1. The Parliamentary
Assembly recalls the importance of the Convention on Cybercrime and the
Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic
Processing of Personal Data for creating trust through the rule of law.
2. The Assembly
welcomes the political message adopted by the Committee of Ministers on the
occasion of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) (Geneva,
December 2003) and especially the proposal by the Committee of Ministers to
examine the possibility of offering a platform to draft an international code
on, inter alia, the rights and duties of Internet users. It welcomes the
efforts of the Dutch presidency of the Committee of Ministers towards the
drafting of such an instrument, in co-operation with public stakeholders and
private interests.
3. The structure of
the Internet makes it all but impossible to regulate, but at the same time the
Assembly acknowledges that there is a general recognition that Internet
citizens are to be encouraged to behave in a civic manner.
4. Various states
and private interest groups are actively encouraging the adoption of codes of
Internet ethics.
5. The Assembly is
nevertheless of the opinion that it has to be decided what is meant by
“ethical” behaviour on the Internet, and the principles to be applied –
collectively – to all (access or service) providers, and – individually – to
Internet users, have to be established.
6. The Assembly suggests that the setting up of a
European Internet ethics authority, backed by national cyberethics committees
in all the states which have Internet technology, is the key to making
businesses and private users responsible for using the Internet lawfully as
well as ethically.
7. For these
reasons, the Parliamentary Assembly recommends that the Committee of
Ministers:
i. establish a
legal instrument, preferably in the form of an enlarged convention on,
inter alia, the basic rights and duties of
Internet users;
ii. establish, in
the framework of the convention, an international body, based in Europe, and
representing various cultural approaches;
iii. give to the
above-mentioned body the responsibility for drawing up and monitoring the
rules and principles and ensuring that national
cyberethics committees backing it respect them;
iv. calls on the
governments of member states to give to the above-mentioned national
committees the power of supervision at national level.
