Civil Society Submission from "Best Bits" pre-IGF Meeting

[Pranesh Prakash]

Statement of civil society members and groups participating in the "Best
Bits" pre-IGF meeting at Baku in 2012

We thank the Secretariat of the ITU for making the opportunity to submit
our views.

Nevertheless, the process of the revision of the International
Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) has not been sufficiently inclusive
and transparent, despite some recent efforts to facilitate 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 Telecommunication (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 a process for the WCIT itself.

In order to address this deficiency, and at 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
in 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 scope of
the ITRs, where international regulation is required around technical
issues is limited to telecommunications networks and interoperability
standards.
* There should be no revisions to the ITRs that involve regulation of
the Internet Protocol and the layers 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 generally we call upon the ITU to promote principles of net
neutrality, open standards, affordable access and universal service, and
effective competition.

Signatories:
Access (Global)
Association for Progressive Communications (Global)
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (Bangladesh)
Centre for Internet and Society (India)
Center for Democracy and Technology (United States of America)
Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa
(Eastern and Southern Africa)
Consumer Council of Fiji (Fiji)
Consumers International (Global)
Electronic Frontier Finland (Finland)
Imagining the Internet Center (United States of America)
Instituto Nupef (Brazil)
Internet Democracy Project (India)
Internet Research Project (Pakistan)
Global Partners and Associates (United Kingdom)
GobernanzadeInternet.co (Antonio Medina Gomez / Colombia)
ICT Watch Indonesia (Indonesia)
Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor / Brazilian Institute for
Consumer Defense (Brazil)
InternetNZ (New Zealand)
IT for Change (India)
Media Education Center (Armenia)
ONG Derechos Digitales (Chile)
OpenMedia (Canada)
Thai Netizen Network (Thailand)
Ginger Paque
Nnenna Nwakanma

-- 
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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