[bestbits] Taking place next week: Asian Regional Consultation on the WSIS+10 Review - remote participation available

[parminder]

Dear organisers of the *Asian Regional Consultation on the WIS+10 Review,

*With your permission I have some questions to ask you. I know this is a
treacherous territory, given an extra ordinary (and completely
inappropriate) sensitivity to being asked questions by some groups, but
my apologies, I cannot but ask them in pursuance of my public interest
work, however distasteful it may be even for me to get into this thing....

This is being called a 'consultation' and further an 'Asian Regional'
consultation, on what is a global governance process, and so some
questions arise in my mind:

(1) who is funding this 'consultation'

(2) on what criteria participants were determined, and invitations sent,
and by whom - were all concerned people invited (that, in my view, would
be a consultation)

(3) On what criteria funding for participation was provided, and by
whom, and who decided it..

Thanks for answering these public interest questions...

I may declare that my interest got evoked from the knowledge that no
member of the Just Net Coalition has been invited... IT for Change is
among very few groups in Asia Pacific which has been engaged with the
WSIS process from the start, and very thoroughly engaged. Further, there
is in fact an Asia Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism
<http://www.asiapacificrcem.org/>, which describes itself as

    "APRCEM is a civil society platform aimed to enable stronger
    cross constituency coordination and ensure that voices of all
    sub-regions of Asia Pacific are heard in intergovernmental processes
    in regional and global level. The platform is initiated, owned and
    driven by the CSOs, and has been set up under the auspices of
    UN-ESCAP and seeks to engage with UN agencies and Member States on
    the Post-2015 as well as other development related issues/processes. "

In fact the APRCEM also has an Science and Technology Constituency which
works as an active network (of which IT for Change is a member) which
has begun to work closely with the Just Net Coalition (many JNC members
also being its members) and the Internet Social Forum initiatives, which
shows its interest in Internet issues... As far as I know no member of
this network, or the network as a whole, has been involved in this
so-called "Asia Regional Consultation' which being on a UN process this
group would be natural constituency... All of which makes me wonder, and
so my questions..


parminder


On Wednesday 26 August 2015 08:21 PM, Anja Kovacs wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> The Internet Democracy Project, Bytes for All, APNIC, the Association
> for Progressive Communications, ISOC, Global Partners Digital and ICT
> Watch are together organising an *Asian Regional Consultation on the
> WIS+10 Review* from 3 to 5 September in Pattaya, Thailand.
>
>
> The Asian Regional Consultation on the WSIS+10 Review will bring
> together experts from different backgrounds and from around the Asian
> region who are concerned about issues concerning ICTs, sustainable
> development, human rights and Internet governance, to ask: *what are
> the issues that our governments need to squarely address in the
> process of the review?
> *
>
>
> The meeting is timed so as to be able for the group to comment on the
> non-paper that will have been released by the co-facilitators of the
> review process in late August (inputs into that paper can be made by
> all stakeholders and are due on 31 July).The group will take stock of
> the extent to which priorities for the Asian region have been
> reflected in the non-paper, and will work together on formulating a
> joint comment on the non-paper (comments on the non-paper will be due
> in mid-September, and will be drawn on by the co-facilitators to
> formulate a zero-draft). The group will also look forward to consider
> which further inputs could be made or actions could be taken
> strategically to ensure that priorities from the Asian region are
> fully taken onto board in the final WSIS+10 Review outcome documents.
> If there are other processes the group believes this work could
> usefully feed into, these might be taken into consideration as well.
>
>
> *The meeting is conceived as a highly interactive working meeting that
> is geared towards producing a joint submission to the next input round
> on the Review outcome document. *Participants will be drawn from all
> non-government stakeholder groups, and will have a wide and rich
> variety of backgrounds, both in terms of professional expertise and
> geographical location. What unites all, however, is a shared
> commitment to a free and open Internet and to the use of technology to
> benefit the development and human rights of all in our region.
>
>
> *We're very happy to let you know that remote participation will be
> available. *For more information on remote participation and the event
> in general, please see the event website <http://www.wsis10.asia/>. Or
> follow us on Twitter @WSISAsia #wsis10.
>
>
> We look forward to your inputs into this event. Do please let me know
> if you have any comments or questions.
>
>
> Warm regards,
>
> Anja
>
>
>
> -- 
> Dr. Anja Kovacs
> The Internet Democracy Project
>
> +91 9899028053 | @anjakovacs
> www.internetdemocracy.in <http://www.internetdemocracy.in/>
>
>
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