[bestbits] Re: [governance] civil society role in Brazil meeting

Wed Nov 20 00:54:53 EST 2013

On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 11:35 AM, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net>wrote:

>  Dear All
>
> There are strong indications from all round that Brazil gov may just be
> taking the easy expedient to channelise non gov participation in the Brazil
> meeting through the 1net structure....
>

Sala: This is contrary to what I have been hearing from various subscribers
and members of the IGC and even others within other civil society
organisations. My sensing is that there is desire to collaborate and
engage. This is obvious from the numbers that have subscribed to the
mailing list and also from corridor discussions and talks via email or
skpe. Please remember that in Bali, we did not collectively agree that we
would not engage, it was supposed to be a strategy meeting. We can very
easily take a poll on the matter-

> And we know that there was overwhelming feeling among civil society that
> this should not be allowed, and we should have a direct liason. (Civil
> society outside the active IG kind is even more strongly of this view). Are
> we know willing to come out of our paralysis?
>

 Sala:
Firstly apologies for the delayed response, have been busy catching up with
work and emails and conference matters as there are some substantive public
policy issues affecting global public interest that demanded our immediate
attention.

One of the reasons why we were initially cautious about INET was because it
was not clarified to us at the time what INET was supposed to be which
caused most of us if not all to be suspicious about the process and allude
"power grabs". From discussions with some of the I Star group, not ICANN, I
was told that this was simply designed to be a blanket slate where
stakeholders and different constituencies can come to the table and draft
and design the Agenda and ensure that they field their representatives to
the table. We all come as equals to the table.

*Reasons Why We should Engage with I star group and come to the Table at I
Net*

Firstly, kindly note that the I NET is like an open virtual forum and it is
not owned by any one single group or constituency. Secondly, in a world
where we know that enhanced cooperation is critical in development and
addressing concerns affectng global interest, it makes sense to work
towards building bridges. We need to work towards engaging with other
constituencies in an intelligent and rational manner. To not engage is to
effectively render our voice meaningless. Advoacy has to be strategic and
directed and we need to come alongside other communities and add our
diversity and voices.

The Government of Brazil would be innundated with hundreds of voices if
there were no effective mechanism to channel the voices to her in the
course of organising a Global Conference. To this end, I would strongly
recommend that we engage. There are some of you who sit on the Working
Group on Enhanced Cooperation (WGEC) so enhanced cooperation should be
practised. We must reach beyond ourselves, find strength in our values and
character and engage. We do not need to be abrasive to be good advocates.
To reach out, we must first engender the confidence in those that we are
reaching out to. This does not mean compromising our values and principles
but rather it means that we need to build strong relationships where we can
encourage dialogue. I have absolute faith that when we come to the table in
INET our voices will be heard.

Right now we do not have much time as Brazil draws nigh and we need to
accelerate our preparations. As per my previous update a few hours ago
(yesterday as it is now 2:40am as I write this to you), civil society
organisations heads are discussing mechanisms for selection of civil
society representatives, noting that we all have diverse selection
processes with the IGC using NomComs etc. You can respond to my other email
if you have ideas about processes and mechanisms. For now, please

Values command the respect of our colleagues as engagement and negotiations
will play out not just in 2014 but beyond. Because of this, we should not
isolate ourselves but dialogue and engage. My advice would be to come to
the table in the I star engagement and lend our voice as civil society. To
lend our voices as civil society, we need to engage with all these
stakeholders. The key thing here is to ENGAGE. There will be certain
positions that we will need our alliances to agree on, in terms of key
positions on things like the preservation of an open and free internet as
mandated by our Charter.

>
> Lets write a short and succinct letter that we want direct and independent
> liason to the Brazil meeting and want to independently present our liasons
> directly accountable to us and not through the 1net or whatever...And just
> forward the four Brazilain names we have as our liasons... We do not have
> to change/ expand that liason structure. Havent the time for that. (and if
> some people insist, we can always do it a bit later). The following is a
> quick text suggestion...
>
> Sala: The letter that is being prepared names the liaisons that we will
> have on the ground in Brazil. The Government of Brazil will be working with
> diverse stakeholders and it has to come through a mechanism which happens
> to be the INET. The INET is not owned by any of the I*. It was designed to
> bring everyone as equals where all constituencies can organise themselves
> and the way forward. The only thing I had an issue with was that the
> mechanisms for participating were recently prepared and sent to us. It is
> unclear at this stage, whether that was designed by the Brazil Government
> although I have been informed that it was designed by the Brazil
> Government. There is nothing stopping us from commenting on the structure
> of the mechanism but we should do so not with the intention to subvert the
> round table allowing for diverse constituencies to come to the table (there
> is a world bigger than civil society) as the pressing deadline will demand
> extensive coordination in streaming things and preparing for San Paulo.
>
> We of the undersigned civil society networks and groups are pleased to
> note that Brazil has made a formal announcement of a ............. (put the
> official name of the meeting here) . We are happy to help the government of
> Brazil organise this meeting and take it to a successful conclusion.  We
> have chosen the below mentioned four persons to be our liason to the
> Brazilian government and also to be put on any steering committee that may
> be set up.
>
>
>
> ....
> ......
>
> ......
> ...... the names of our four Brazilian liasons
>
> Please include our above representatives in all meetings, formal
> presentations etc that will henceforth take place regarding the proposed
> multistakeholder meeting on the future of the Internet..... We will route
> our inputs to the organisation of this meeting through these reps...
>
> Signed
>
>
> (ends)
>
> parminder
>
>
>
>
>
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