[governance] Annan to establish international forum on internet governance

[Robert Guerra]

The News Alert I have setup to track "WSIS", just sent me the following....



http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=17681&Cr=internet&Cr1=

Annan to establish international forum on internet governance

2 March 2006 – Following up on an agreement reached on the contentious
topic of internet governance at the November World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan has decided to start creating a forum for a more inclusive
dialogue on internet policy.

According to his spokesman, Mr. Annan will establish a small Secretariat
in Geneva to assist in the convening of an Internet Governance Forum,
following consultations held in February by Nitin Desai, the
Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the WSIS that produced a
consensus on the need for a strong development orientation.

“It was also felt that the Forum should be open and inclusive, and allow
for the participation of all interested stakeholders with proven
expertise and experience in Internet-related matters,” said spokesman
Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

The Secretariat will be headed by Markus Kummer, who has been the
Executive Coordinator of the Secretariat of the Working Group on
Internet Governance, which was established by the Secretary-General at
the request of the first phase of the Summit, held in Geneva in 2003.

In November, amid false rumours that the UN was trying to take over the
Internet, WSIS decided that a non-profit United States-based body, the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), will remain
in charge of technical management of the Internet, though individual
countries will manage their own country-code domains.

In addition, it asked Mr. Annan to convene the governance forum, which
would have no oversight function and would not replace existing
arrangements, but would allow for dialogue among stakeholders.

The purpose of this exchange, according to the WSIS outcome document,
would include making the Internet more multilingual, supporting local
content development and addressing "many cross-cutting international
public policy issues that require attention and are not adequately
addressed by the current mechanisms.” The first meeting of the Forum is
expected to take place later this year in Athens.




http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sgsm10366.doc.htm

02/03/2006
	
Secretary-General
SG/SM/10366
PI/1702
Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York

    PREPARATIONs BEGIN FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM



    The Secretary-General has decided to establish a small Secretariat
in Geneva to assist in the convening of the Internet Governance Forum
(IGF).  The Secretary-General was asked by the World Summit on the
Information Society, held in Tunis in November, to convene such a Forum
for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue.

    Nitin Desai, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the Summit,
held open consultations on 16 and 17 February in Geneva aimed at
reaching a common understanding on how the Forum should function.  Those
discussions produced a consensus that the IGF should have a strong
development orientation.  It was also felt that the Forum should be open
and inclusive, and allow for the participation of all interested
stakeholders with proven expertise and experience in Internet-related
matters.

    The Secretariat will be headed by Markus Kummer, who has been the
Executive Coordinator of the Secretariat of the Working Group on
Internet Governance, which was established by the Secretary-General at
the request of the first phase of the Summit, in Geneva in 2003.  The
first meeting of the Forum is expected to take place later this year in
Athens.

    On a separate issue, the Secretary-General has also decided to ask
Mr. Desai to consult informally on how to start a process aimed at
enhancing cooperation on international public policy issues related to
the Internet.  The Summit had requested the Secretary-General to start
such a process.

    * *** *
    For information media • not an official record


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