A/HRC/32/38 telecommunication networks; the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, a professional association which develops standards for Wi-Fi transmission; and the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association, a private international association of the mobile industry which develops standards for mobile networks. 28. Another group of organizations establishes and develops technical standards for how Internet data are communicated, stored, arranged and presented. The Internet Engineering Task Force develops and maintains the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, which determines how devices connect over the Internet and how data are transmitted between them. The World Wide Web Consortium sets standards concerning the display of, and interaction with, web content, which implicates issues such as language content and access for the disabled. ICANN sets policies for the registration of top-level domain names, whether generic (such as .com, .org, .edu), country code (.cn, .tj, .sg) or community or industry-specific (such as .aero). Its subsidiary, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, manages the distribution of Internet Protocol addresses, which assign and identify each device that connects to the Internet with unique numerical labels. 29. While technical standards have profound implications for freedom of expression, the Commission on Science and Technology for Development of the United Nations has observed that standards development often lacks sufficient consideration of human rights concerns.16 To be sure, interested stakeholders and members of the public are permitted to participate in or observe the work of most of these standard-setting bodies. However, because meaningful participation requires a generally high level of technical expertise, human rights perspectives are not always included in discussions, even though technical and design choices can have a substantial impact on freedom of expression.17 2. Internet governance and policymaking 30. International legal instruments do not explicitly address how States and other actors should maintain a free and open Internet, nor may regulation by law always be an appropriate approach. Indeed, Internet governance is not the sole province of specialized bodies or Governments. Most recently, the World Summit on the Information Society emphasized the continuing importance of a governance approach that integrates government, corporate and civil society, academic and technical stakeholders and expertise (see General Assembly resolution 70/125). In the context of global trade, nondiscrimination principles established under international agreements administered by the World Trade Organization may require States to restrict or otherwise regulate non-neutral services. The World Intellectual Property Organization has also faced growing demands from member States for advice on legislative frameworks that enable them to implement treaty obligations in digital environments. Regional bodies, such as the African Union, the European Commission and the Organization of American States seek to ensure that global 16 17 See Intersessional Panel of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, “The mapping of international Internet public policy issues” (November 2014). To be sure, a few organizations have dedicated resources to incorporating human rights perspectives in technical discussions. ICANN, for example, has established a cross community working party on its corporate and social responsibility to respect human rights, which seeks to map and understand the issues and potential solutions relating to corporate and social responsibilities of ICANN from https://community.icann.org/display/gnsononcomstake/CCWP+on+ICANN's+Corporate+and+Social +Responsibility+to+Respect+Human+Rights. A few non-governmental organizations have also made human rights-oriented contributions to technical discussions. See, for example, Neils ten Oever, “Research into human rights protocol considerations”, available from https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-tenoever-hrpc-research/. 9