The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance was officially launched during the 4th Internet Governance Forum held from the 15th to the 18 November 2009 in Maritim Jolie Conference Center in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
PART I: GENERAL PROVISIONS
CHAPTER I: ESTABLISHMENT, NAME, DURATION
Article 1: Establishment and Structure
The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance (YCIG) was established between youth activists and youth organizations from civil society, government and private sector, which share interests on youth issues and internet governance.
The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance shall have an Steering Committee formed by three elected members for the following roles: Chair and Vice-Chair. Only individual members under 30 years old and limited number of representatives of youth organizations can be elected. Elected members will have a one-year term mandate with limitation of two terms.
The Steering Committee will be responsible for coordinating the activities and representing the group. In order to promote accountability and transparence, all documents, minutes from Steering Committe meetings and decisions will be published at the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance website.
Article 2: Duration and location
The Dynamic Youth Coalition is established for an unlimited period. The communication between members will be established, whenever possible, in face-to-face meetings or, more frequently, through online channels, such as mailing list, emails and so on. Those channels will be selected through a rough consensus between coalition members.
PART II: VISION, PURPOSE VALUES, PRINCIPLES, OBJECTIVES:
CHAPTER II: Vision, principles and values
Article 3: Vision
These are just some of the issues we want to discuss. We want to take an active part and cooperate with other dynamic coalitions and support the IGF Secretariat to get more young people involved in the process on Internet Governance. We also want to share ideas and knowledge from our special regional perspectives. We want to build a strong youth coalition on Internet Governance and attract new youth organizations, institutions and interested young people to contribute to the IGF too.
- Defending and promoting the interests of young people in the debate on internet governance
- Being open to all youth-friendly interested parties
- Being horizontal in its discussions and in its decision-making process. All members will be able to express their opinions and all opinions will be equally taken into account.
- Being transparent and accountable discussions and actions implemented.
- Respecting the fundamental rights of all childrens and young people to have their voices heard in decisions that affect them
- Challenging systematic discrimination that intentionally, or intentionally excludes young people from meaningful dialogue and decision making about Internet governance.
- Seeking to promote the inclusion of all young people regardless or age, ability, race or gender
CHAPTER III: OBJECTIVES
Article 5: Global objective
The Dynamic Youth Coalition aims to achieve effective and meaningful involvement of youth, youth empowerment and better coordination between youth initiatives in all internet governance discussions.
The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance want to ensure that diverse voices, and shared concerns, of young people on emerging and ongoing issues of Internet governance are addressed. The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance enhances youth participation and engagement in the internet governance debates in a systematic and sustainable way. The coalition is planning at compiling youth opinions and views before every IGF and will try to reach consensus on the main lobby messages regarding youth participation and empowerment in internet governance issues. It also aims at securing a stable and continuous forum for the exchange of views prior and post IGF events. The coalition will ensure that youth views are expressed and conveyed as appropriate in plenaries and workshops. Moreover, the coalition aims at maximizing young people?s knowledge and their mobilization in preparation for IGFs through physical or remote participation.
Article 6: Specific Objectives
- Structuring its network and the capacity of its members;
- Establish a reliable communication;
- Establish effective mechanisms for information flow;
- Mobilizing all stakeholders and public opinion on issues concerning youth interests
- Defend youth interests with input from coalition members
- Strengthening capacity building of young people pre and post IGFs
- To encourage young people to take part in the Internet Governance processes
- Coordinating youth initiatives at IGFs, e.g. organizing workshops, ensuring visibility of young people, etc.
- To advocate for better youth representation in all IGF panels and representing youth issues.
- To encourage IGF to adopt a range of more inclusive forms of dialogue and meeting formats that enable the full participation of youth in discussions
- To offer support, advice and guidance to other dynamic coalitions and acts in the IGF family who wish to better engage with young people, or to understand the role of young people as those affected by, and those able to impact upon, their areas of focus.
- Elaboration of documents, studies, researches, reports etc all related to analyse and background youth participation
CHAPTER IV: ACTION
Article 7: Action
Activities of the Dynamic Youth Coalition will include, but not be limited to advocacy for youth participation and youth leadership at IGFs, representing youth perspectives in IGF workshops and panels, participating actively in discussions and debates on youth issues and providing recommendations to stakeholders in the field of internet governance and the organizers of the IGF regarding the involvement of young people.
PART III: STATUS, RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF MEMBERS
CHAPTER V: Membership and Eligibility
Article 8: Membership
The coalition membership is open to all individuals and organizations from all stakeholders which share interest on youth issues, youth participation and youth leadership in the context of Internet Governance.
Article 9: Eligibility
The network has two categories of membership: Individual members and organizations.
Individual members may be within age bracket defining youth (TBD) or associate when they fall outside the core age bracket and are willing to their support to work of the coalition.
Organizations members should having interests on youth issues.
PART IV: CHARTER MODIFICATIONS
Article 10: Modification process
The Charter modifications can be suggested by any interested member to the Steering Committee. The SC members will deliberate for accepting the suggestion according the relevance for the Charter. If accepted, the SC Chair shall start a discussion period among all members for deliberations. The member’s approval must be through consensus.
Individual members:
1. Abdallah Diwan, Egypt
8. Malte Spitz, Germany
9. Wieke Vink, Holland
10. Raquel Gatto, Brazil
11. Andres Piazza
12. Wojciech Gryc
Organizations supporting the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance
Childnet International UK
Diplo Foundation
Electronic Frontrier Finland
Elon University
Imagining the Internet
Reach Out to Asia (Qatar Foundation)
Egyptian Ministy of Communications & Information Technology
Egypt ICT Trust Fund
Practical Participation
Netmission
Website
Mailing list
