[bestbits] Remarks at UNESCO Closing Ceremony of "Connecting the Dots Conference"

[parminder]

On Friday 06 March 2015 12:53 AM, Shawna Finnegan wrote:
> Dear Michael,
>
> While I am not active in these lists, I do try to follow the
> discussion, and would like to take the opportunity to respond to your
> question about whether APC has debated and agreed to favour notions of
> 'multistakeholderism' over a commitment to democracy.
>
> In the 3+ years that I have worked with APC, my experience has been
> that we debate the strengths and weaknesses of various
> multi-stakeholder spaces on an ongoing basis, and discuss whether it
> is strategic to engage in those spaces. At the same time, we support
> our members to advocate for changes in laws and policies, and actively
> engage in intergovernmental bodies, such as the UN Human Rights Council.
>
> Moreover, when there is opportunity to contribute to ongoing
> discussion about multistakeholder processes and 'enhanced
> cooperation', APC has emphasized that multi-stakeholder participation
> is a means to achieve inclusive democratic internet governance:
>
> "Multi-stakeholder participation is not an end in itself, it is a means
> to achieve the end of inclusive democratic internet governance that
> enables the internet to be a force, to quote from the Geneva
> Declaration, for “the attainment of a more peaceful, just and
> prosperous world.”
>
> (from our submission:
> http://www.apc.org/en/system/files/APC_response_CSTD_WGEC_10092013.pdf)
>
> There is no agreement to favour notions of 'multistakeholderism' over
> a commitment to democracy because the dilemma is false.

  Shawna, two things in the above regard. First, unlike democracy we 
just dont know what multistakeholderism is - even in its ideal-typical 
form, and how it works to produce public policy, the key question here.  
I asked this question specifically responding on 27th Feb to Anriette's 
email, but got no response. And to leave it not vague, also cited two 
specific hypothetical policy documents, asking how in your scheme of 
things these would be best produced. Once we know the answer, we will 
really be able to compare it with the alternative - known and practised 
democratic means (which if you want me to describe, I happily will, at 
least my best conception of such a method).

Second, it indeed there is no binary or dilemma, as you say,  APC and 
other CS people present there should perhaps have put their foot down as 
solidly as JNC did against those who said 'democracy had baggage', and 
therefore, while the 'multistakeholder' word would be in the document, 
'democracy' wont be. It is 'they' who posed this 'false dilemma' and you 
should perhaps be arguing with them. (Did the  CS groups/ people that 
were present even object to the 'democracy has baggage' assertion? No, 
they did not.)

  We can make these points in discussions here, but those must also 
match the visible action on the ground, which really counts, either 
contributing to or taking away from the real political struggles. Some 
very significant political things happened in Paris yesterday, and there 
are responsibilities and accountabilities for that, beyond words 
presented in these discussions, and I mean no dis-respect from them, 
because I am indeed happy that you are presenting a case. I am just 
saying what I politically think about the situation, and I cannot be 
dishonest about it.

