[bestbits] Re: Important new joint submission to CSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 23/08/2013, at 11:55 AM, Jeremy Malcolm <jeremy at ciroap.org> wrote:

> A reminder that any remaining comments on this draft submission are due over the weekend, so that can post it to the Best BIts site and begin collecting endorsements in time to submit it to the CSTD on 31 August.
> 
> I would like to reiterate the importance of us delivering a strong joint civil society submission to this questionnaire.  Other groups such as ICC-BASIS are supporting the status quo, and even putting forward the idea that things like the (much-criticised by civil society) APEC Cross-Border Privacy Regulation system is a good example of enhanced cooperation in practice!  So it is very important for us to put forward a strong submission that points out the shortcomings of the status quo, and advances a public interest perspective on this topic.

Many thanks for those who offered further comments, and I'm sorry that there has been no entirely satisfactory way to deal with the late comments that Matthew offered.  Some of the text that he found objectionable could not be withdrawn from the statement consensually, so in the end I have just had to include some late amendments without the time to discuss them, and they are minor because it was necessary that they would be changes that nobody else would likely object to significantly:

In paragraph 8, adding the bold text "Through a process fully involving all stakeholders, this may require the eventual establishment of a new framework or mechanism, particularly in the case of emerging and orphaned issues that have no other global home."
Also in paragraph 8, adding the bold text "Therefore, if the mechanism that we begin through the CSTD Working Group does lead towards a new framework or process, we accept the likelihood that for now such framework or process would likely have to be at least loosely linked with the UN."
In paragraph 11, adding the bold text "and in the Westphalian ideal conception of democracy, this would fall to elected governments".
Also in paragraph 11, adding the bold text "On one conception, real multi-stakeholderism offers to formalize government consultation with its constituencies, as governments formulate policy."
Also in paragraph 11, adding the bold text "On another conception (or in the longer term), multi-stakeholderism promises a more significant rebalancing of power between states and other networks of individuals."
Concluding paragraph 11, adding "On either conception [delete: Thus] civil society..." 

Realising that this won't satisfy either of those on each side of this disagreement, I apologise to both of them.  There is a lot of good content in Matthew's text that could easily go into a supplementary CDT submission.  Nevertheless with time pressing, it is not possible to reopen discussion so I've now put the final text up on the website for endorsement:

http://bestbits.net/ec

With this tough process behind us, can I now just reiterate one final time, that it is very important for you to endorse this submission if you are able to do so (or to write your own submission if you are unable to).  This is possibly the best opportunity that we have had since the Working Group on Internet Governance in 2004 to offer our input into the evolution of global Internet governance arrangements.

The PRISM scandal highlighted that current Internet governance arrangements do absolutely nothing to protect the human rights of Internet users, for example by giving civil society a voice in the development of global frameworks of principle that could hold governments or corporations that infringe those rights to account on the global stage. Without detracting from what needs to be done at the domestic level also, our engagement in the current discussions on the enhanced cooperation process is imperative if we are to turn this global process to our advantage, rather than allowing it to be hijacked by the the International Chamber of Commerce and the Internet Society in favour of maintaining the status quo.  (Remember that it was the status quo that delivered us PRISM, and tried or is trying to deliver us SOPA/PIPA, ACTA and the TPP.)

A number of those who contributed to this joint submission, along with stakeholder representatives from the private sector and technical community, will be discussing these issues further next week at the Best Bits workshop of the Asia-Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum, which we will also endeavour to have webcast.  More details will follow next week.  In the meantime, I encourage you once more  to endorse the joint submission to the CSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation if you are able to do so.

-- 
Dr Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Policy Officer
Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers
Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
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