WCIT Statement

[Pranesh Prakash]

Dear all,
Here is the statement of civil society members and groups participating 
in a pre-IGF meeting at Baku in 2012 as drafted after the morning 
session on Sunday, November 4, 2012.

Please indicate your and your group's support of this statement on this 
mailing list or directly at the end of this Etherpad document: 
<http://igcaucus.org:9001/p/wcit_statement>.

Given our deliberation on these both yesterday and today — and the fact 
that we would not wish to open this particular statement up to extensive 
revision again — I would request people to raise comments on this 
mailing list only if you believe the drafters have committed an 
egregious mistake in capturing the agreement present in the room. 
Please do not leave comments on the Etherpad document.

Regards,
Pranesh

====

Statement of civil society members and groups participating in a pre-IGF 
meeting at Baku in 2012.

The process of the revision of the International Telecommunications 
Regulations (ITRs) have not been sufficiently inclusive and transparent, 
despite some recent efforts to facilitate some public participation. 
Fundamental to the framing of public policy must be the pursuit of the 
public interest and fundamental human rights, and we urge member states 
to uphold and protect these values.

We as civil society organizations wish to engage with the World 
Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) process in this 
spirit. Member-states, in most cases, have not held open, broad-based, 
public consultations in the lead up to the WCIT, nor have they indicated 
such process for the WCIT itself.

In order to address this deficiency, and as a minimum, we would urge:
* All member states and regional groups to make their proposals 
available to the public in sufficient time to allow for meaningful 
public participation;
* All delegates to support proposals to open sessions of the WCIT 
meeting to the public;
* The ITU Secretariat to increase transparency of the WCIT including 
live webcast with the video, audio, and text transcripts, as far as 
possible, to enable participation by all, including persons with 
disabilities;
* The ITU Secretariat, member-states, and regional groups to make as 
much documentation publicly available as possible on the ITU's website, 
so that civil society can provide substantive input on proposals as they 
are made available;
* Member-states to encourage and facilitate civil society participation 
their national delegations;
* The ITU to create spaces during the WCIT for civil society to express 
their views, as was done during the WSIS process.

Given the uncertainty about the nature of final proposals that will be 
presented, we urge delegates that the following criteria be applied to 
any proposed revisions of the ITRs.

* That any proposed revisions are confined to the traditional core 
mandate of the ITU and scope of the ITRs, where international regulation 
is required around technical issue limited to basic telecommunications 
networks and interoperability standards.
* There should be no revisions to the ITRs that involve regulation of 
the Internet Protocol and above.
* There should be no revisions that could have a negative impact on 
affordable access to the Internet or the public's rights to privacy and 
freedom of expression.

More positively we call upon the ITU to promote principles of net 
neutrality, open standards, affordable access and universal service, and 
effective competition.

Signed by:

====

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Policy Director
Centre for Internet and Society
T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: @pranesh_prakash
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Statement of civil society members and groups participating in a pre-IGF meeting at Baku in 2012.

The process of the revision of the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs) have not been sufficiently inclusive and transparent, despite some recent efforts to facilitate some public participation.  Fundamental to the framing of public policy must be the pursuit of the public interest and fundamental human rights, and we urge member states to uphold and protect these values.   

We as civil society organizations wish to engage with the WCIT process in this spirit. Member-states, in most cases, have not held open, broad-based, public consultations in the lead up to the WCIT, nor have they indicated such process for the WCIT itself.

In order to address this deficiency, and as a minimum, we would urge:
* All member states and regional groups to make their proposals available to the public in sufficient time to allow for meaningful public participation;
* All delegates to support proposals to open sessions of the WCIT meeting to the public;  
* The ITU Secretariat to increase transparency of the WCIT including live webcast with the video, audio, and text transcripts, as far as possible, to enable participation by all, including persons with disabilities;
* The ITU Secretariat, member-states, and regional groups to make as much documentation publicly available as possible on the ITU's website, so that civil society can provide substantive input on proposals as they are made available;
* Member-states to encourage and facilitate civil society participation their national delegations; 
* The ITU to create spaces during the WCIT for civil society to express their views, as was done during the WSIS process.

Given the uncertainty about the nature of final proposals that will be presented, we urge delegates that the following criteria be applied to any proposed revisions of the ITRs.

* That any proposed revisions are confined to the traditional core mandate of the ITU and scope of the ITRs, where international regulation is required around technical issue limited to basic telecommunications networks and interoperability standards.
* There should be no revisions to the ITRs that involve regulation of the Internet Protocol and above.
* There should be no revisions that could have a negative impact on affordable access to the Internet or the public's rights to privacy and freedom of expression.

More positively we call upon the ITU to promote principles of net neutrality, open standards, affordable access and universal service, and effective competition.

Signed by (alphabetically):

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