regards
parminder


>   APC engages
> where we see the opportunity to positively affect change.
>
> Shawna
>
> On 15-03-05 08:04 AM, Michael Gurstein wrote:
>> Pardon my "tone" Anriette, but I find a UN document signed off on
>> by significant elements of Civil Society which excludes reference
>> to "democracy" in favour of the vague and non-defined terminology
>> of "multistakeholderism
>> <https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/the-multistakeholder-model-neo-liberalism-and-global-internet-governance/>"
>>
>>
> and which equally excludes references in any way supportive of social
>> justice along with a rationalization of this because of "lack of
>> space" and presumptions of "conceptual baggage", as quite
>> "demeaning" of all those who were in any way a party to this
>> travesty.
>>
>>
>>
>> This combined with the non-transparency of the selection of the
>> responsible parties and of their deliberative activities and
>> equally of the provenance of the funding support provided for the
>> Civil Society component who were able to attend this event and thus
>> provide the overall framework of legitimacy for this output
>> document should I think raise alarm bells among any with a degree
>> of independent concern for how normative structures are evolving
>> (or "being evolved") in this sphere.
>>
>>
>>
>> BTW, has APC debated and then agreed to favour notions of
>> multistakeholderism over a commitment to democracy as part of its
>> own normative structures as I queried in my previous email?
>>
>>
>>
>> M
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message----- From:
>> bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net
>> [mailto:bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net] On Behalf Of Anriette
>> Esterhuysen Sent: March 5, 2015 2:36 AM To:
>> governance at lists.igcaucus.org Cc: bestbits at lists.bestbits.net
>> Subject: [bestbits] Remarks at UNESCO Closing Ceremony of
>> "Connecting the Dots Conference"
>>
>>
>>
>> Dear all
>>
>>
>>
>> Just an explanation and some context.
>>
>>
>>
>> I was on the 'coordinating committee' of the event. Our role was
>> to review comments on the draft statement and support the chair
>> and secretariat in compiling drafts.
>>
>>
>>
>> The final UNESCO outcome document did include the vast majority of
>> text/proposals submitted by civil society beforehand and onsite.
>>
>>
>>
>> This includes text submitted by Richard Hill on behalf of JNC
>> (Richard made several editorial suggestions which improved the
>> text) and text from Anita Gurumurthy from IT for Change (which
>> greatly improved weakened language on gender in the pre-final
>> draft).
>>
>>
>>
>> The text on 'social and economic rights' were not excluded for any
>> reason other than it came during the final session and the
>> Secretariat were trying to keep the document short and linked
>> directly to the Study.
>>
>> It was decided to elaborate on the links to broader rights, and to
>> UNESCO needing to work with other rights bodies, in the final
>> study report rather than in the outcome statement.
>>
>>
>>
>> Again, not ideal from my perspective, but that was the outcome of
>> the discussion.
>>
>>
>>
>> It is a pity that 'democratic' was not added, but it was never
>> really an option. I personally, and APC, support linking democratic
>> to multistakeholder and we were happy that this happened in the
>> NETmundial statement. And reading Norbert's text below (thanks for
>> that Norbert) I would like to find a way to make sure that the
>> meaning of democratic However, in the UN IG context there is a very
>> particular angle to why "democratic multistakeholder" is so
>> contentious. In the Tunis Agenda the word "democratic" is directly
>> linked with the word "multilateral" - every time it occurs. This
>> means that people/governments who feel that 'multilateral' can be
>> used to diminish the recognition given to the importance of
>> multistakeholder participation, and take the debate back
>> intergovernmental oversight of IG, will not agree to having
>> 'democratic'
>>
>> in front of multistakeholder.
>>
>>
>>
>> In the context of these UN type negotiations it will be code for
>> reinserting multilateral (in the meaning of 'among governments')
>> into the text.
>>
>>
>>
>> At the NETmundial we had to fight for 'democratic
>> multistakeholder', but because it is a 'new' text we succeeded.
>>
>>
>>
>> The thing with documents that come out of the UN system is that
>> they are full of invisible 'hyperlinks' to previous documents and
>> political struggles that play themselves out in multiple spaces.
>>
>>
>>
>> I actually looked for a quote from the Tunis Agenda that we could
>> insert (at Richard's suggestion) to see if I could find a reference
>> to democratic that is not linked to 'multilateral' but I could not
>> find this quote, and I showed this to Richard and warned him that
>> unfortunately 'democratic' will most likely not be included.
>>
>>
>>
>> I can confirm that the editing group did consider this seriously,
>> but that the number of objections to this text were far greater
>> than the number of requests for putting it in.
>>
>>
>>
>> This is simply in the nature of consensus texts that are negotiated
>> in this way.
>>
>>
>>
>> There was also much stronger text on anonymity and encryption as
>> fundamental enablers of online privacy and freedom of expression in
>> the early draft. But it had to be toned down on the insistence of
>> the government of Brazil as the Brazilian constitution states that
>> anonymity is illegitimate.
>>
>>
>>
>> Civil society never succeeds in getting everything it wants in
>> documents we negotiate with governments. We have to evaluate the
>> gains vs. the losses.
>>
>>
>>
>> In my view the gains in this document outweighs the losses.
>> Supporting it means that we have  UN agency who has a presence in
>> the global south who will put issues that are important to us on
>> its agenda, which will, I hope, create the opportunity for more
>> people from civil society, particularly from developing countries,
>> to learn, participate and influence internet-related debates with
>> policy-makers.
>>
>>
>>
>> Michael, as for your tone, and your allegations. I don't really
>> know what to say about them. They are false, they are destructive
>> and they demean not only the work of the civil society
>> organisations or individuals you name, but also the work - and what
>> I believe to be the values - of the Just Net Coalition.
>>
>>
>>
>> Anriette
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 05/03/2015 11:46, Norbert Bollow wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 5 Mar 2015 02:27:14 +0100
>>> Jeremy Malcolm <jmalcolm at eff.org <mailto:jmalcolm at eff.org>>
>>> wrote:
>>>> On Mar 4, 2015, at 7:54 PM, Michael Gurstein
>>>> <gurstein at gmail.com
>> <mailto:gurstein at gmail.com>>
>>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> Perhaps we could have an explanation from Jeremy and others
>>>>> on the
>>>>> drafting committee as to when and how "democracy" and "social
>>>>> and
>>>>> economic rights' became unacceptable terms in a document
>>>>> meant to
>>>>> have global significance?
>>>> With pleasure.  This is why:
>>>> http://igfwatch.org/discussion-board/unesco-resists-jncs-attempt-to-t
>>>>   urn-democracy-against-ordinary-internet-users
>>> I would like to hereby state clearly that what Jeremy claims is
>>> JNC's
>>> view of "democratic multi-stakeholderism" is not an actual
>>> position of
>>> JNC.
>>> For JNC, "democratic" simply means: democratic.
>>> We insist that just like governance at national levels must be
>>> democratic (which has been internationally accepted as a human
>>> right,
>>> even if there are countries where this is not currently
>>> implemented
>>> satisfactorily), any and all global governance must also be
>>> democratic.
>>> JNC's foundational document, the Delhi Declaration, states this
>>> as
>>> follows:
>>> Globally, there is a severe democratic deficit with regard to
>>> Internet governance. It is urgently required to establish
>>> appropriate platforms and mechanisms for global governance of
>>> the
>>> Internet that are democratic and participative.
>>> We are opposed to any kind of system in which multistakeholderism
>>> is
>>> implemented in a way that is not democratic.
>>> We are *not* opposed to participative mechanisms for global
>>> governance
>>> of the Internet. In fact we explicitly demand, in our
>>> foundational
>>> document, mechanisms for global governance of the Internet which
>>> are
>>> democratic *and* participative.
>>> This demand has nothing whatsoever to do with what Jeremy claims
>>> is
>>> our goal, which he describes as “limited type of government-led
>>> rulemaking”. That would clearly *not* be participative.
>>> We insist that Internet governance must be democratic *and*
>>> participative.
>>> Is that so hard to understand???
>>> The above-mentioned post of Jeremy also links, twice, to an
>>> earlier
>>> blog post of his, and he claims that he has there "revealed ...
>>> the
>>> agenda of the Just Net Coalition". That post happens to be quite
>>> full
>>> of factually false assertions. I have now published my response
>>> (which
>>> had previously been communicated in a non-public manner) at
>>> http://justnetcoalition.org/reply-jeremy-malcolm
>>> Greetings,
>>> Norbert
>>> co-convenor, Just Net Coalition
>>> http://JustNetCoalition.org
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>>
>>
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