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<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Robin and Milton,<br>
<br>
IT for Change will sign on the text put up by Milton, and I as a member
of IGC also
support that IGC signs it. <br>
<br>
I must however mention a couple of issues, on behalf of my
organization, which do not impact the above endorsement. I apologize
for this longish text, but we have reservations about the ICANN's
governance model and we need to mention them while supporting an
endorsement of a relatively minor structural change in it. It is also
relevant to mention these issues in some detail because of the
surprise, and perhaps exasperation (I dont say that it is not
justified),
shown by some members on this list as to why do some members active in
IGC/ IGF not engage sufficiently with ICANN where some 'real work' may
be getting done. <br>
<br>
This is how we see this space, and decide on our engagements, thinly
resourced that we are.<br>
<br>
Either ICANN, and its GNSO, is merely doing 'relatively' mundane,
though often important,
administrative tasks in managing some critical Internet resources,
meaning tasks that do not have much political implication, or ICANN
indeed
does tasks with significant political implications. In case its is the
former, we are
not really that interested in its work. Perhaps that may appear a
little
rude. Better to say we do not have the time vis a vis our primary
inclinations as an organization. We primarily do development work, with
a keen
understanding of the political nature of development. In this context,
we consider it our task to specifically represent the the interests of
the currently disadvantaged and marginalized sections.Technical
governance is not our core mandate; only to the extent it has strong
political implications vis a vis 'development constituencies' do we
get involved. <br>
<br>
However, in case ICANN/ GNSO
does work with important political implications we simply do not agree
with much of its constitutive logic - for instance, of equality/</font><font
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">balance</font><font
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"> between demand and supply side
of the 'domain name' marketplace,
or even between other commercial and non-commercial parties. We also do
not
agree to its basic criterion for legitimate interest/ representation
that
requires one to at least be a domain registrant. We do not think that
is the point - for instance even in the KTCN campaign of NCUC on the
FoE issue. <br>
<br>
Such 'user' based and stakeholder based global governance
systems disproportionately favoring organized private sector (US-ians
may read, business sector) - to counter whose power is a central
governance issue at the global level - are exactly the wrong models of
global
governance to promote. Such models are poised to </font><font
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">overall </font><font
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">do
much greater damage than good to the global public interest. They are
especially dangerous when they seek political sovereignty, which we are
afraid much of these minor structural adjustments are aimed at
consolidating. </font><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">To the
extent that </font><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">there is
a certain complicity in the ICANN arena i</font><font
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">n
this regard</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"> -
including of some of the involved civil
society actors - we</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">
must strongly disassociate ourselves from supporting any such
implications of the present, or any other, proposal for structural
changes in the ICANN.<br>
<br>
On the other hand, we can understand and accept user/ stakeholder
models for relatively low-level technical policy tasks, which are
politically accountable to globally legitimate entities (sorry, but US
government is not). We also agree that a
simple inter-governmental system is not enough to constitute such an
'legitimate entity' as representing global public interest, especially
in the new global circumstances created by the Internet. New, and
perhaps innovative, ways to construct the needed legitimacies must
therefore be tried out. Such efforts should however remain rooted in
key percepts of what is public interest, and what can constitute its
legitimate representation. The separation between private interest and
public interest needs to be maintained, indeed honored. There should be
sufficient
proactive effort towards disproportionately higher representation of
those currently marginalized, and not the opposite as these new models
of governance do, in the name of some kind of neat efficiency and the
like. All such governance innovations - out-of-the-box, subversive,
whatever - that look like they are especially pushing forward
marginalized
interests attract our strong interest. All 'innovations' that further
entrench dominant interests -whether economic, political,
geo-political, class - are correspondingly received with strong
political opposition. <br>
<br>
Warding off illegitimate statist interests has been a chief, at one
stage even the
central, struggle in the IG arena. Many actors who have shown exemplary
dedication as well as foresight in
fighting these interests, with a good degree of success, must forever
remain our heroes. However, some of the same actors, and/or their
second
generation flag-bearers, are much less cognizant of another struggle
in the IG arena which is at least as important. The struggle to make
sure that the
Internet does not become an instrument of a new global order that it
even further dominated by the already powerful; where political power
is allocated on the basis on the economic power one already posses,
instead of moderating it, and where new governance systems provide
political cover and legitimacy to economic exploitation. It is no
longer
acceptable for any civil society constituency claiming any degree of
global legitimacy to not represent both these struggles equally. We not
only find the global governance models implied in the ICANN system
quite </font><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" lang="EN-GB">ominous
for the future of global governance, we would also like the global
civil society
engaged with its forums to better represent the political interests
of the currently excluded/ marginalized sections.</span><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><br>
However, we do recognize that the battle has to be fought on many
fronts, and many in the NCUC have done great work in developing more
spaces for public interest constituencies, and taking up some
important public interest issues. <br>
<br>
We will like to see the NCSG 6.0 charter developed by the NCUC adopted
by the ICANN instead of the alternative one, and especially agree that
its direct instead of constituency based election of council members
is a much better process. It is better because it has a higher chance
of representing global public interest, each candidate having to muster
a much wider support. <br>
<br>
Parminder</font><br>
<br>
Milton L Mueller wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:75822E125BCB994F8446858C4B19F0D7148D5E4C@SUEX07-MBX-04.ad.syr.edu"
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">The organizations and
individuals listed below are members
of and participants in the civil society Internet Governance Caucus. We
wish to
express our support for version 6.0 of the Noncommercial Stakeholders
Group (NCSG)
charter developed by the Noncommercial Users Constituency. While there
may
still be room for minor improvements, we believe that the basic
principles on
which the charter is founded provide the fairest and most effective
basis for
civil society representation in ICANN’s Generic Names Supporting
Organization. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">We specifically support
the proposal because:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> * It was developed
transparently and with many
opportunities for input by relevant ICANN participants;<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> * It makes it easy to
form constituencies or affinity
groups, but avoids fragmentation of noncommercial stakeholders into
independent
constituencies with separate mailing lists, administrative structures
and
representatives; <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> * It permits individual
membership in the NCSG and does not
require individuals to fit themselves into arbitrarily-defined
categories that
may not correspond to their interests and needs;<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> * It fosters
representation of minority viewpoints in
consensus-based Working Groups, but does not rigidly assign votes to
small
factions, instead offering them a chance to build consensus<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">We also note that the
alternative charter proposal seems
designed to give a specific faction guaranteed Council seats and does
not
foster global, geographically diverse representation. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">We appreciate ICANN’s
effort to make its GNSO more
representative and urge you to ratify and accept the NCSG charter.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Signed,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">--<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">--<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Etc.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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