[governance] Proposed text for a sign-on or IGC statement re:
Parminder
parminder at itforchange.net
Thu Apr 2 10:53:49 EDT 2009
Dear Jean-Louis
We are glad for your and CSPDTT's support. Thank you very much. Parminder
Dear All
There is of course a very strong 'development constituency' that is of
this view, as presented d below. Almost all people and organizations
working in the development area that we know and work with will have
a position close to this. However, much effort is made to blind-side
this view, behave as if it is not there, or is only held by a small
fringe. If a more open forum like IGF does show some promise to give
space to these views, it is constantly run down.
My problems with organized business interests heavy governance
structures in ICANN can relatively easily be understood in the
background of the current clamour, nay belatedly the accepted collective
wisdom, for new global regulatory structures for global finance. What
about the following governance structure for regulating global finance,
which I build following the ICANN/ GNSO model. Incidentally, this model
is the current improved one which we are supposed to be happy about.
A global policy council with 25 % votes for the banks, 25% for other
financial institutions, 25% for large commercial account holders and 25
% for saving account holders, nothing to anyone with no bank account -
which is still the large majority of the world's disadvantaged people
(how banking works is supposed to be none of their business)
Why dont we - of the world of innovative governance models in the
information society - propose the above to the G-20 meeting on the
current economic crisis, and then celebrate if this proposal is
accepted as a great multistakeholder governance innovation, that frees
the world from statist controls and provides brave new directions.
(Disclaimer: I greatly respect all progressive people and organizations
wherever, putting in their effort in whichever way they think best. The
above caricature of ICANN like processes is just to make the point of
its inherent dangers, even absurdity, to the extent they seek to deal
with any really crucial global political issue at all.)
Parminder
jlfullsack wrote:
> Dear Parminder
>
> I thank you warmly for having expressed the very concerns (and even
> the fear) of most of the grass-root CS organisations that are implied
> in the WSIS follow-up process.
>
> Personnally and on behalf of CSDPTT I am pleased to share with you the
> prevalence of public interest and the permanent worry about real
> development : these should be the major drivers in all our activities
> and commitments, and -in this case- in Internet governance issues
> which will have an important -either positive or negative- impact in
> developing countries.
>
> Friendy yours
>
> Jean-Louis Fullsack
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> *From:* Parminder <mailto:parminder at itforchange.net>
> *To:* governance at lists.cpsr.org <mailto:governance at lists.cpsr.org>
> ; Milton L Mueller <mailto:mueller at syr.edu>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, April 01, 2009 6:48 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [governance] Proposed text for a sign-on or IGC
> statement re:
>
> Robin and Milton,
>
> IT for Change will sign on the text put up by Milton, and I as a
> member of IGC also support that IGC signs it.
>
> I must however mention a couple of issues, on behalf of my
> organization, which do not impact the above endorsement. I
> apologize for this longish text, but we have reservations about
> the ICANN's governance model and we need to mention them while
> supporting an endorsement of a relatively minor structural change
> in it. It is also relevant to mention these issues in some detail
> because of the surprise, and perhaps exasperation (I dont say that
> it is not justified), shown by some members on this list as to why
> do some members active in IGC/ IGF not engage sufficiently with
> ICANN where some 'real work' may be getting done.
>
> This is how we see this space, and decide on our engagements,
> thinly resourced that we are.
>
> Either ICANN, and its GNSO, is merely doing 'relatively' mundane,
> though often important, administrative tasks in managing some
> critical Internet resources, meaning tasks that do not have much
> political implication, or ICANN indeed does tasks with significant
> political implications. In case its is the former, we are not
> really that interested in its work. Perhaps that may appear a
> little rude. Better to say we do not have the time vis a vis our
> primary inclinations as an organization. We primarily do
> development work, with a keen understanding of the political
> nature of development. In this context, we consider it our task to
> specifically represent the the interests of the currently
> disadvantaged and marginalized sections.Technical governance is
> not our core mandate; only to the extent it has strong political
> implications vis a vis 'development constituencies' do we get
> involved.
>
> However, in case ICANN/ GNSO does work with important political
> implications we simply do not agree with much of its constitutive
> logic - for instance, of equality/balance between demand and
> supply side of the 'domain name' marketplace, or even between
> other commercial and non-commercial parties. We also do not agree
> to its basic criterion for legitimate interest/ representation
> that requires one to at least be a domain registrant. We do not
> think that is the point - for instance even in the KTCN campaign
> of NCUC on the FoE issue.
