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

Fri Apr 11 17:15:15 EDT 2014

Very well put, Anriette.  Thank you.

And along with the processes going forward being "less ad-hoc", I would 
add, "open to new participants and perspectives", since that seems to be 
an important theme that's cropping up.

But I do wish those new participants to IG dialogues would bring with 
them expertise in their own fields, and that such expertise enriches 
their participation in IG discussions.  That having been said, I can 
find scanty evidence online of such expertise in the present case. 
Searches for her academic writings yield very little, for instance.  I 
do hope this lack of trust can be bridged soon, though.

Anriette Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org> [2014-04-10 11:45:42 +0200]:
> 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)
>>
>

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society
T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
-------------------
Access to Knowledge Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School
M: +1 520 314 7147 | W: http://yaleisp.org
PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: https://twitter.com/pranesh_prakash

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