Re: [hrpc] Summary ID on Human Rights presentation & next steps

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Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback and the enthusiasm! While we're trying to
secure a session at the IETF in Dallas it might be useful to have a
joint look at one RFC and see how we can establish it's impact on
human rights.

I have setup this sheet: https://www.ethercalc.org/tdeh4wx2zo, but
this is hardly enough of a template/lens/methodology to analyze the
RFCs. So perhaps we could all have a look at RFC7230 [0] and see how we
can define its impact on human rights. Once we have done that, we
might be able to distill from this a loose methodology that we can
then test on other RFCs.

I specifically chose an RFC that doesn't (more or less) explicitly
reference rights (such as RFC1958 and RFC4924), because in my humble
opinion we should try to establish the link between actual protocols
and standards and their impact on rights.

If we could share our reflections here that could form a useful start
for a discussion. What do you think?

A call will be hard to plan for me in the coming week because of travel.

Looking forward to read your contemplations.

Best,

Niels

[0] https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7230

Niels ten Oever
Head of Digital

Article 19
www.article19.org

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On 01/20/2015 07:56 PM, Joana Varon wrote:
> Dear Mallory, Corinne et all
> 
> Very thankful for the feedback and indeed every help is very
> welcome. I'll quickly convene with Niels and Avri to double check
> if we can extract a list of small activities to perform the first
> steps mentioned bellow:
> 
> "a) improving the list of RFCs that possibly have attributes to
> the right to freedom of expression and association;
> 
> b) conduct interviews at the Dallas meeting to further understand
> the intention that Area Directors and RFC authors have with
> specific protocols and how rights play a role in that;
> 
> c) set a common template to analyze standards and protocols
> describing the exact features, functions, characteristics or
> entities that allow a more defined understanding on the relation
> between them and the right to freedom of expression and
> association."
> 
> and I would say that it would be great if we could set a little
> task force to cover then according to your availabilities. If we
> manage to do so, we can hav work flowing until Dallas, while we
> also keep reporting our progresses and asking for comments in this
> list as it evolves. Are you up for a call to coordinate?
> 
> best
> 
> joana
> 
> -- -- Joana Varon @joana_varon https://antivigilancia.wiki.br 
> Fingerprint 239D E977 32D0 28BC 297F 64B6 3B69 BDE4 016B 8E73
> 
> 
> On 20-01-2015 15:21, Mallory Knodel wrote:
>> Hi joana
>> 
>> Congrats on sparking an interesting debate at the IETF in Hawaii.
>> I found all comments in the transcript useful, even those that 
>> questioned the foundation of the research. In particular, I
>> thought the suggestion to analyze RFCs carefully for assumptions
>> of rights is a better approach than searching for overt mentions
>> of rights. Interviews in Dallas could certainly give more weight
>> to the findings if we take this approach.
>> 
>> Questioning the apolitics of protocols is really a fundamental
>> goal of this work. I think while difficult, it would also be
>> extremely productive to continue to engage with folks in the
>> community who feel technology should strive to be apolitical,
>> thereby developing a very strong counterposition.
>> 
>> Very happy to lend a hand with this work, -Mallory
>> 
>> On 01/20/2015 10:34 AM, Joana Varon wrote:
>>> Dear all,
>>> 
>>> Happy 2015! We hope it will bring us the opportunity for
>>> enlightening and rich debates on human rights and protocols
>>> over here.
>>> 
>>> For the purpose of doing so, this is an attempt to summarize
>>> and and structure our work. So, please, find underneath (a) the
>>> summary of the session at IETF91 where we presented the
>>> Internet Draft on Human Rights considerations for Internet
>>> protocols and (b) a brainstorming of some research priorities
>>> for the coming time.
>>> 
>>> At the bottom you can also find the links for the records of
>>> the session and related documents. The full transcription of
>>> the Q&A are also here attached.
>>> 
>>> All comments, questions and suggestions for research methods
>>> and angles are very welcome. We are also looking for more help
>>> of researchers who are interested in helping us with
