[bestbits] ITU consultation

[Deborah Brown]

Dear Carolina, all,

Thanks for sharing this important information and for keeping us focused :)

Just to clarify, these are actually two different ITU consultations. The
one announced in the attachment is the Public Consultation on ITU’s
Strategic Plan for 2016-2019. The link from the State Department is for a
separate consultation on the role of governments.

The consultation on the ITU's strategic plan is *open to the public* with a
online platform for comments. Based on the information Carolina sent it
looks like the basis for comment is a chairman's report (
http://www.itu.int/en/council/wg-sfp/Documents/contribution-chairman-en.pdf)
but I don't see any specific prompts for feedback. It's a rather long
document (85 pgs), but it seems to deal with some issues that some parts of
civil society have been concerned with before, i.e. transparency, the ITU's
role, etc. Does anyone know more about the process, its implications, etc?
For those interested in following the ITU, this may be an important/rare
opportunity to input into plenipot.

The consultation on the role of governments is *open to Member States
only*(funnily enough). But Member States are invited "to
consult wide with their stakeholders in the formulation of their responses."
So the link that Carolina sent around is the State Department's open
consultation, which adds two questions to the initial question on the role
of governments: the role of the ITU and existing venues addressing issues.
My understanding is that the US is accepting input from stakeholders
outside the US and has set a deadline of Friday, 10 January for input. As
Carol notes, other governments may be carrying out similar efforts, and
since the ITU's deadline isn't until 31 January, there may still be some
time.

Just one more point on the consultation on the role of governments.
According to the Chair's report from the most recent CWG-Internet
(available on WCITLeaks
http://files.wcitleaks.org/public/S13-RCLINTPOL3-C-0010!!MSW-E.pdf, but
otherwise behind TIES protection)

"3. The information on the questionnaire will be made publically available
on the ITU website.

*The CWG will hold an open multistakeholder consultation on the role
of governments immediately after its next meeting in March 2014*
, based on contributions by Member States." (top of page 7)


So for those who feel this is an important thread to follow, it may be
worth thinking ahead to the March CWG-Internet meeting and what we would
want a MS consultation on the role of governments to look like, what's
needed to get there, etc.

I second Carolina's question of being interested in who is planning to
contribute to these consultations. Both are on our radar and we'd be
interested in hearing others' ideas on pros/cons and any information that
others can share.

Apologies for the long email, and please correct anything I might have
incorrect here (pulling together info from different threads...)

Kind regards,
Deborah








On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 10:36 AM, Carolina Rossini <
carolina.rossini at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> I know we are all distracted by the preparations to the Brazil meeting.
> But I just want to call your attention to this ITU consultation - see
> letter attached. - Deadline - 31 JANUARY 2014
>
> This is part of the process in the US -
> http://www.state.gov/e/eb/cip/rls/218739.htm, but I am sure there are
> similar channels in more countries.
>
> So, it would be interesting to learn who will contribute to this. Still
> incredibly relevant, since it is related to the role of the governments and
> the role of ITU. And if this moves without our input, and moves faster than
> what may happen in Brazil....we may be worst at the end.
>
> C
>
> --
> *Carolina Rossini*
> *Project Director, Latin America Resource Center*
> Open Technology Institute
> *New America Foundation*
> //
> http://carolinarossini.net/
> + 1 6176979389
> *carolina.rossini at gmail.com*
> skype: carolrossini
> @carolinarossini
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>      bestbits at lists.bestbits.net.
> To unsubscribe or change your settings, visit:
>      http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/info/bestbits
>



-- 
Deborah Brown
Senior Policy Analyst
Access | accessnow.org
rightscon.org

@deblebrown
PGP 0x5EB4727D
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/bestbits/attachments/20140108/52bbd727/attachment.htm>