[governance] Reconstituting MAG

[Jeanette Hofmann]

Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
> On 08/01/2008, at 9:31 PM, Jeanette Hofmann wrote:
> 
>> We also discussed whether members should be selected by the 
>> stakeholders or by the secretariat in accordance with the UN SG. I 
>> agree with Ian that any balance between regions, skills and gender can 
>> only be reached if the various stakeholder don't have the last word 
>> but can only suggest people.
> 
> Why?  If they are required to balance regions, skills and gender within 
> each stakeholder group not just in the full MAG, this does not make 
> sense to me.

You are right as far as gender balance is concerned because it is sort 
of a binary category. Regional diversity and expertise are much more 
complex. What if each stakeholder group chooses Western European 
candidates or if most African members are from South Africa? How do you 
ensure that you have experts on intellectual property rights in the 
group or technical expertise? My guess is that you would end up with 
back room negotiations to address such specific requirements. It seems 
more honest to me to leave the final decision to the secretariat and 
thereby ensure some accountability for the overall composition of the MAG.
jeanette

> 
>> I am in favor of sticking to the lowest number of groups possible 
>> because each further group makes the categories the process of 
>> selection and representation only more arbitrary than it is right now.
> 
> I agree though for a slightly different reason.  I see the division 
> between the stakeholder groups as stemming from the different sources of 
> democratic legitimacy that they bring to the table (for governments 
> representation of their citizens, for the private sector the value of 
> the free market, and for civil society the promotion of transnational 
> substantive values that are not adequately represented by governments or 
> markets).
> 
> --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}'
> 
> 
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