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Key documents

 

E-voting

. Recommendation Rec (2004)11 on legal,

  operational and technical standards for

  e-voting

. E-voting handbook - implementation of

  e-enabled elections

. Guidelines on certification of e-voting

  systems

. Guidelines on transparency of e-enabled

  elections

. Reports of biennial Reviews 2008 and

  2010

. Council of Europe studies on e-voting

. National developments on e-voting

 

E-democracy

. Recommendation (2009)1 on

  e-democracy and Explanatory

  memorandum

  (PdF version   -  Word version)

. Practical tools to Rec(2009)1

. Glossary of technical terms in the field

  of electronic democracy

 

Internet governance

. Recommendation (2004)15 and

  explanatory memorandum

 

UN WSIS/ IGF

Texts submitted by the Council of Europe

for:

. IGF 2010

. IGF 2009

. IGF 2008

. WSIS 2005

. WSIS 2003

 

Internet literacy

Internet literacy handbook

 

 

 

Publications

 

 

 

Useful external links

 

. E-voting

. E-democracy

. Internet governance

. Internet literacy

. Media & elections

 

 

Introduction to Projects

 

The Good Governance in the Information Society Project (2004 – 2010) has been focusing on how new information and communication technologies (ICT) affect the practice of democracy in Council of Europe member states. Its main aim has been to provide governments and other stakeholders with legal instruments and practical tools in this field and to promote the application of existing instruments and of good and innovatory policy practice.

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Standards in the field of e-voting

 

The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers' Recommendation CM/Rec(2004)11 to member states on legal, operational and technical standards for e-voting has become the main international reference for ensuring democratic election standards when e-voting is used.

 

The Council of Europe held the third edition (Strasbourg, 16-17 November 2010) in a series of biennial review meetings to exchange experiences about remote and non-remote e-voting in its member states. Its deliberations were based on Recommendation Rec(2004)11 and of the conclusions of the 2008 review meeting (Madrid, November 2008). The meeting also discussed guidelines on certification of e-voting systems and on transparency of e-enabled elections were presented and discussed at this meeting.

 

In addition, the “E-voting Handbook", key steps in the implementation of e-enabled elections”, was presented. This handbook should assist governments and organisations in their considerations whether or not to conduct e-voting pilot schemes or to make e-voting a feature of their electoral system.

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Standards in the field of e-democracy

 

The Recommendation on e-democracy (CM/Rec(2009)1), prepared by the Council of Europe’s Ad Hoc Committee on e-democracy (CAHDE) and adopted by the Committee of Ministers in February 2009, offers all European governments and other interested stakeholders substantial guidelines and principles when dealing with e-democracy. Alongside an explanatory memorandum, the Recommendation is accompanied by a number of practical tools providing information on using ICT for democratic processes.

In order to raise awareness about the potential of e-democracy, the Council of Europe has developed a portable exhibition on electronic democracy which has been shown since September 2009 at several events at the Council of Europe and elsewhere.

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Regulatory action in the field of internet Governance

IGF/WSIS

 

In the framework of the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF), in 2007 the Council of Europe, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) launched a joint initiative on “Public Participation in Internet Governance”. The objective of this initiative is to propose a code of good practice on information participation and transparency in internet governance that may be considered by major internet governance entities. During the past year, the draft code has been explored with various internet governance (IG) entities such as ICANN, regional and national IG fora, and ISOC. A workshop at the fifth IGF in Vilnius/Lithuania (14-17 September 2010) provided an opportunity to discuss the practical aspects of applying a draft code of good practice and to hear from members of the wider internet community on their experiences and suggestions. These discussions had been initiated at WSIS 2005 in Tunis. The Council of Europe had already been involved in WSIS since the preparatory phase to WSIS 2003 in Geneva.

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Looking ahead...

 

. Biennial ‘Evote conferences’- Bregenz,

  Austria

. e-voting.cc/Technical University of

 Vienna collaborative online platform

 

 

Project past events

 

 

E-voting

. Biennial reviews on Council of Europe

  Recommendation on legal, operational and

  technical standards for e-voting (2006 -

  2008 - 2010 - 2012)

 

. Workshops on the transparency of

  e-enabled elections

 

. Workshops on the certification of

  e-enabled elections

 

. International conferences on e-voting

  (Bregenz, Austria) July 2004, August

  2006, August 2008, July 2010, July 2012)

 

E-democracy

. Forum for the future of Democracy,

  (Madrid, October 2008) "E-democracy:

  who dares?"

 

. Council of Europe exhibition on

  e-democracy

. Symposium on e-democracy (April 2007)

 

Internet Governance

Council of Europe contribution to:

IGF 2010 (Vilnius, 14-17 September 2010)

IGF 2009 (Sharm El Sheikh, 15-18 November)

IGF 2008 (Hyderabad, 3-6 December)

WSIS 2005 (Tunis, 15-17 November)

WSIS 2003 (Geneva, 17-28 February)

 

 

Related activities

 

 

Council of Europe

. Media and information society

. Forum for the Future of Democracy

 

Other Organisations

. European Dialogue on Internet Governance

  (EuroDIG.org)

 

Previous projects

 

 "Making democratic

  institutions work"