We, the Information Society?

Based upon the results of the research project "Human Rights in the Information Society", this follow-up proposal seeks to deepen the findings of the original project and to apply them in new contexts. While at the forefront the interrelationship between the human rights system and the evolving information society was clarified and evaluated against the backdrop of the on-going World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in two phases 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis, the focus is now laid on the implementation of the identified information society`s human rights agenda at the international as well as the regional European level. The project thereby postulates the hypothesis that the promotion and protection of human rights and multi- stakeholder participation are mutually reinforcing and that by ensuring open and transparent implementation mechanisms, the human rights agenda itself can be enhanced as well. By researching and critically evaluating the further development of the human rights agenda, the implementation mechanisms put in practice for its realization and the role therein assigned to all stakeholders at two levels - the international and the regional European - the project aims at contesting this hypothesis against major developments of the evolving legal order of the information society. The project will touch on three central issues of international law: First and most importantly, it will contribute to the debate on good governance on the one hand and to that on the role of non-state actors in international law on the other, for it connects both issues to the specific context of the information society. Second, by evaluating and comparing the impact of the legal texts currently adopted at the international and regional European level, the question of sources of international law regarding the relevance of soft law will be raised. And third, potential conflicts of norms, for example between different areas of information society regulations, such as market policies and human rights, will be considered in terms of interpretation of conflicting norms and dispute settlement.

Based upon the results of the research project "Human Rights in the Information Society", this follow-up proposal seeks to deepen the findings of the original project and to apply them in new contexts. While at the forefront the interrelationship between the human rights system and the evolving information society was clarified and evaluated against the backdrop of the on-going World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in two phases 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis, the focus is now laid on the implementation of the identified information society`s human rights agenda at the international as well as the regional European level. The project thereby postulates the hypothesis that the promotion and protection of human rights and multi-stakeholder participation are mutually reinforcing and that by ensuring open and transparent implementation mechanisms, the human rights agenda itself can be enhanced as well. By researching and critically evaluating the further development of the human rights agenda, the implementation mechanisms put in practice for its realization and the role therein assigned to all stakeholders at two levels - the international and the regional European - the project aims at contesting this hypothesis against major developments of the evolving legal order of the information society. The project will touch on three central issues of international law: First and most importantly, it will contribute to the debate on good governance on the one hand and to that on the role of non-state actors in international law on the other, for it connects both issues to the specific context of the information society. Second, by evaluating and comparing the impact of the legal texts currently adopted at the international and regional European level, the question of sources of international law regarding the relevance of soft law will be raised. And third, potential conflicts of norms, for example between different areas of information society regulations, such as market policies and human rights, will be considered in terms of interpretation of conflicting norms and dispute settlement.