[bestbits] Civil society statement to the ITU Sec-Gen ahead of WTPF 2013 - PLEASE ENDORSE AND SHARE

[Jeremy Malcolm]

With the ITU's World Telecommunication and ICT Policy Forum (WTPF)
coming up next week, I would like to encourage everyone to read and - if
they agree with it - to endorse this statement, which a group of us who
will be participating at WTPF have drafted collaboratively:

http://bestbits.net/wtpf-2013

Please forgive us for not having a broader drafting process this time,
but it was mainly due to shortness of time.  In any case, the text has
been drafted consistently with the previous Best Bits statement to the ITU.

Please feel free to reach out into other networks for endorsements,
too.  There are buttons on the page that will enable you to share
automatically with Twitter and Facebook.

I am currently working to overcome a technical limitation which means
that individuals' names must be listed where an organisation has
endorsed.  I plan to keep working on this today, but didn't want to hold
up distribution of the statement any longer.

Thanks to Deborah, Joana and everyone else who helped to put this
together so quickly.  The full text is shown below:

We reaffirm the goals and principles of the statement submitted to the
ITU Secretariat in November 2012 in which we urged member states to
implement inclusive and transparent ITU processes and uphold and protect
the public interest and fundamental human rights.

These fundamental human rights must be at the forefront of internet
governance and ITU convenings, including the WTPF. Internet policy
topics, including but not limited to affordable access, development,
openness and access to knowledge, net neutrality, privacy, and security
must be considered through the framework of human rights, in particular
freedom of expression.

We welcome progress made by the Secretary-General and the Informal
Experts Group in achieving consensus on the six draft opinions. These
begin to address important goals, including the expansion of key
internet infrastructure in order to reduce costs for those in need; the
reaffirmation of multistakeholder processes; and the promotion of
transparent and inclusive enhanced cooperation. Rather than seeking to
address additional issues, we urge the Secretary-General to move forward
in engaging all stakeholders to implement these opinions.

Unfortunately, we must object to the Secretary-General's report's
framing of the debate on multistakeholderism. The WTPF has not yet
achieved open and participatory internet policy making. In endeavoring
to foster multistakeholder consensus, it is critical that the WTPF
facilitate civil society's participation as an independent and
authoritative voice. The ITU should, for this and future fora, bring all
stakeholders together to work on implementing WTPF opinions at the
national, regional, and global levels. This means creating spaces for
civil society to express their views, for example through an online
platform for comment that is part of the official WTPF record, through
speaking rights as was done during the WSIS process, as well as
providing for both remote participation and live webcasting of the WTPF
meeting. Video, audio, and text transcripts will further enables
participation by all, including persons with disabilities.

Open and transparent participation will augment the critical efforts
toward broadband connectivity, IXP promotion, enhanced cooperation, and
IPv6 deployment that the WTPF is undertaking with these opinions. We
look forward to working together with the ITU as it pursues these
policies and institutes a multistakeholder structure that can achieve
the goals articulated herein in a manner consistent with the public
interest and fundamental human rights.

-- 

*Dr Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Policy Officer
Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers*
Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM, 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg, TTDI, 60000 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
Tel: +60 3 7726 1599

WCRD 2013 -- Consumer Justice Now! | Consumer Protection Map:
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