[governance] statement for ITU website

[Avri Doria]

Hi,

I too think it is a good statement.  Though if it is meant to  
represent civil society you might want to expand it to cover academia  
as well ass NGOs.

In any case I support it.
a.

On 30 jan 2006, at 04.35, William Drake wrote:

> Good morning,
>
> Since there was no consensus on making a joint caucus or other CS  
> statement on the website for the ITU's Wednesday reform meeting, I  
> decided I might as well type up something short to submit on a  
> personal basis.  If anyone would like to sign on you're more than  
> welcome; either way, I will submit this by close of business today,  
> Geneva time.  I don't know that we'd have time to do any text  
> tweaking, but if that might make this more attractive to potential  
> signatories, let's communicate.  I see that Parminder made a nice  
> submission on the cost of ITU documentation and its nonconformity  
> with the access to knowledge and information principle enunciated  
> in the WSIS Plan of Action.  The below text is on a different point  
> and is complementary.
>
> -------
>
> The WSIS Principles state that Internet governance should be  
> multilateral, transparent and democratic, with the full involvement  
> of governments, the private sector, civil society and international  
> organizations.  The ITU clearly does not meet the last criteria.   
> For the overwhelming majority of civil society organizations, the  
> barriers to becoming a sector member or even an associate are  
> simply too high.  In parallel, there are no options for  
> participating on a more flexible, ad hoc basis in special workshops  
> and seminars, or in the assemblies and conferences.  In  
> consequence, and unlike other UN agencies, true NGOs (as opposed to  
> hybrid business/user/technical organizations) are almost entirely  
> absent and alienated from the ITU.   That this is not in the ITU’s  
> own interest was amply demonstrated by the WSIS process, in which  
> civil society strongly opposed the ITU playing an expanded, leading  
> role in Internet governance.
>
> With WSIS follow-up and implementation efforts forthcoming, now  
> would be a particularly appropriate time to make opening up to  
> civil society a central element of ITU reform.  Doing so would not  
> in any way disrupt the work of the Union, and the administrative  
> cost would be negligible (we can print our own documents, etc).   
> The ITU would not face a stampede of hundreds of organizations  
> seeking to participate in ongoing study group work on frequency  
> propagation, signaling requirements and protocols, and other  
> technical matters.  A much more likely scenario would be that a  
> manageable number of NGOs would seek to participate in some of the  
> above-mentioned workshops, seminars, assemblies and conferences.   
> Civil society experts contributed significantly to the success of  
> the February 2004 ITU workshop on Internet governance, and there is  
> every reason to believe that same constructive engagement would  
> ensue in other forums.  Allowing civil society participation in  
> events like the March 2006 meeting on NGN policies would be a good  
> first step, and would not require changes to the Constitution and  
> Convention.  WSIS and/or ECOSOC accreditation would seem sufficient  
> for this purpose.
>
> It is unfortunate that the ITU’s February 1 reform meeting is  
> closed to civil society participation.  Our exclusion from this and  
> similar events has been debated extensively on civil society  
> Internet listservs in the course of the WSIS process and  
> afterwards.  There was little enthusiasm for the website’s cheery  
> invitation to “be part of it” by submitting statements in this  
> “open forum” for a meeting from which we are barred.  If however  
> the ITU were to initiate a genuine, open and inclusive dialogue on  
> the matter, the response would be rather different.
>
> ---------
>
> Best,
>
> Bill
>
> *******************************************************
> William J. Drake  drake at hei.unige.ch
> Director, Project on the Information
>   Revolution and Global Governance
>   Graduate Institute for International Studies
>   Geneva, Switzerland
> President, Computer Professionals for
>    Social Responsibility
> http://www.cpsr.org/board/drake
> *******************************************************
>
> _______________________________________________
> governance mailing list
> governance at lists.cpsr.org
> https://ssl.cpsr.org/mailman/listinfo/governance

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20060130/6f6d704f/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
governance mailing list
governance at lists.cpsr.org
https://ssl.cpsr.org/mailman/listinfo/governance