This coming week marks the first meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, a new UN-sponsored body that emerged from last year's World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. The mandate of the IGF includes a wide range of responsibilities, such as to:

• Discuss public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance in order to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the Internet;


• Facilitate discourse between bodies dealing with different cross-cutting international public policies regarding the Internet and discuss issues that do not fall within the scope of any existing body;


• Advise all stakeholders in proposing ways and means to accelerate the availability and affordability of the Internet in the developing world;


• Promote and assess, on an ongoing basis, the embodiment of WSIS principles in Internet governance processes;


• Help to find solutions to the issues arising from the use and misuse of the Internet, of particular concern to everyday users

With this kind of broad mandate, it should be no surprise that Amnesty International aims to put Internet censorship on the IGF's agenda this week. Amnesty has issued a press release stating that

The Internet has become a crucial battleground for the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and privacy, Amnesty International said today in a statement ahead of next week's U.N.-sponsored Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Athens. An Amnesty International delegation will ensure that human rights remain central to the conference proceedings.

The IGF is being held as China ponders requiring bloggers to use their real names to register blogs.

"A real name system for China's blogs would be another link in the chain of Internet repression," said Erica Razook, Legal Fellow in the Business and Human Rights Program of Amnesty International USA. "The Chinese government, with the collusion of U.S. companies, is already stifling dissent online. This development would make the situation far worse.

"Ongoing Internet censorship in China is one very clear example of the extent to which human rights are being attacked online around the world. The Web should be a tool for expression, not repression."

There is arguably no issue more central to the Internet's future value -- not only in the developing world, but worldwide -- than the issue of censorship. But will Amnesty and others succeed in achieving any concrete outcomes on the issue, particularly when the more general concept of "openness" is only one item on the table (along with security, diversity and access)? Responding via e-mail to my questions about Amnesty's goals for the IGF, Razook sounds determined:

"Amnesty International is going to the Internet Governance Forum to make sure that human rights stay at the top of the conference agenda, where they belong. The IGF has a five-year mandate, this is the first meeting, and there are a lot of things on the menu right now. Especially since governments and corporations will be well-represented at the IGF, there's a danger of human rights getting sidelined. We're going to make sure that doesn't happen.

"As far as what we hope will come out of this -- it's very early in the process. But it's crucial that whatever does get produced, human rights -- especially protection for freedom of expression and the right to privacy online -- is at the forefront."