>>> researching specific RFCs to help us refine the methodology.
>>> Please, feel free to ping us on or offlist.
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> 
>>> Joana and Niels
>>> 
>>> * **a) Summary of the Session*
>>> 
>>> An active debate about standards, protocols and human rights
>>> took place during the meeting of the Security Area Advisory
>>> Group – SAAG at IETF 91, Hawaii. The discussion was framed by
>>> the Internet Draft “Proposal for research on human rights
>>> protocol considerations”. [1]
>>> 
>>> The Draft departs from the work that has been done by IETF on
>>> privacy and Internet protocols, such as RFC 6973 on Privacy
>>> Consideration guidelines [2], suggesting that some standards
>>> and protocols can solidify, enable or threaten human rights,
>>> such as freedom of expression and the right to association
>>> online. The proposal aims to establish a research group under
>>> the IRTF to study the structural relationship and impact
>>> between Internet standards and protocols and freedom of
>>> expression and association.
>>> 
>>> A deeper rationale for presenting such proposal was explained
>>> during the presentation at SAAG. The presenters, who are also
>>> the authors of this note highlighted that the Internet was
>>> designed with freedom and openness of communications as core
>>> values, but were also questioning whether this a structural
>>> value that can or needs to be preserved on a technical level.
>>> As the politicization of the Internet management space
>>> increases, it is argued that IETF should have an active role
>>> to promote a more structured and holistic approach. This would
>>> allow sustained future proofing of standards and protocols to
>>> avoid ad hoc decisions following incidents or disclosures at a
>>> variety of other foras and actors.
>>> 
>>> The proposal raised some eyebrows and concerns about the 
>>> politicization of the work of the community. Dan Harkins posed
>>> that: “doing the human rights study will likely politicize
>>> protocols. Not want the technology to have political context. I
>>> want technology to be so unpolitical as possible.” This sparked
>>> a discussion with a rapid follow up by Justin, who stated that
>>> “we have to stop pretending that technology is a non-political
>>> decision”, a remark that was followed by a round of applause.
>>> One of the presenters responded that the research proposal was
>>> exactly aimed at avoiding further politicization of protocols
>>> or the community, but rather give the community time in a
>>> proper process to define its position.
>>> 
>>> Both John Levine and Alissa Cooper remarked that it is crucial
>>> to start of with a focus on specific human rights, because it
>>> will help keep the research manageable and help start the
>>> thinking about the balancing of different rights. The
>>> presenters reaffirmed that the primary focus will indeed be on
>>> the rights to freedom of expression and right to association.
>>> Alissa Cooper mentioned the IAB ID  on filtering considerations
>>> [3] and the RFC  Policy Considerations for Internet Protocols
>>> [4] as relevant sources for research.
>>> 
>>> Several RFCs already make quite explicit statement about the 
>>> objectives of the Internet, such as RFC1958 which  mentions
>>> 'the community believes that the goal [of the Internet] is
>>> connectivity, the tool is the Internet Protocol'.  It continues
>>> a bit further: 'The current exponential growth of the network
>>> seems to show that connectivity is its own reward, and is more
>>> valuable than any individual application such as  mail or the
>>> World-Wide Web.'  This marks the intrinsic value of
>>> connectivity which is facilitated by the Internet, both in
>>> principle, and in practice.  This shows that the underlying
>>> principles of the Internet aim to preserve connectivity, which
>>> is fundamental and similar to the part of article 19 of the 
>>> Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which defines a right
>>> to receive and to impart information.
>>> 
>>> But there are also protocols that enable freedom of expression
>>> and access to information in an unprecedented way, such as
>>> HTTP. Even though there is not an explicit reference to rights
>>> in RFC7230, it does form the basis for a rights enabling
>>> architecture. The challenge of the research would be to seek
>>> out the specific protocol attribute(s) that enable that
>>> protocol to affect a specific human right.
>>> 
>>> The major challenge as next step would be to developed to
