[bestbits] Right to Information

Sat Jun 4 16:52:40 EDT 2016

Dear Renata,

The instructions on the IGF website are rather complex but quite clear.
The representation will be 5 for each "stakeholder group" of which Civil
Society (CS) is one.
For CS
The CS MAG members will select 1 from among their group of 14,
acknowledging that some of the 14 may not be free to attend. That is a
matter for the CS MAG to arrange.
CSCG will select 2 representatives from civil society generally. (If it
were up to me, which it isn't, I would not consider the CS MAG in this
process since their opportunity came in the CS MAG selection)
CSCG will also present 3-4 additional nominations for the two additional CS
slots. These nominations may or may not be used in the final selection.
Since the objective of the meeting is a long term view of the 10 year
renewed mandate of the IGF and the 15 year period of the Sustainable
Development Goals the existing MAG with its maximum 3 year tenure is of
important but limited relevance. This is the reason for my comment on the
CSCG selection.

That was in response to your message.

My point, which was not answered, is that civil society has a right to know
who is in competition to represent it. This is in respect of the CSCG
selection which I see as being separate from the MAG selection.

On Monday we will be having a General Election in Saint Lucia. Admittedly
we will all get to choose (vote). However the final result will be the
group of people who will provide governance here for the next 5 years. My
argument is that we have a right to know who all of them are, just as we
have a right to know who is competing to represent us at the Retreat in New
York.

Best wishes
Deirdre

It is expected there will be 5 participants from each of the 4 IGF
Stakeholder communities. ...
To ensure continuity and integration with current IGF and MAG efforts,
current MAG members from each of the Civil Society, Technical, and Private
Sector communities will appoint 1 participant each.   Additionally, each
community will have the option of designating 2 participants through their
own processes.  The stakeholder communities are also requested to submit 3
- 4 additional nominations for the remaining 2 positions while noting that
participants may also be drawn from self-nominations as well as nominations
from other institutions/organizations.  This is to assure balanced
participation and broad diversity across a number of considerations.
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf-retreat

On 4 June 2016 at 14:49, Renata Aquino Ribeiro <raquino at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Deirdre and all
>
> The deadline for CSCG selection of nominees to IGF Retreat is upcoming.
> This process, however, depended on other aspects:
> 1) The candidates would have to send an email to CSCG nomcom
> 2) The candidates were also requested to self-nominate or be nominated
> in IGF website
> 3) The CSCG asked CS MAG members to present the result of their
> selection, so as not to indicate the same CS rep the CS MAG members
> choose
>
> I was honored to have been one of the CSCG nominees who became part of
> the MAG IGF 2016
> I can not speak for the whole CS at MAG of course
> But I can say that the majority of MAG CS is participating on a
> selection process.
> Given the solution of that aspect, I am sure CSCG will follow the best
> path it can in terms of appointing nominees which do fulfill all the
> other conditions.
>
> Best,
>
> Renata
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jun 4, 2016 at 1:03 PM, Deirdre Williams
> <williams.deirdre at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Dear Friends,
> > Please excuse the deliberate cross-posting.
> >
> > The Civil Society Coordination Group (CSCG) is just finishing a
> selection,
> > working to very tight deadlines, of representatives of civil society as a
> > whole to attend a Retreat to be held in New York next month on the
> future of
> > the Internet Governance Forum.
> >
> > When the Retreat was first proposed there was considerable debate about
> the
> > involvement of civil society, and about whether CSCG should make the
> > selection. Finally it was agreed that CSCG should go ahead. After that
> there
> > was silence.
> >
> > Currently there is no public knowledge of whether anyone at all in fact
> > presented themselves to CSCG for selection, nor, if anyone did, do we
> have
> > any idea of who they might be.
> >
> > But those about to be represented, civil society as a whole, have a
> right to
> > know the answers to these questions, and to know them BEFORE any
> selection
> > is completed.
> >
> > This is a reminder to all of us, particularly in the context of the
> review
> > of the CSCG, of the need to remember to "think communally" if we really
> want
> > to change a hierarchical system, to be constantly aware of the
> obligation of
> > information as a right, not as a favour, to all participants.
> >
> > Lack of engagement is a ubiquitous problem of governance. The
> "stakeholders"
> > abdicate from participation in part at least because the "more equal"
> > stakeholders turn to each other rather than to them. In this there could
> be
> > one answer to Item 2 of the call for comment on the Retreat draft agenda
> > which reads:
> >
> > 2)     What measures can be taken to engage those stakeholders who are
> > currently unengaged, with a view to expand and diversify physical and
> > virtual participation?
> >
> >
> > Best wishes
> >
> > Deirdre
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > “The fundamental cure for poverty is not money but knowledge" Sir William
> > Arthur Lewis, Nobel Prize Economics, 1979
> >
> > ____________________________________________________________
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-- 
“The fundamental cure for poverty is not money but knowledge" Sir William
Arthur Lewis, Nobel Prize Economics, 1979
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