>
> Such 'user' based and stakeholder based global governance systems
> disproportionately favoring organized private sector (US-ians may
> read, business sector) - to counter whose power is a central
> governance issue at the global level - are exactly the wrong
> models of global governance to promote. Such models are poised to
> overall do much greater damage than good to the global public
> interest. They are especially dangerous when they seek political
> sovereignty, which we are afraid much of these minor structural
> adjustments are aimed at consolidating. To the extent that there
> is a certain complicity in the ICANN arena in this regard -
> including of some of the involved civil society actors - we must
> strongly disassociate ourselves from supporting any such
> implications of the present, or any other, proposal for structural
> changes in the ICANN.
>
> On the other hand, we can understand and accept user/ stakeholder
> models for relatively low-level technical policy tasks, which are
> politically accountable to globally legitimate entities (sorry,
> but US government is not). We also agree that a simple
> inter-governmental system is not enough to constitute such an
> 'legitimate entity' as representing global public interest,
> especially in the new global circumstances created by the
> Internet. New, and perhaps innovative, ways to construct the
> needed legitimacies must therefore be tried out. Such efforts
> should however remain rooted in key percepts of what is public
> interest, and what can constitute its legitimate representation.
> The separation between private interest and public interest needs
> to be maintained, indeed honored. There should be sufficient
> proactive effort towards disproportionately higher representation
> of those currently marginalized, and not the opposite as these new
> models of governance do, in the name of some kind of neat
> efficiency and the like. All such governance innovations -
> out-of-the-box, subversive, whatever - that look like they are
> especially pushing forward marginalized interests attract our
> strong interest. All 'innovations' that further entrench dominant
> interests -whether economic, political, geo-political, class -
> are correspondingly received with strong political opposition.
>
> Warding off illegitimate statist interests has been a chief, at
> one stage even the central, struggle in the IG arena. Many actors
> who have shown exemplary dedication as well as foresight in
> fighting these interests, with a good degree of success, must
> forever remain our heroes. However, some of the same actors,
> and/or their second generation flag-bearers, are much less
> cognizant of another struggle in the IG arena which is at least as
> important. The struggle to make sure that the Internet does not
> become an instrument of a new global order that it even further
> dominated by the already powerful; where political power is
> allocated on the basis on the economic power one already posses,
> instead of moderating it, and where new governance systems provide
> political cover and legitimacy to economic exploitation. It is no
> longer acceptable for any civil society constituency claiming any
> degree of global legitimacy to not represent both these struggles
> equally. We not only find the global governance models implied in
> the ICANN system quite ominous for the future of global
> governance, we would also like the global civil society engaged
> with its forums to better represent the political interests of the
> currently excluded/ marginalized sections.
>
> However, we do recognize that the battle has to be fought on many
> fronts, and many in the NCUC have done great work in developing
> more spaces for public interest constituencies, and taking up some
> important public interest issues.
>
> We will like to see the NCSG 6.0 charter developed by the NCUC
> adopted by the ICANN instead of the alternative one, and
> especially agree that its direct instead of constituency based
> election of council members is a much better process. It is
> better because it has a higher chance of representing global
> public interest, each candidate having to muster a much wider
> support.
>
> Parminder
>
> Milton L Mueller wrote:
>>
>> The organizations and individuals listed below are members of and
>> participants in the civil society Internet Governance Caucus. We
>> wish to express our support for version 6.0 of the Noncommercial
>> Stakeholders Group (NCSG) charter developed by the Noncommercial
>> Users Constituency. While there may still be room for minor
>> improvements, we believe that the basic principles on which the
>> charter is founded provide the fairest and most effective basis
>> for civil society representation in ICANN's Generic Names
>> Supporting Organization.
>>
>> We specifically support the proposal because:
>>
>> * It was developed transparently and with many opportunities for
>> input by relevant ICANN participants;
>>
>> * It makes it easy to form constituencies or affinity groups,
>> but avoids fragmentation of noncommercial stakeholders into
>> independent constituencies with separate mailing lists,
>> administrative structures and representatives;
>>
>> * It permits individual membership in the NCSG and does not
>> require individuals to fit themselves into arbitrarily-defined
>> categories that may not correspond to their interests and needs;
>>
>> * It fosters representation of minority viewpoints in
>> consensus-based Working Groups, but does not rigidly assign votes
>> to small factions, instead offering them a chance to build consensus
>>
>> We also note that the alternative charter proposal seems designed
>> to give a specific faction guaranteed Council seats and does not
>> foster global, geographically diverse representation.
>>
>> We appreciate ICANN's effort to make its GNSO more representative
>> and urge you to ratify and accept the NCSG charter.
>>
>> Signed,
>>
>> --
>>
>> --
>>
>> Etc.
>>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ____________________________________________________________
> 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
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20090402/cd8022bb/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
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
More information about the Governance
mailing list