[bestbits] Update on Civil Society proposal to open participation in CWG-Internet

[Deborah Brown]

Dear all,

Unfortunately the proposal to open up the ITU Council Working Group on
Internet Related Public Policy Issues was not agreed on at the recent ITU
Council meeting, which concluded late last week. It seems that although
some Council members were supportive of the idea in principle, they choose
not to be very vocal, and others simply opposed it.

The Secretary General has said that he will consult a group of experts
outside the CWG but no direct participation from civil society will be
permitted. I'm trying to find out more details on how the Secretary General
will conduct these consultations, as well as when the next CWG-Internet
meeting will be, which I will pass along to this list.

For your information Sweden made the following statement. ****

*“Sweden notes that the proposal is that the Council does not approve
proposals to enable participation by all stakeholders in the work of the
CWG Internet.***

*Sweden further note that there is no proposal to authorize public access
to ITU documents related to the Council Working Group on international
Internet-related public policy issues (CWG Internet).  We need
clarification on how stakeholders should be able to participate in the
debate if they do not have access to all documents.***

*Sweden is of the view that openness and transparency is important and is
one of the basic principles to be applied in ITU and open participation and
public access to documents would help to promote ITU as a transparent and
open organization and to improve its public image.***

*Sweden is further of the view that many issues discussed at ITU meetings
are of interest both to the membership and to non-members including the
general public and that there is a need to take full account of the
interests of all stakeholders. ***

*Sweden fully support the existing multistakeholder model for internet
governance and the need to involve all stakeholders, both member states and
other stakeholders, in the discussions related to Internet issues, also in
ITU.***

*Sweden therefore is of the view that the group should be open to all
stakeholders and not only one group of stakeholders.”***

**Best,
Deborah  **



Deborah Brown

**

Senior Policy Analyst****

Access | AccessNow.org <http://accessnow.org/>****

E. deborah at accessnow.org****

@deblebrown****

PGP 0x5EB4727D
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