>>> develop an appropriate methodology to research the existing
>>> implicit safeguards in current standards and protocols, and
>>> making them explicit. Open discussions already gave some
>>> insights for possible methodological approaches. Richard Barnes
>>> suggests: “seems that you are reading RFCs and that you are
>>> looking for statement on rights and human rights that are laid
>>> out in RFCs. You might risk irritating people at least by
>>> reading reading technical documents as political statements. I 
>>> think it might be more useful to use RFCs as a window into the
>>> rights that the community that developed these RFCs presumes.”
>>> Mark Nottingham also proposed a perspective of stakeholder
>>> prioritization as described in ID Representing Stakeholder
>>> Rights in Internet Protocols [5]  which is as already
>>> implemented at the W3C.
>>> 
>>> Other very useful remarks were made during and after the
>>> session, as well on the mailinglist [6] which are currently
>>> being used to improve the next version of the draft, possibly,
>>> to be further discussed at a Birds of Feather session in
>>> Dallas. * **b) Research priorities and next steps*
>>> 
>>> The proceedings of this session lead the presenters and authors
>>> of the ID to conclude that the subject and the research raised
>>> interest in the community. Their aim is to continue the
>>> research work an produce an updated ID before the Dallas
>>> meeting.
>>> 
>>> The research in the coming time will focus on documenting the 
>>> specific protocol attributes that explicitly or implicitly
>>> affect specific human rights. For achieving that, a research
>>> methodology will be further developed; suggestions for the
>>> first steps consist of:
>>> 
>>> a) improving the list of RFCs that possibly have attributes to
>>> the right to freedom of expression and association;
>>> 
>>> b) conduct interviews at the Dallas meeting to further
>>> understand the intention that Area Directors and RFC authors
>>> have with specific protocols and how rights play a role in
>>> that;
>>> 
>>> c) set a common template to analyze standards and protocols 
>>> describing the exact features, functions, characteristics or
>>> entities that allow a more defined understanding on the
>>> relation between them and the right to freedom of expression
>>> and association.
>>> 
>>> Nevertheless, these are just our suggestions to keep developing
>>> the ID and the work ahead of it. Comments, suggestions, hints
>>> are more then welcome and very much appreciated.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> *References* [1] Proposal for research on human rights protocol
>>> considerations, 
>>> http://www.ietf.org/id/draft-doria-hrpc-proposal-00.txt
>>> 
>>> [2]  RFC 6973 on Privacy Considerations for Internet Protocols 
>>> https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6973.txt
>>> 
>>> [3] Technical Considerations for Internet Service Blocking and
>>> Filtering 
>>> http://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-iab-filtering-considerations-06.txts
>>>
>>>
>>> 
[4]  Policy Considerations for Internet Protocols
>>> https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-morris-policy-cons-00
>>> 
>>> [5] Representing Stakeholder Rights in Internet Protocols, 
>>> https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-nottingham-stakeholder-rights-00.txt
>>>
>>>
>>> 
[6]  https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/hrpc
>>> 
>>> * Other relevant links and information* IETF91 SAAG Agenda: 
>>> http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/91/agenda/agenda-91-saag IETF
>>> 91 SAAG minutes: 
>>> http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/91/minutes/minutes-91-saag IETF
>>> 91 SAAG audio recording: 
>>> http://www.ietf.org/audio/ietf91/ietf91-coral3-20141113-1300-pm1.mp3
>>>
>>> 
Presentation starts at 40:15
>>> Presentation: 
>>> http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/91/slides/slides-91-saag-6.pdf 
>>> -- -- Joana Varon @joana_varon https://antivigilancia.org 
>>> Fingerprint 239D E977 32D0 28BC 297F 64B6 3B69 BDE4 016B 8E73
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________ hrpc mailing
>>> list hrpc@article19.io 
>>> https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/hrpc
>> 
>> -- Mallory Knodel Association for Progressive Communications ::
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>> 
>> _______________________________________________ hrpc mailing
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> 
> 
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