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

[parminder]

It is unfortunate that an attempt was not made to share a pre-final 
statement with the group. I tend to disagree, on principle,  with 
adopting 'take it or leave it' approaches to development of statements. 
This was not a controversial area, and we could have tried drafting a 
common statement...

Anyway, a few comments

One, can you pl provide the link to the quoted November statement - 
which statement and whose statement is this ...

Secondly, I could not understand the reason and implications of the 
following sentence

"Rather than seeking to address additional issues, we urge the 
Secretary-General to move forward in engaging all stakeholders to 
implement these opinions."

Why should civil society recommend that ITU takes up issues like 
Internet Exchanges and IPv6 adoption (subject matter of the 'opinions') 
and not for instance net neutrality, which is not among the subjects 
covered in the opinions. Why this artificial line about what Internet 
issues ITU may work on?

Thanks

parminder



On Friday 10 May 2013 08:05 AM, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
> 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: 
> https://wcrd2013.crowdmap.com/main | #wcrd2013
>
> @Consumers_Int | www.consumersinternational.org 
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