[bestbits] Letters from Indian Civil Society organisations to the Chair of NetMundial regarding appointment of civil society co-chair

Thu Apr 10 05:45:42 EDT 2014

Resending this. Seems not to have gone through earlier.

Anriette

-----------

Dear Parminder and all

I shared the concerns expressed in the original letter from civil
society to the Chair of the NetMundial, and feel that the selection
process of the co-chairs were simply not 'solid' enough. Concerns have
been raised by some of the other co-chairs too. I think it was important
for Indian civil society to send this letter. There are many examples
when selection of non-governmental stakeholders is done in a pretty
roughshod personalised ways. It affects CS most of all, but in this case
selection of the business co-chair has also been questioned. It is an
example of the lack of maturity/clarity etc. in multi-stakeholder
processes which so many of you have discussed.

But I believe that the point has been made, and that the best way to
move forward is to focus on the event, on civil society's voice at the
event, and on our influence on the outcomes.

Engaging in taking this forward at this point would, I believe, put
these at risk, and possibly harm the legitimacy of the overall process.
Consider all the hard work that civil society colleagues in Brazil have
put into this event.  They are working very, very hard to make it
inclusive, to get people CS to Sao Paulo, and to make sure that the
process gives everyone equal voice.

I am not saying the process is perfect, but I think effort has been made
to keep it inclusive and transparent. This is clearly an example of
certain decisions being problematicm - this being one of them. But I
think that they have acknowledged it, and we should move on, and use
this event as the strategic opportunity I still believe it can be.
Co-chair selection should not be seen as a primary way of recognising
CS. It is pretty ceremonial. Far more important for us to look at
whether our views are reflected in the draft outcome docs.

I also believe that continuing with this campaign will damage civil
society in other ways. It is not a constructive struggle. Attacks of a
personal nature against anyone tends to be negative and rarely have
positive outcomes.

At this point we should be looking at the bigger picture of the
substantive issues that we want to be discussed at NetMundial. For
example, I am concerned that surveillance is getting far less focus than
it deserves to. There is just a short reference to mass surveillance in
the draft outcome doc.

Going forward the important challenge for us is to find ways of these
processes become less adhoc in the future.

Anriette

On 10/04/2014 07:47, parminder wrote:
>
> I wonder if civil society groups have any response to the below...
>
> this issue was first brought to the notice to global civil society
> groups a few weeks back when almost all civil society organisations
> from India wrote a letter against appointment of Subi as co chair of
> NetMundial... It was most disappointing to face a stony silence from
> the global networks with regard to that representation, which is
> indeed disrespectful of the Indian civil society.
>
> Now, we have a newspaper report
> <http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/executive-of-telecom-giant-that-aided-nsa-spying-is-on-india-s-cyber-security-panel/article1-1205483.aspx>
> which not only produces evidence of plagiarism against Subi but , much
> more importantly, also shows clearly who is behind her installation as
> NetMundial Co chair - the US big business. And still no response.
>
> May I request the IGC co-cos to take up this issue. And also 1Net
> steering committee members, and civil society members of the executive
> committee and high level committee.
>
> At least please respond to the issue.
>
>  If civil society reps wont respond to this issue, I am not sure what
> they would respond to, and in which manner they then 'represent' civil
> society... Here there is practically the entire Indian civil society
> involved in IG writing a representation, about issues that are now
> further exacerbated by the news report
> <http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/executive-of-telecom-giant-that-aided-nsa-spying-is-on-india-s-cyber-security-panel/article1-1205483.aspx>
> in a top national daily of India. And we find no visible support.
>
> Thanks
>
> parminder
>
> On Tuesday 08 April 2014 11:31 PM, Rishab Bailey wrote:
>> Dear All,
>>
>> Further to the letter from Indian civil society groups to the Chair
>> of NetMundial (regarding the appointment of the civil society
>> co-chair for the meeting), please find attached:
>>
>> (a) the original letter from members of Indian civil society to Prof.
>> Virgilio Almeida,
>> (b) follow up email from members of Indian civil society to Prof.
>> Virgilio Almeida;
>> (b) response of Prof. Almeida to Indian civil society groups.
>>
>> Also do note a recent article published in a leading Indian newspaper
>> giving some of the context behind this:
>>  http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/executive-of-telecom-giant-that-aided-nsa-spying-is-on-india-s-cyber-security-panel/article1-1205483.aspx
>>
>>
>> Two of the documents referred to in the above article (concerning
>> plagiarism charges) are also attached to this email.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Rishab Bailey
>> (for the Society for Knowledge Commons, India)
>

-- 
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anriette esterhuysen anriette at apc.org
executive director, association for progressive communications
www.apc.org
po box 29755, melville 2109
south africa
tel/fax +27 11 726 1692

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