Dear all, This is a recommendation of the Council of Ministers for Europe but it is very interesting in light of the discussions in the EAIGF today especially on cybersecurity/ cybercrime. See forwarded (inline) message below although the local/East African/African context could provide a good framework for co-operation. But one one has to wonder how this impacts human rights eg if one state requests another to take down content or block content.... ...................... forwarded message In the context of the overall discussions on rights and principles for the Internet, I wanted to call attention to thIs recommendation of the Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe<https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1835707&Site=CM&BackColorInternet=C3C3C3&BackColorIntranet=EDB021&BackColorLogged=F5D383>. It established an important notion regarding the responsibility of States to avoid national decisions or actions that would have a transborder impact on access to and use of the Internet. The relevant paragraphs are as follows (emphasis added): *1.1. No harm* *1.1.1. States have the responsibility to ensure, in compliance with the standards recognised in international human rights law and with the principles of international law, that their actions do not have an adverse transboundary impact on access to and use of the Internet.* *1.1.2. This should include, in particular, the responsibility to ensure that their actions within their jurisdictions do not illegitimately interfere with access to content outside their territorial boundaries or negatively impact the transboundary flow of Internet traffic.* *1.2. Co-operation* *States should co-operate in good faith with each other and with relevant stakeholders at all stages of development and implementation of Internet-related public policies to avoid any adverse transboundary impact on access to and use of the Internet.* As you know, governments actions that can be interpreted as implementing an implicit higher norm represent - if repeated - a foundation for recognizing this norm as an emerging international principle. In that regard, the fact that Egypt's shutting down access to the Internet on its territory during the Arab Spring left all the transit traffic untouched points to an emerging principle of "no tampering with transit traffic" that may prove very important in the future in particular for landlocked countries. This was the trigger for the introduction of the above paragraphs in the CoE recommendation and I thought it was useful to call attention to this dimension. As a side note, it is interesting to look at this principle in the context of the rojadirecta and bodog cases. Looking forward to more discussions on this topic in Baku. Hope it helps. -- Grace L.N. Mutung'u (Bomu) Kenya Skype: gracebomu Twitter: GraceMutung'u (Bomu)