:

Obviously, you will also find all the documents at the website of the Council of Europe, where they are freely available for download in pdf-format as well as purchasable from the Council’s bookstore. It is against our ethical standards as bloggers to steal bandwidth from other people without them knowing it, which is why we offer you the download directly from our site.

Independent of that, ownership of and credit for the pulications belong solely to the Council of Europe — which has a long tradition in sharing its knowledge.