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Dear organisers of the <b>Asian Regional Consultation on the WIS+10
Review,<br>
<br>
</b>With your permission I have some questions to ask you. I know
this is a treacherous territory, given an extra ordinary (and
completely inappropriate) sensitivity to being asked questions by
some groups, but my apologies, I cannot but ask them in pursuance of
my public interest work, however distasteful it may be even for me
to get into this thing....<br>
<br>
This is being called a 'consultation' and further an 'Asian
Regional' consultation, on what is a global governance process, and
so some questions arise in my mind:<br>
<br>
(1) who is funding this 'consultation'<br>
<br>
(2) on what criteria participants were determined, and invitations
sent, and by whom - were all concerned people invited (that, in my
view, would be a consultation)<br>
<br>
(3) On what criteria funding for participation was provided, and by
whom, and who decided it..<br>
<br>
Thanks for answering these public interest questions...<br>
<br>
I may declare that my interest got evoked from the knowledge that no
member of the Just Net Coalition has been invited... IT for Change
is among very few groups in Asia Pacific which has been engaged with
the WSIS process from the start, and very thoroughly engaged.
Further, there is in fact an <a
href="http://www.asiapacificrcem.org/">Asia Pacific Regional CSO
Engagement Mechanism</a>, which describes itself as<br>
<br>
<blockquote>"APRCEM is a civil society platform aimed to enable
stronger cross constituency coordination and ensure that voices of
all sub-regions of Asia Pacific are heard in intergovernmental
processes in regional and global level. The platform is initiated,
owned and driven by the CSOs, and has been set up under the
auspices of UN-ESCAP and seeks to engage with UN agencies and
Member States on the Post-2015 as well as other development
related issues/processes. "<br>
</blockquote>
In fact the APRCEM also has an Science and Technology Constituency
which works as an active network (of which IT for Change is a
member) which has begun to work closely with the Just Net Coalition
(many JNC members also being its members) and the Internet Social
Forum initiatives, which shows its interest in Internet issues... As
far as I know no member of this network, or the network as a whole,
has been involved in this so-called "Asia Regional Consultation'
which being on a UN process this group would be natural
constituency... All of which makes me wonder, and so my questions..<br>
<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Wednesday 26 August 2015 08:21 PM,
Anja Kovacs wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAJqNAHDhvs10QJS2Sj_Cy+o394DCq0ba7DT=e6KChqviXmvb7Q@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Dear all,<br>
<br>
</div>
The Internet Democracy Project, Bytes for All, APNIC, the
Association for Progressive Communications, ISOC, Global
Partners Digital and ICT Watch are together organising an <b>Asian
Regional Consultation on the WIS+10 Review</b> from 3 to 5
September in Pattaya, Thailand. <br>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Asian Regional Consultation on the
WSIS+10 Review will bring
together experts from different backgrounds and from around
the
Asian region who are concerned about issues concerning ICTs,
sustainable
development, human rights and Internet governance, to ask: <b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal">what are the issues that our governments need to
squarely address in
the process of the review? <br>
</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The meeting is timed so as to be able for
the group to
comment on the non-paper that will have been released by the
co-facilitators of
the review process in late August (inputs into that paper can
be made by all
stakeholders and are due on 31 July).<span
style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> The
group will take stock of the extent to which priorities for
the Asian region
have been reflected in the non-paper, and will work together
on formulating a
joint comment on the non-paper</span> (comments on the
non-paper will be due in
mid-September, and will be drawn on by the co-facilitators to
formulate a
zero-draft). <span style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The
group will also
look forward to consider which further inputs could be made
or actions could be
taken strategically to ensure that priorities from the Asian
region are fully
taken onto board in the final WSIS+10 Review outcome
documents. </span>If there
are other processes the group believes this work could
usefully feed into,
these might be taken into consideration as well. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>The meeting is conceived as a highly
interactive working
meeting that is geared towards producing a joint submission
to the next input round on the Review outcome document. </b>Participants
will
be drawn from all non-government stakeholder groups, and will
have a wide and
rich variety of backgrounds, both in terms of professional
expertise and
geographical location. What unites all, however, is a shared
commitment to a
free and open Internet and to the use of technology to benefit
the development
and human rights of all in our region. <br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>We're very happy to let you know that
remote participation will be available. </b>For more
information on remote participation and the event in general,
please see the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.wsis10.asia/">event website</a>. Or follow
us on Twitter @WSISAsia #wsis10.<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We look forward to your inputs into this
event. Do please let me know if you have any comments or
questions.<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Warm regards,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anja<br>
</p>
<br>
<div>
<div><br>
-- <br>
<div class="gmail_signature">Dr. Anja Kovacs<br>
The Internet Democracy Project<br>
<br>
+91 9899028053 | @anjakovacs<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.internetdemocracy.in/" target="_blank">www.internetdemocracy.in</a><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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