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<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Dear friends,</font><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span lang="en-US"><br>
<br>
As per the UN General Assembly resolution of December 2011, the
UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development is
holding a one day meeting on 'Enhanced Cooperation on Public
Policy Issues Pertaining to the Internet' on 18th of May in
Geneva.</span></font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">
This important meeting will take stock of the future directions
for global Internet governance and what may be needed to
democratise it. </font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><b>
A <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.itforchange.net/civil_society_statement_on_democratic_internet">joint
statement</a> by civil society organisations and individuals
is being proposed on this occasion</b></font><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">. The statement is enclosed
and also provided below. A document on 'background' information is
also enclosed.</font>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;"> </p>
<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">This is a call to
support and endorse the statement. We urge you to please pass
this on to </font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><b>your
networks</b></font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">
as well. </font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
size="3"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">We
are happy to provide any clarification that may be needed,
and to engage further on this subject. </span></font></font><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">If you would
like to support this statement, kindly send your
endorsement – organisational or personal – to <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:itfc@itforchange.net">itfc@itforchange.net</a>,
before 16</span></b></font></font><sup><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">th</span></b></font></font></sup><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> </span></font></font><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">May.</span></b></font></font><br>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"></span></b></font></font></p>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> </span></b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><br>
Guru</span></font></font><br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Director, IT for Change
<i>In Special Consultative Status with the United Nations ECOSOC
</i><a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.itforchange.net/">www.ITforChange.Net</a> | Cell:91 9845437730 | Tel:91 80 26654134, 26536890
</pre>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> </span></font></font><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><i><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">On behalf of
the proposing organisations<br>
</span></b></i></font></font>
<p>
<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }a:link { }</style>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"
lang="en-US"><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><font
style="font-size: 15pt;" size="4"><b><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">Call for
Support and Endorsement</span></b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-right: 0.22cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="CENTER"
lang="en-US"> <font color="#b84747"><font face="Liberation Serif,
serif"><font style="font-size: 20pt;" size="5"><i><u><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy:
continuous;">Global Governance of the Internet must
be Democratised!</span></b></u></i></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-right: 0.22cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight:
normal;" align="CENTER" lang="en-US"> <font face="Liberation
Serif, serif"><font size="4"><i><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">A joint
statement by civil society <span lang="en-GB">organisations</span>
for the UN CSTD meeting on 'Enhanced Cooperation on Public
Policy Issues Pertaining to the Internet' to take place <br>
in Geneva on May 18<sup>th</sup>, 2012</span></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="CENTER"><font color="#000000"><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><i><b><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">proposed by
</span></b></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="CENTER"><font face="Liberation
Serif, serif"><i><b><span style="background: none repeat scroll
0% 0% transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy:
continuous;"><font color="#000000">Focus on the Global
South </font></span></b><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><font
color="#000000">(</font></span><font color="#000000"><span
style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">Thailand</span></span></font><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><font
color="#000000">),</font><b><font color="#000000">
Instituto Nupef </font></b><font color="#000000"><span
style="font-weight: normal;">(Brazil)</span></font><b><font
color="#000000">, IT for Change </font></b><font
color="#000000"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(India)</span></font><b><font
color="#000000">, </font></b></span></i></font> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="CENTER"><font face="Liberation
Serif, serif"><i><b><span style="background: none repeat scroll
0% 0% transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy:
continuous;"><font color="#000000">Knowledge Commons </font></span></b><font
color="#000000"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">(India),</span></span></font><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><b><font
color="#000000"> Other News (</font></b><font
color="#000000">Italy</font><font color="#000000">),</font><b><font
color="#000000"> Third World Network </font></b><font
color="#000000"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Malaysia)</span></font><b><font
color="#000000"> </font></b><font color="#000000"><span
style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></font></span></i></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="CENTER"><font color="#800000"><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><i><b><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">and endorsed
by </span></b></i></font></font> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="CENTER"><font color="#800000"><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><i><b><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">organisations
and
individuals
listed at the end of the statement</span></b></i></font></font></p>
<br>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">The Internet is a
major force today, restructuring our economic, social,
political and cultural systems. Most people implicitly assume
that it is basically a beneficent force, needing, if at all,
some caution only at the user-end. This may have been true in
the early stages when the Internet was created and sustained
by benevolent actors, including academics, technologists, and
start-up enterprises that challenged big businesses. However,
we are getting past that stage now. What used to be a public
network of millions of digital spaces, is now largely a
conglomeration of a few proprietary spaces. (A few websites
like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon together make much
of what is considered the Internet by most people today.) We
are also moving away from a browser-centric architecture of
the 'open' Internet to an applications-driven mobile Internet,
that is even more closed and ruled by proprietary spaces (like
