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

Wed Mar 4 15:46:02 EST 2015

Jeremy, Nnenna, everyone,

It is interesting to note, as Norbert did, that to express in the open, an opinion is now equating to a disruption (Jeremy seems once again to be highly disrupted with this).

I thought:
- Everybody here loved Internet for being such a disruptive modern machinery
- That "Freedom of Expression" fighters would applaud to someone expressing his opinion (and by the same token the voice of many others).
- That, at least since the NetMundial final statement, we were in agreement with the idea of a democratic multistakeholder approach. I understand that this is still not a reference.

So, once again, apart from some nice statements, one open eye, as seducing it might be,  is not enough to secure democratic debate and governance in the current muddy waters of IG.

We are still going nowhere, I am afraid.

Definitely, the fight will be more and more political. The ISF is more than ever the most needed venue for CS to catch up with its own values, convictions and fights. I am thinking of Athens, where I spent a few days lately. Definitely...

We need a democratic governance for a global common good, and we will enjoy a pluri-party dialogue. We need to break the ICANN jail (very not an open space, but a highly captured space). We need change and we need hope. We don't need fake dreams and real illusions. The Internet we want has nothing to do with the current asymmetric status quo. Has it changed so far? No. So what are these beautiful speeches for? From NetMundial to Unesco, nothing changes.

JC

Le 4 mars 2015 à 16:42, Jeremy Malcolm a écrit :

> On Mar 4, 2015, at 4:33 PM, Jeremy Malcolm <jmalcolm at eff.org> wrote:
>> 
>> You’re right, but you can nevertheless thank UNESCO for the opportunity to participate on a multi-stakeholder basis and acknowledge that the outcome document is a lot richer than it would otherwise have been because of this.
> 
> 
> Also, please clarify that the Just Net Coalition does NOT represent all of civil society.  This given that Richard Hill on behalf of the coalition has just disrupted the meeting with a formal objection to the document due to its omission to qualify references to multi-stakeholderism with “democratic” (which he incorrectly stated was not objected to during the last drafting session), and its omission to include a reference to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.  Other than his objection, the document was adopted by the meeting by consensus.
> 
> -- 
> Jeremy Malcolm
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> Electronic Frontier Foundation
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