the International Communication Gazette 0(0) 1–17 ! The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1748048518757139 journals.sagepub.com/home/gaz Article Towards a universal declaration on internet rights and freedoms? Andrea Pettrachin University of Sheffield, UK Abstract This article, conceived as a mainly empirically based contribution, analyses a discursive context composed of 58 documents proclaiming Internet-related human rights drafted and launched by different actors between 1997 and 2015. The article hypothesises that a discourse on Internet-related human rights is being shaped, autonomous from the broader discourse on Internet governance. Therefore, differently from other scholarly works, it does not focus on the many initiatives aimed at defining principles for the governance of the Internet but only on those documents that specifically aim to pro- claim Internet-related rights and freedoms. The article, first, analyses the findings of a software-enabled content analysis aimed at (1) identifying the key issues that dominate the discourse, (2) assessing the evolution of the discourse in the last two decades and (3) identifying the thematic priorities of different types of drafting entities. Second, it discusses possible research, policy and legal developments. Keywords Content analysis, digital age, human rights discourses, internet governance, internet rights, multi-stakeholderism, normative standards Introduction It was in 2006 during one of the first meetings of the newly established Internet Governance Forum that, for the first time officially in an international forum, the proposal was launched to ‘commence work on a unique Internet Bill of Rights’ (Kulesza, 2008: 87). This was defined as ‘a document (or a set of documents) to list all the traditional and innovative rights that each member of a 21st century information society should be in disposition of’ (Kulesza, 2008: 87) and it was Corresponding author: Andrea Pettrachin, University of Sheffield, Elmfield Building Northumberland Road, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TU, UK. Email: apettrachin1@sheffield.ac.uk