[governance] IGF public consultation

[Jeremy Malcolm]

Parminder wrote:
> For instance, we need discussions on the
> issue of the UN communiqué raising issues of rotation, transparency etc in
> IGF and MAG, and of giving the issue new consideration after Rio.

Is this communiqué public?  If not, how can we discuss it?

Anyway, what I took away from the September open consultation was how 
almost everything that civil society agitates for seems eventually to be 
taken up by other stakeholder groups, or even by the Secretariat, some 
months later.  For example:

* Criteria for accreditation of dynamic coalitions is something we asked
   for last year, which, out of the blue, Markus Kummer has recognised
   the need for this week;

* Back in February we suggested a main session should be held on the
   role and mandate of the IGF, and lo and behold, Brazil has now
   suggested "a main session dedicated to the future of the IGF ... with
   a view to the full implementation of the IGF mandate";

* In the last consultations, much the same happened with our previous
   suggestions about the need for the IGF to produce reports with its
   conclusions, and the need for the dynamic coalitions to take the lead
   in producing tangible outcomes for the IGF;

* Not so much something that the IGC has spoken about, but I've written
   about the eventual need for the IGF to become independent from the UN,
   and even this has been acknowledged by Nitin Desai this week:

	At the moment, this process is constituted as an instruction to
	the Secretary-General to call a meeting and constitute an
	Advisory Group. That's the formal status of this meeting. It's a
	meeting called by the Secretary-General of the United Nations,
	I'm talking of the main IGF. Because that's the way in which
	that mandate was specified. But [reform] is a long-term issue.
	It certainly needs to be looked at.

So while it may *seem* that asking for outlandish reforms is impolitic 
or will make us look foolish to other stakeholders, it ain't necessarily 
so.  Often our thinking is just in advance of that of others.

-- 
Jeremy Malcolm LLB (Hons) B Com
Internet and Open Source lawyer, IT consultant, actor
host -t NAPTR 1.0.8.0.3.1.2.9.8.1.6.e164.org|awk -F! '{print $3}'
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance