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<font face="Verdana">Dear All<br>
<br>
IT for Change and some other NGOs plan to forward the following
position to the UN Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation.
Preceding the position statement is a covering letter seeking
support. You are <i><b>welcome to support this position any time
before 12 noon GMT on 31st Aug</b></i>. We are happy to
provide any additional information/ clarification etc. Also happy
to otherwise discuss this position, and its different elements. We
are motivated by the need to come up with precise and clear
institutional options at this stage. Politics of inertia and not
doing anything just serves the status quo. These may not be the
best institutional options, and we are ready to enter into
discussion with other groups on what instead would be the better
options. But, again, not doing anything is, in our opinion, would
be detrimental to global public interest. <br>
<br>
The web link to this position is at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.itforchange.net/civil_society_input_to_the_UN_Working_Group_for_global_governance_of_the_Internet">http://www.itforchange.net/civil_society_input_to_the_UN_Working_Group_for_global_governance_of_the_Internet</a>
.<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
<br>
</font><br>
<i><b><big>Covering letter / Background<br>
</big></b></i><br>
In May 2012, more than 60 civil society organisations and several
individuals participated in a campaign for '<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.itforchange.net/civil_society_statement_on_democratic_internet">democratising
the
global governance of the Internet</a>'. A joint letter signed by
the participants of this campaign <i>inter alia</i> asked for
setting up a UN Working Group towards this objective. Such a Working
Group was set up and has now asked for public inputs to formulate
its recommendations. <br>
<br>
In our joint letter, we had proposed some outlines for reforming the
current global governance architecture of the Internet. Time has
come now to make more clear and specific recommendations of the
actual institutional mechanism that we need. With most governments
more worried about their narrow geopolitical interests and
relationships with individual countries, it falls upon the civil
society to be bold and forward looking and put precise proposals on
the table that can then be taken forward by state actors. <br>
<br>
In a post-Snowden world, there is deep discomfort among almost all
countries, other than the US, with the manner in which the global
Internet is run and is evolving. The need for some global norms,
principles, rules, and necessary governance mechanisms for the
global Internet is being felt now as never before. The Internet can
no longer remain anchored to the political and business interests of
one country, or to serving global capital, as it is at present. As a
global commons, it is our collective democratic right and
responsibility to participate in the governance of the Internet, so
that it can become a vehicle for greater prosperity, equity and
social justice for all.<br>
<br>
We seek your support to join us in proposing the enclosed document
as an input to the Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation. The
Working Group has sought public inputs through a questionnaire which
can be seen at <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://unctad.org/en/Pages/CSTD.aspx">http://unctad.org/en/Pages/CSTD.aspx</a>
. The most important question is at number 8, which seeks input with
regard to precise mechanism(s) that are required. Our response will
mostly address this all-important question. (You are also encouraged
to, separately, give a fuller response to the questionnaire on your
behalf or on behalf of your organization.) We will also like to give
wide media publicity to this civil society statement .<br>
<br>
We will be glad if you can send your response to us <i><b>before
the 30th of August</b></i>. We are of course happy to respond to
any clarification or additional information that you may want to
seek in the above regard. Please also circulate this to others who
you think may want to participate in this initiative. The global
Internet governance space seems to be dominated by those who push
for neoliberal models of governance. We must therefore have as many
voices heard as possible.<br>
<br>
(The statement is cut pasted below this email and may also be <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.itforchange.net/civil_society_input_to_the_UN_Working_Group_for_global_governance_of_the_Internet">seen
here</a> )<br>
<br>
With best regard,<br>
<br>
Parminder<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Parminder Jeet Singh</b><br>
<hr style="height: 2px; width: 450px; margin-left: 0px;
margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><small><span
style="color: black; font-weight: bold; font-family: FlamaBook;">IT
for Change</span><br style="font-family: FlamaBook; color:
black;">
<font style="font-family: FlamaBook; color: black;"
color="#666666" face="FlamaBook" size="-1"><small><big>In
special consultative status with the United Nations ECOSOC</big><br>
</small><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.itforchange.net/">www.ITforChange.net</a></font></small>
<br>
<small style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(118, 118, 118);
font-family: FlamaBook;">T: 00-91-80-26654134</small><big
style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(118, 118, 118); font-family:
FlamaBook;"> | </big><small style="font-style: italic; color:
rgb(118, 118, 118); font-family: FlamaBook;">T: 00-91-80-26536890</small><span
style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(118, 118, 118); font-family:
FlamaBook;"> </span><big style="font-style: italic; color:
rgb(118, 118, 118); font-family: FlamaBook;">| </big><small
style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(118, 118, 118); font-family:
FlamaBook;">Fax: 00-91-80-41461055<br>
</small>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="CENTER"><font color="#800000"><font
style="font-size: 16pt" size="4"><i><u><b>A civil society
input to the UN Working Group looking at </b></u></i></font></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="CENTER"><font color="#800000"><font
style="font-size: 16pt" size="4"><i><u><b>institutional
mechanisms for global governance of the Internet </b></u></i></font></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="CENTER"><i><span
style="font-weight: normal">(Please write to <a
href="mailto:manasa@itforchange.net">itfc</a><a
href="mailto:manasa@itforchange.net">@itforchange.net</a>
before 29th Aug if you will like to endorse this statement)</span><b>
</b></i> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY"><font color="#800000"><font
size="3"><i><b><br>
Why global governance of the Internet?</b></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">Internet governance is
seen largely in terms of national sovereignty and security or as
pertaining to free speech and privacy. We are of the view that
there exist many other equally important issues for global
Internet governance that arise from the whole gamut of rights and
aspirations of people – social, economic, cultural, political
and developmental. The relationship of the global Internet to
cultural diversity is one example. The Internet increasingly
determines not only the global flows of information but also of
cultures, and their commodification. No social process is exempt
from the influence of the Internet – from education to health
and governance. Social systems at national and local levels are
being transformed under the influence of the global Internet.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight:
normal" align="JUSTIFY"> Instead of decentralizing power, the
current structure of the global Internet tends to centralize
control in the hands of a small number of companies. Some of these
companies have near-monopoly power over key areas of economic and
social significance. Therefore, regulation of global Internet
business through pertinent competition law, consumer law, open
interoperability standards, etc, is becoming a pressing need.
Increasing statist controls need to be similarly resisted. With
the emergent paradigm of cloud computing presenting the looming
prospect of remote management of our digital lives from different
'power centres' across the world, it is inconceivable that we can
do without appropriate democratic governance of the global
Internet. Post-Snowden, as many countries have begun to
contemplate and even embark upon measures for 'digital
sovereignty', the only way to preserve a <i>global</i><i><b> </b></i>Internet
is through formulating appropriate <i>global</i> norms,
principles and rules that will underpin its governance. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY"><font color="#800000"><font
size="3"><i><b>Background of this civil society input</b></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">A group of over 60
civil society organizations and several individuals, made a
statement on <i>'<a
href="http://www.itforchange.net/civil_society_statement_on_democratic_internet">Democratizing
the
global governance of the Internet</a>'</i> to the open
consultations on 'enhanced cooperation'<a class="sdfootnoteanc"
name="sdfootnote1anc"
href="mailbox:///home/param/.thunderbird/g5alewyg.param/mail/Unsent%20Messages?number=30236899#sdfootnote1sym"><sup>1</sup></a>
called by the Chair of the UN Commission on Science and Technology
for Development (CSTD) on May 18th, 2012, in Geneva. The statement
<i>inter alia</i> sought the setting up of a CSTD Working Group to
address this issue. We are happy to note that such a Working Group
has been set up and has now called for public inputs to make its
recommendations. This document is an input to the Working Group on
Enhanced Cooperation (WGEC) on the behalf of the undersigned . </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">In the aforementioned
<a
href="http://www.itforchange.net/civil_society_statement_on_democratic_internet">statement</a>
of May 2012, the civil society signatories had called for the
following institutional developments to take place in the global
Internet governance architecture:</p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.91cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight:
normal" align="JUSTIFY"> <font size="3"><i><span
style="background: transparent">Our demands with respect to
'global' Internet Governance espouse a simple and obvious
democratic logic. 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</span></i><span style="background:
transparent"> </span><i><span style="background: transparent">Internet.
</span></i></font> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">As the WGEC
deliberates on concrete ways to move forward, the time is ripe to
propose clear and specific institutional mechanisms for
democratizing the global governance of the Internet. We have,
therefore, expanded the above demands into specific mechanisms
that should be set in place for this purpose. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY"><font color="#800000"><font
size="3"><i><b>New global governance mechanisms are needed</b></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">We are of the view
that it would be useful to have two distinct mechanisms – one
that looks at the global Internet-related public policy issues in
various social, economic, cultural and political domains, and
another that should undertake oversight of the technical and
operational functions related to the Internet (basically,
replacing the current unilateral oversight of the ICANN<a
class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote2anc"
href="mailbox:///home/param/.thunderbird/g5alewyg.param/mail/Unsent%20Messages?number=30236899#sdfootnote2sym"><sup>2</sup></a>
by the US government). This will require setting up appropriate
new global governance bodies as well as a framework of
international law to facilitate their work, as follows.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY"><font color="#800000"><font
size="3"><i><b>A new UN body for Internet-related public
policy issues:</b></i></font></font><font size="3"><i><b>
</b></i></font> An anchor global institution for taking up and
addressing various public policy issues pertaining to the Internet
in an ongoing manner is urgently required. It can be a committee
attached to the UN General Assembly<span style="background:
transparent"> or a more elaborate and relatively autonomous set
up linked loosely to the UN (as a specialized UN body). It
should have a very strong and institutionalized public consul</span>tative
mechanism, in the form of stakeholder advisory groups that are
selected through formal processes by different stakeholder
constituencies, ensuring adequate representativeness. (OECD's <a
href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/18/39/37328586.pdf"><i>Committee
on
Computer, Information and Communication Policy</i></a> and
India's recent proposal for a <a
href="http://itforchange.net/Techgovernance/IndiaCIRP"><i>UN</i></a><a
href="http://itforchange.net/Techgovernance/IndiaCIRP"> </a><a
href="http://itforchange.net/Techgovernance/IndiaCIRP"><i>Committee
on
Internet-related Policies</i></a><a
href="http://itforchange.net/Techgovernance/IndiaCIRP"> </a>are
two useful, and somewhat similar, models that can be looked at.)</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">This 'new body' will
stay abreast of global Internet-related issues; where necessary,
develop international level public policies in the concerned
areas; seek appropriate harmonization of national level policies,
and; facilitate required treaties, conventions and agreements. It
will also have the necessary means to undertake studies and
present analyses in different policy areas. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">Most Internet-related
public policy issues are of a cross-cutting nature, and involve
overlaps with mandates of other existing global governance bodies,
like WIPO, UNESCO, WTO, UNDP, UNCTAD, ITU and so on. Due to this
reason, the proposed new 'body' will establish appropriate
relationships with all these other existing bodies, including
directing relevant public policy issues to them, receiving their
inputs and comments, and itself contributing specific
Internet-related perspectives to issues under the purview of these
other bodies. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY"><font color="#800000"><font
size="3"><i><b>A new 'Internet Technical Oversight and
Advisory Board':</b></i></font></font> This board will
replace the US government's current oversight role over the
technical and operational functions performed by ICANN<span
style="background: transparent">. The membership of this
oversight board can be of a techno-political nature, </span><i><span
style="background: transparent">i.e.</span></i><span
style="background: transparent"> consisting of people with
specialized expertise but who also have appropriate political
backing, ascertained through a democratic process. For instance,
the board can be made of 10/15 members, with 2/3 members each
from five geographic regions (as understood in the UN system).
These members</span> can perhaps be selected through an
appropriate process by the relevant technical standards bodies
and/or country domain name bodies of all the countries of the
respective region. (Other mechanisms for constituting the
techno-political membership of this board can also be considered.)</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">The Internet technical
oversight and advisory board will seek to ensure that the various
technical and operational functions related to the global Internet
are undertaken by the relevant organizations as per international
law and public policy principles developed by the concerned
international bodies. With regard to ICANN, the role of this board
will more or less be exactly the same as exercised by the US
government in its oversight over ICANN. As for the decentralized
Internet standards development mechanisms, like the Internet
Engineering Task Force, these self organizing systems based on
voluntary adoption of standards will continue to work as at
present. The new board will have a very light touch and
non-binding role with regard to them. It will bring in imperatives
from, and advise these technical standards bodies on,
international public policies, international law and norms being
developed by various relevant bodies. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">For this board to be
able to fulfill its oversight mandate, ICANN must become an
international organization, without changing its existing
multistakeholder character in any substantial manner. It would
enter into a host country agreement with the US government (if
ICANN has to continue to be headquartered in the US). It would
have full immunity from US law and executive authority, and be
guided solely by international law, and be incorporated under it.
Supervision of the authoritative root zone server must also be
transferred to this oversight broad. The board will exercise this
role with the help of an internationalized ICANN. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">This board will also
advise the afore-mentioned new public policy body on technical
matters pertaining to the Internet policy making, as well as take
public policy inputs from it. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY"><font color="#800000"><font
size="3"><i><b>Framework Convention on the Internet:</b></i></font></font><i><b>
</b></i>An appropriate international legal framework will be
required sooner than later for the above bodies to function
properly. Accordingly, one of the early tasks of the proposed 'new
body' dealing with Internet-related public policy issues,
discussed above, will be to help negotiate a 'Framework Convention
on the Internet' (somewhat like the <i><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change">Framework
Convention
on Climate Change</a>)</i>. Governance of the Internet
concerns different kinds of issues that are ever-evolving. It is,
therefore, preferable to formulate an enabling legal structure as
a 'framework convention' rather than as a specific treaty or
convention that addresses only a bounded set of issues. It may
also be easier to initially agree to a series of principles,
protocols and processes that can then frame further agreements,
treaties etc on more specific issues. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">Such a Framework
Convention will thus enable appropriate and ongoing global policy
responses to various opportunities and challenges that the
fast-evolving phenomenon of the Internet throws up. It will also
formalize the basic architecture of the global governance of the
Internet; <i> inter alia</i> recognizing and legitimizing the
existing role and functions of the various bodies currently
involved with managing the technical and logical infrastructure of
the Internet, including the ICANN, Regional Internet Registries,
Internet technical standards bodies and so on. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">Appropriate mechanisms
for crisis response and dispute resolution in relation to the
global Internet, and the social activity dependent on it, will
also be required to be set up.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY"><font color="#800000"><font
size="3"><i><b>Relationship with the IGF</b></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY"><span
style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">The
UN Internet Governance Forum (</span></span>IGF) was
established as a multistakeholder 'policy dialogue forum' by the
World Summit on the Information Society. The proposed global
Internet policy mechanism, especially the new UN based body, will
maintain a close relationship with the IGF. IGF affords a very new
kind of participative mechanism for policy making, whereby the
participation realm is institutionalized, and relatively
independent of the policy making structures. The IGF should
preferably pre-discuss issues that are taken up by this new policy
body and present diverse perspectives for its consideration. A
good part of the agenda for this new body can emerge from the IGF.
Whenever possible, draft proposals to be adopted by this new body
should be shared with the IGF. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">To perform such a
participation enhancing role, the IGF must be adequately
strengthened and reformed, especially to address the dominance of
Northern corporatist interests in its current working. It must be
supported with public funds, and insulated from any funding system
that can bring in perverse influences on its agenda and outcomes.
Other required processes must also be put in place to ensure that
the IGF indeed brings in constituencies that are typically
under-represented, rather than provide further political clout to
the already dominant. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">A participative body
is only as good as the policy making mechanisms that feed off it.
To that extent, the meaningfulness and effectiveness of the IGF
itself requires a strong policy development mechanism, as
suggested in this document, to be linked to it. Investing in the
IGF is useful only if its outputs and contributions lead to
something concrete. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY"><font color="#800000"><font
size="3"><i><b>Funding</b></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">An innovative way to
fund the proposed new global Internet policy mechanisms, and also
the IGF, is to tap into the collections made by the relevant
bodies from allocation of names and numbers resources pertaining
to the global Internet (like the fee that ICANN collects annually
from each domain name owner). These accruals now run into millions
of dollars every year and could be adequate to fund a large part
of the needed mechanisms for democratic governance of the global
Internet. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">In the end, we may add
that there is nothing really very novel in the above proposal for
setting up new mechanisms for global governance of the Internet.
Similar models, for instance, were proposed in the report of the
Working Group on Internet Governance that was set up during the
World Summit on the Information Society, back in 2004. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm" align="JUSTIFY">We hope that the
Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation will fulfill its high
mandate to lead the world towards the path of democratic
governance of the global commons of the Internet.<br>
<br>
</p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote" align="JUSTIFY"><small><a
class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote1sym"
href="mailbox:///home/param/.thunderbird/g5alewyg.param/mail/Unsent%20Messages?number=30236899#sdfootnote1anc">1</a>The
outcome documents of the World Summit on the Information
Society, held in 2005, employed this as a placeholder term
giving the mandate for further exploration of the necessary
mechanisms for global governance of the Internet. </small></p>
<small> </small></div>
<small> </small>
<div id="sdfootnote2"><small> </small>
<p class="sdfootnote"><small><a class="sdfootnotesym"
name="sdfootnote2sym"
href="mailbox:///home/param/.thunderbird/g5alewyg.param/mail/Unsent%20Messages?number=30236899#sdfootnote2anc">2</a>Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the US based
non-profit that manages much of technical and logical
infrastructural functions related to the Internet. </small></p>
</div>
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