[governance] Kofi Annan on Internet Governance

[Ian Peter]

The U.N. Isn't a Threat to the Net
By Kofi A. Annan
Saturday, November 5, 2005; A19

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/04/AR200511040
1431.html>

The main objective of the World Summit on the Information Society to be held
this month in Tunisia is to ensure that poor countries get the full benefits
that new information and communication technologies
-- including the Internet -- can bring to economic and social development.
But as the meeting draws nearer, there is a growing chorus of misinformation
about it.

One mistaken notion is that the United Nations wants to "take over,"  
police or otherwise control the Internet. Nothing could be farther from the
truth. The United Nations wants only to ensure the Internet's global reach,
and that effort is at the heart of this summit.

Strong feelings about protecting the Internet are to be expected. In its
short life, the Internet has become an agent of revolutionary change in
health, education, journalism and politics, among other areas. In the United
Nations' own work for development, we have glimpsed only the beginning of
the benefits it can provide: for victims of disaster, quicker,
better-coordinated relief; for poor people in remote areas, lifesaving
medical information; and, for people trapped under repressive governments,
access to uncensored information as well as an outlet to air their
grievances and appeal for help.

There are also legitimate concerns about the use of the Internet to incite
terrorism or help terrorists, disseminate pornography, facilitate illegal
activities or glorify Nazism and other hateful ideologies. But censoring
cyberspace, compromising its technical underpinnings or submitting it to
stringent governmental oversight would mean turning our backs on one of
today's greatest instruments of progress. To defend the Internet is to
defend freedom itself.

Governance of matters related to the Internet, such as spam and cybercrime,
is being dealt with in a dispersed and fragmented manner, while the
Internet's infrastructure has been managed in an informal but effective
collaboration among private businesses, civil society and the academic and
technical communities. But developing countries find it difficult to follow
all these processes and feel left out of Internet governance structures.

The United States deserves our thanks for having developed the Internet and
made it available to the world. For historical reasons, the United States
has the ultimate authority over some of the Internet's core resources. It is
an authority that many say should be shared with the international
community. The United States, which has exercised its oversight
responsibilities fairly and honorably, recognizes that other governments
have legitimate public policy and sovereignty concerns, and that efforts to
make the governance arrangements more international should continue.

The need for change is a reflection of the future, when Internet growth will
be most dramatic in developing countries. What we are seeing is the
beginning of a dialogue between two different cultures:  
the nongovernmental Internet community, with its traditions of informal,
bottom-up decision making, and the more formal, structured world of
governments and intergovernmental organizations.

The Internet has become so important for almost every country's economy and
administration that it would be naive to expect governments not to take an
interest, especially since public service applications in areas such as
education and health care will become even more widespread. They need to be
able to get their Internet policies "right," and to coordinate with each
other and with the Internet community. But governments alone cannot set the
rules. They must learn to work with non-state stakeholders. They, after all,
are the ones that have played critical roles in building and coordinating
the Internet, and they will remain the driving force of further expansion
and innovation.

At the summit two years ago in Geneva, discussions on Internet governance
reached a stalemate. So the U.N. member states asked me to establish a group
to examine the issue further. This Working Group on Internet Governance
presented its findings in a report that reflects the views of its members,
but not of the United Nations. It proposed creation of a "new space for
dialogue" -- a forum that would bring all stakeholders together to share
information and best practices and discuss difficult issues, but that would
not have decision-making power.

The group also offered several options for oversight arrangements, with
varying degrees of government involvement and relationship to the United
Nations. None says that the United Nations should take over from the
technical bodies now running the Internet; none proposes to create a new
U.N. agency; and some suggest no U.N. role at all. All say that the
day-to-day management of the Internet should be left to technical
institutions, not least to shield it from the heat of day-to-day politics.
These and other suggestions are being considered by U.N. member states.

Everyone acknowledges the need for more international participation in
discussions of Internet governance. The disagreement is over how to achieve
it. So let's set aside fears of U.N. "designs" on the Internet. Much as some
would like to open up another front of attack on the United Nations, this
dog of an argument won't bark. I urge all stakeholders to come to Tunis
ready to bridge the digital divide and ready to build an open, inclusive
information society that enriches and empowers all people.

The writer is secretary general of the United Nations.



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