App Store and Android Market). </span><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">In fact, some
Internet plans for mobiles come</span></b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> </span><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">only with a few
big websites and applications, without the open 'public'
Internet, which is an ominous pointer to what the future
Internet may look like. </span></b><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">What started off
as a global public resource is well on its way to becoming a
set of monopoly private enclosures, and a means for
entrenching dominant power. </span><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">At this stage,
it is crucial to actively defend and promote the Internet's
immense potential as a democratic and egalitarian force,
including through appropriate principles and policies at the
global level.</span></b></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font color="#800000"><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><i><b><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">Who governs
the Internet</span></b></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">It is a myth that
</span><i><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">'the
Internet is not governed by anyone'</span></i><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">. It is also not a
coincidence nor a natural order of things that the Internet,
and through it, our future societies, are headed in the way of
unprecedented private gate-keeping and rentier-ing. The
architecture of the Internet is being actively shaped today by
the most powerful forces, both economic and political. A few
US based companies increasingly have monopoly control over
most of the Internet. The US government itself controls some
of the most crucial nodes of the global digital network. </span><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">Together, these
two forces, in increasing conjunction, are determining the
techo-social structure of a new unipolar world.</span></b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> It is important
for progressive actors to urgently address this situation,
through seeking globally democratic forms of governance of the
Internet. </span></font> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">While the US
government and US based monopoly Internet companies already
have a close working relationship to support and further each
other's power, this relationship is now being formalised
through new power compacts; whether in the area of
extra-territorial IP enforcement (read, global economic
extraction) through legislations like </span></font><font
color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act"><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">SOPA</span></font></a></u></span></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> , or in the area
of security (read, global extension of coercive power) through
cyber-security legislations like </span></font><font
color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20120427/IT01/204270303/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter"><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">CIPSA</span></font></a></u></span></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">. </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">The US government
has stubbornly refused to democratise the oversight of the
Internet's root server and domain name system, which it
controls. While the US pooh-poohs the security concerns
expressed by other countries vis-a-vis such unacceptable
unilateralism, rather hypocritically, it seeks to
contractually obligate the non-profit managing these key
infrastructures to appoint its security officials only on US
government advice. (The chief security officer of this
non-profit body is already, in fact, a sworn member of the
'Homeland Security Advisory Council' of the US!)</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">Apart from the
direct application of US law and whims (think </span></font><font
color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=13028"><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">Wikileaks</span></font></a></u></span></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">) over the global
Internet, and Internet-based social activity (increasingly a
large part of our social existence), default global law is
also being written by the clubs of powerful countries that
routinely draft Internet policies and policy frameworks today.
</span></font><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span
style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">The OECD and
Council of Europe are two active sites of such policy
making,</span></span></font><font face="Liberation Serif,
serif"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">
covering areas like cyber-security, Internet intermediary
liability, search engines, social networking sites etc. Last
year, OECD came out with its '</span></font><font
color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/40/21/48289796.pdf"><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">Principles
for Internet Policy-Making</span></font></a></u></span></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">'. These Pr</span></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span style="font-weight:
normal;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">inciples,
heavy on IP enforcement and private policing through large
North-based Internet companies, are to guide Internet
policies in all OECD countries. Recently, OECD decided to
'invite' other, non-OECD, countries to accede to these
Principles. </span></span></font><font face="Liberation
Serif, serif"><b><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0%
0% transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">This
is the new paradigm of global governance, where the powerful
countries make the laws and the rest of the world must
accept and implement them. </span></b></font> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font color="#800000"><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><i><b><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">Who is not
allowed at the governance table</span></b></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span
lang="en-US"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">While
Northern
countries
are very active at Internet related policy- and law-making,
which have extra-territorial ambition and reach, </span></span></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span
style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">they strongly
resist any UN based initiative for development of global
Internet principles and policies.</span></span></span></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> </span></span></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span lang="en-US"><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">This is in
keeping with the increasingly common Northern efforts at
undermining UN/ multi-lateral frameworks in other global
governance arenas</span></b></span></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> like trade, IP
etc. For instance; trying to keep global financial systems
out of UNCTAD's purview at the recent </span></span></font><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://ourworldisnotforsale.org/en/signon/strengthen-don-t-weaken-unctad-s-role-global-governance-towards-sustainable-and-inclusive-dev">Doha
UNCTAD meeting</a><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span
lang="en-US"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">,
and bringing in </span></span></font><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement">Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade
Agreement
</a><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span lang="en-US"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">(ACTA) as a new
instrument of extra-territorial IP enforcement by the OECD,
bypassing WIPO. </span></span></font> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">The mandate of the
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) for building a
globally democratic space for developing Internet related
global policies is quite clear. The WSIS </span></font><font
color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs2/tunis/off/6rev1.html"><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">outcome
document</span></font></a></u></span></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> states that, “</span></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><font size="3"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">t</span></font></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><font size="3"><span
style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">he process
towards enhanced cooperation (on Internet-related
international public policies), (is) to be started by the
UN Secretary-General ... by the end of the first quarter
of 2006”. </span></span></font></font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">However, six years
down the line, developed countries do not seem to be willing
to even formally discuss how to operationalise this very
important WSIS mandate of 'enhanced cooperation', much less do
something concrete about it. </span></font> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font color="#800000"><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><i><b><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">OUR DEMAND -
Internet Governance must be democratised</span></b></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">We, the
undersigned civil society organisations,</span></b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> </span><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">affirm that the
Internet must be governed democratically</span></b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">, with the equal
involvement of all people, groups and countries. Its
governance systems must be open, transparent and inclusive,
with civil society given adequate avenues of meaningful
substantive participation. While we denounce statist control
over the Internet sought by many governments at national
levels, we believe that the struggle at the global level also
has significant dynamics of a different kind. </span><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">Our demands with
respect to 'global' Internet Governance espouse a simple and
obvious democratic logic.</span></b><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> On the technical
governance side, the oversight of the Internet's critical
technical and logical infrastructure, at present with the US
government, should be transferred to an appropriate,
democratic and participative, multi-lateral body, without
disturbing the existing distributed architecture of technical
governance of the Internet in any significant way. (However,
improvements in the technical governance systems are certainly
needed.) On the side of larger Internet related public
policy-making on global social, economic, cultural and
political issues, the OECD-based model of global policy
making, as well as the default application of US laws, should
be replaced by a new UN-based democratic mechanism. Any such
new arrangement should be based on the principle of
subsidiarity, and be innovative in terms of its mandate,
structure, and functions, to be adequate to the unique
requirements of global Internet governance. It must be fully
participative of all stakeholders, promoting the democratic
and innovative potential of the Internet. </span></font> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Liberation Serif, serif"><span
style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">The Internet
should be governed on the principles of human liberty,
equality and fraternity. It should be based on the accepted
principle of the indivisibility of human rights;</span></span><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> civil, political,
economic, social and cultural rights, and also people's
collective right to development. </span><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">A rights-based
agenda should be developed as an alternative to the current
neo-liberal model driving the development of the Internet,</span></b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> and the evolution
of an information society. The UN is the appropriate place for
developing and implementing such an alternative agenda.
Expedient labelling by the most powerful forces in the
Internet arena, of the UN, and of developing countries, as
being interested </span><i><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">only</span></i><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"> in 'controlling
the Internet', and under this cover, continually shaping the
architecture of the Internet and its social paradigm to
further their narrow interests, is a bluff that must be
called.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><font face="Liberation
Serif, serif"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">We
demand that a </span><b><span style="background: none repeat
scroll 0% 0% transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy:
continuous;">Working Group of the UN Commission on Science
and Technology for Development (CSTD) be instituted to
explore possible ways of implementing 'enhanced cooperation'
for global Internet-related policies</span></b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">. (Such a CSTD
Working Group is also being sought by some developing
countries.) 'Enhanced cooperation' must be implemented through
innovative multi-lateral mechanisms, that are participatory.
Internet policy-making cannot be allowed to remain the
preserve of one country or clubs of rich countries. </span><b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">If the Internet
is to promote democracy in the world</span></b><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">, which
incidentally is the much touted agenda of the US and other
Northern countries, </span><b><span style="background: none
repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">the Internet
itself has, first, to be governed democratically.</span></b></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><font face="Liberation
Serif, serif"><i><b><span style="background: none repeat scroll
0% 0% transparent; -moz-background-inline-policy:
continuous;"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.itforchange.net/civil_society_statement_on_democratic_internet"><font
color="#800000">Click here for the current list of
signatories to the joint civil society statement</font></a><br>
</span></b></i></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><font face="Liberation
Serif, serif"><i><b><span style="background: none repeat scroll
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continuous;"></span></b></i></font><font><font><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><i><b><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.itforchange.net/civil_society_statement_on_democratic_internet"><font
color="#800000"><font face="Liberation Serif, serif">Click
here
to endorse the statement</font></font></a></b></i></font></font></font><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="CENTER"><font color="#b84700"><font
face="Liberation Serif, serif"><b><span style="background:
none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
-moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">******</span></b></font></font></p>
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