Draft Principles Proposed by The Experts Meeting on Cyberspace Law
29-30 September 1998
Principality of Monaco

The Experts Meeting on Cyberspace Law

1.	Recognizing the interest of UNESCO in the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms in cyberspace particularly in the fields of education, science and culture;

2.	Recognizing the mandate and the ethical and intellectual mission of UNESCO, its universal vocation and transdisciplinary character of its fields of competence;

3.	Recognizing the current international discussions concerning cyberspace activities and digital works tend to emphasize economic matters rather than social and cultural interests;

4.	Recognizing that the global nature of the internet raises issues of common concern for governments and peoples around the world;

5.	Recognizing the need to work in cooperation with other international organizations concerned with matters of cyberspace law and the need for international efforts on harmonization and to resolve jurisdictional issues;

6.	Recognizing the open and decentralized character of “cyberspace” as well as its interactive and dynamic nature, system of electronic linkages, and the irrelevance of geographic and physical boundaries;

7.	Recognizing that cyberspace offers benefits and opportunities as well as undesirable consequences that raise complex issues for humanity.

Proposes to the Director-General that UNESCO promotes the following principles:

Communication Principles

•	The right of communication is a fundamental human right

Participation Principle

•	Every citizen should have the right to meaningful participation in the information society.

The above key principles embody the concept of every person’s right to access the new environment of cyberspace, in particular:

Universal Service Principle

•	States should promote universal services where, to the extent possible given the different national and regional circumstances and resources, the new media shall be accessible at community level by all individuals, on a non-discriminatory basis regardless of geographic location.

Multiculturalism and Multilingualism Principle

•	States and users should promote cultural and linguistic diversity in cyberspace by the promotion of regional and local participation in Internet activities, information collections, and new information services.

Ethics Principle
 
•	States and users should promote efforts, at the local and international levels, to develop ethical guidelines for participation in the new cyberspace environment.

Education Principle

•	All persons should have a right to appropriate education in order to read, write and work in cyberspace. There should be specific initiatives to educate parents, children, teachers and other Internet users on the implications of their participation in cyberspace and on how to maximize the opportunities presented by the new media.

Free Expression Principle

•	States should promote the right to free expression and the right to receive information regardless of frontiers.

Privacy and Encryption Principles

•	The fundamental right of individual to privacy, including secrecy of communication and protection of personal data, should be respected in national law and in the implementation and use of self regulatory private legal remedies and technical methods.

Access to Information Principle

•	Public bodies should have an affirmative responsibility to make public information widely available on the Internet and to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the information. This information could include government information, information concerning cultural heritage, and archival and historical information.

•	The traditional balance between the rights of authors and limitations on these rights, including the free use of ideas in published works, should be maintained in cyberspace in the interests of the public and of the authors.

•	States should preserve and expand the public domain in cyberspace.

Training Principle

•	Job training in electronic media should be encourage to enable people to communicate in the new media and to create new opportunities in employment.

International Cooperation Principle

•	States shall cooperate at an international level and seek to harmonize national law to resolve jurisdictional or conflict of law differences.