[governance] CONSENSUS CALL - JPA statement

[Norbert Klein]

Agreed,

Norbert Klein
Phnom Penh/Cambodia


On Saturday, 6 June 2009 04:54:35 Ian Peter wrote:
[snip]
> The Internet Governance Caucus is a global coalition of civil society and
> non governmental organisations and individuals actively involved the UN¹s
> Internet Governance Forum (IGF) process. Formed during the lead up to the
> World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), our mission is to provide a
> forum for discussion, advocacy, action, and for representation of civil
> society contributions in  Internet governance processes. We have several
> hundred members, with a wide spread of geographic representation; more
> about our coalition can be found at www.igcaucus.org.
>
> We are thankful for the opportunity to comment on the Joint Project
> Agreement (JPA) with ICANN, and  respectfully submit as  follows.
>
> In responding to your call for comments, we are mindful of the WSIS
> principles, which " recognize that Internet governance, carried out
> according to the Geneva principles, is an essential element for a
> people-centred, inclusive, development-oriented and non-discriminatory
> Information Society². We also recognise the need for high levels of global
> co-operation from all stakeholder groups to ensure Internet stability and
> security.
>
> On your question as regards the future of the JPA - The IGC firmly believes
> that global co-operation will be enhanced by a transition beyond the JPA to
> a situation where all stakeholders feel that they have equitable
> arrangements for participation, that ICANN is subject to due process
> procedures and is accountable to all stakeholders. Therefore, the IGC
> believes that merely extending the current JPA arrangement is not a lasting
> viable solution.
>
>  Some of us believe the JPA should be ended now, as it is an ineffective
> mechanism to deal with the problems that must be resolved to place ICANN on
> a viable long-term path forward. On the other hand, some of us believe that
> a time-limited extension of the JPA might be the most effective means to
> ensure that ICANN does take on board necessary changes.
>
> Irrespective of when the JPA actually ends however, the IGC believes that
> it should be replaced by a new global accountability framework, the
> development of which should commence as soon as possible in an open,
> multistakeholder, transparent and inclusive process.
>
> Also irrespective of whether the JPA continues or not, we believe that
> certain principles outlined below need to be embedded in ICANN¹s operation.
> We believe these should be covered by an undertaking by ICANN to perpetuate
> in its constitution, by laws, or some similar accountability mechanism, the
> principles which follow. The principles need to be embedded in such a way
> as to ensure they cannot easily be changed to exclude any stakeholder
> group. The principles which need to be permanently embedded are:
>
> ·      bottom up co-ordination
>
> ·      balanced multi stakeholder representation, including civil society
> interests and Internet users
>
> ·      ensuring the stability of the Internet
>
> ·      transparency
>
> ·      appropriate accountability mechanisms
>
> ·      continuing evolution of an effective and appropriate governance
> model which is multilateral, multistakeholder, democratic, and transparent
>
> ·      decision making driven by the public interest
>
> We also propose to replace "private sector management" with
> multistakeholder management, which has evolved from the World Summit on the
> Information Society and the Internet Governance Forum process which the US
> Government has supported, and which is an important facet, we believe, of
> effective internet governance  arrangements.
>
> We think the establishment of firm principles to guide the evolution of a
> model is the appropriate way to proceed. This should explicitly recognize
> that ICANN is a global governance institution with regulatory authority
> over an industry (domain name registration) and over critical resources (IP
> addresses, root servers and addresses). The standards of due process,
> rights, and accountability that apply to ICANN must be developed with these
> facts in mind.
>
> Ian Peter and Ginger Paque, Co-coordinators, for the Internet Governance
> Caucus



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