[governance] Proposal: WSIS Principles => ITU Reform

[William Drake]

Hi,

Further to my last post on NGNs etc: According to the Tunis Agenda, the IGF is supposed to "promote and assess, on an ongoing basis, the embodiment of WSIS principles in Internet governance process."  These of course hold that "the international management of the Internet should be multilateral, transparent and democratic, with the full involvement of governments, the private sector, civil society and international organizations."  Hence, all public and private sector international organizations/networks involved in developing shared international regimes and programs pertaining to the development and use of the Internet are supposed to be evaluated in terms of their conformity with these principles, and where necessary, reforms are to be encouraged to bring them into conformity.  

This is an essential mandate, and potentially one of the most important outcomes of the entire WSIS process.  There are a wide variety of mechanisms involved in developing shared frameworks for different pieces of the Internet environment, and in many cases they do not conform, or conform fully, with basic principles of good governance.  When the WGIG did a little exercise beginning this sort of horizontal evaluation (we unfortunately didn't work it through to completion), a couple of things became clear.  While the private sector bodies were not multilateral, in the sense of intergovernmental (hence the oversight battle), some---e.g. IETF, RIRs, even ICANN in the views of many---looked pretty good according to the other criteria; other industry-only bodies involved in setting rules for e-commerce, privacy and security, etc., less so. Conversely, the intergovernmental bodies had other weaknesses, most notably with respect to the 'full involvement of,' especially civil society.

An obvious example of the latter, which was much discussed both on the caucus list and in the WGIG, is the ITU.  While ITU's ambitions vis the 'oversight' issue have been side-lined by the WSIS/WGIG processes, it is increasingly involved in other bits of the IG environment, and is emerging as a if not the premier place for the work on NGN and security/trust issues.  But there is effectively no real CS participation in any of this, and there is only full transparency for paid members.  In the WSIS era, some of ITU's leadership, most notably Houlin Zhao of ITU-T, professed their willingness to promote an opening to CS, which would involve convincing member governments and firms and in some cases, changing the governing treaties.  At the CONGO debriefing on WSIS December, SG Utsumi went on quite a bit about how ITU supposedly loves CS and was responsible for getting us into WSIS.  We talked previously on the caucus list about taking ITU up on such statements, but never acted.

Now ITU is having one of its periodic reform discussions (these have been going on since 1865).  Philippe Dam of CONGO sent a message to the plenary list noting that ITU is inviting external input on reform priorities; the message is below.  It would be really useful if the caucus could make a brief collective input on the website encouraging ITU to open its doors to CS.  It needn't be elaborate, just a paragraph, but we'd have to do it quickly; Philippe's message says 25 January, but since the consultation isn't until Feb. 1, I would assume we could still submit something.  I'd also encourage ISOC to do the same.  

At a minimum, I'd think we could say that special seminars and workshops, such as the upcoming event on policy frameworks for NGNs http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/ngn/ (which could be important) or the meetings they did previously on spam and security should be open.  I don't think this would require constitutional changes, as would CS participation in the sectors, Council, or diplomatic Plenipotentiary Conference.  Pushing the latter would require a more concerted effort.

Inclusive process demands have always been the one area on which the caucus could agree quickly.  If we can't get it together to say let us in, probably discussions about becoming a non-profit org etc are wildly premature.  

Any interest?

Best,

Bill





-----Original Message-----
From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org]On Behalf Of CONGO - Philippe Dam
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 5:31 PM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org; bureau at wsis-cs.org
Cc: rbloem at ngocongo.org; wsis at ngocongo.org
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] On-line Consultation on ITU Reform



Dear all, 

 

Just for your information, I'd like to draw your attention to the on-line consultation organised on the ITU website, on the issue of the ITU reform in the perspective of WSIS follow-up. NGOs, including non-ITU members, and academicians can participate. ITU mentioned that deadline for on-line input is 25 January. 

This on-line consultation is intended to provide ground for the ITU Reform Meeting (convened by the ITU Council WG on WSIS) to be held on the 1st February 2006.

More information at: http://www.itu.int/reform/index.html  

ITU Council Resolution 1244: http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/background/resolutions/itu2005/1244.doc 

Best regards, 

 

 

Philippe Dam
11, Avenue de la Paix
CH-1202 Geneva
Tel: +41 22 301 1000
Fax: +41 22 301 2000
E-mail: wsis at ngocongo.org
Website: www.ngocongo.org 

 

The Conference of NGOs (CONGO) is an international, membership association that facilitates the participation of NGOs in United Nations debates and decisions. Founded in 1948, CONGO's major objective is to ensure the presence of NGOs in exchanges among the world's governments and United Nations agencies on issues of global concern.  For more information see our website at www.ngocongo.org

 
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