[governance] JPA

[Parminder]

IT for Change is planning to submit to the following comments on JPA.

These comments are premised on our belief that what we are looking for 
here is a *major* political decision from the highest level of the US 
government, and not  merely an administrative change. Therefore, the 
principal appeal we make has to be strongly political, pitched to the 
highest principles of fairness and justice, and of globally democratic 
governance for global issues. The best way to do so is to remind the US 
government of its commitments at the WSIS, and point out how these 
commitments call for specific actions by the US government as the JPA 
comes to an end. It is accordingly also important to connect the 
post-JPA arrangement to the corresponding elements in the Tunis Agenda 
that all have agreed to  -  the 'enhanced cooperation' framework. We are 
a bit surprised as to why the comments of even the actors who are 
opposed to JPA as well as to a free-float ICANN are not focusing on the 
obvious space that has some (significant) existing recognition and 
legitimacy, and was always meant as an exercise, inter alia, to create 
post-JPA oversight mechanisms.

Text of the proposed statement

Speaking as a civil society organization from a developing country, we 
are impressed by the stance taken by the present US administration on 
issues related to perceptions as well as facts of US hegemony in various 
global affairs. The most recent pronouncement by President Obama in his 
address at the Cairo University attests to this refreshing approach 
which promises a new role for the US in managing our collective global 
affairs, and a new perception of the US among other countries and people.

"No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear 
weapons. That is why I strongly reaffirmed America's commitment to seek 
a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons."

It is, in this context, important that the US government recognizes that 
a unilateral control of critical Internet resources exercised by the US 
is not tenable, and greatly contributes to the 'hegemonistic' image of 
the US, and its pursuance of what President Obama rightly called as 
'double standards'. The outcome documents of the World Summit on the 
Information Society (WSIS), to which US government is a signatory, 
recognized this as the application of 'principle of universality' for 
Internet governance. The summit asserted that that 'all governments 
should have an equal role and responsibility for international Internet 
governance'. 'The international management of the Internet should be 
multilateral, transparent and democratic, with the full involvement of 
governments, the private sector, civil society and international 
organizations'.

The WSIS also called for a process of 'enhanced cooperation' to be 
initiated, inter alia, to deal with the issue of legitimate oversight 
mechanisms for critical Interent resources. This process should have 
been initiated by the UN Secretary General in early 2006. Apparently, it 
is difficult to get on with this process without some clear helpful 
signs from the US government which holds the oversight power at present, 
including through the JPA. It will be most befitting the new approach of 
Obama administration for it to signal its desire to begin the process of 
'enhanced cooperation' towards developing legitimate oversight 
mechanisms as per WSIS principles, and in a manner that address the 
legitimate interests of all countries and people, including of the US.

As for the possibility of allowing ICANN to subsist without any 
oversight mechanism, we are strongly against any industry-led regulatory 
system which, in our view, is an oxymoron. The limits of self-regulation 
in areas of key public interest have been shown by the recent banking 
fiasco which is bringing untold miseries all over the world. We are 
therefore of the firm view that ICANN does require external oversight.

The best way forward therefore is to annul the current JPA, and enter 
into a new trilateral agreement between ICANN, US and the UN system to 
start a process towards 'development of globally-applicable principles 
on public policy issues associated with the coordination and management 
of critical Internet resources' (as agreed at the WSIS) and also 
developing appropriate institutional mechanisms of oversight over ICANN, 
in its tasks of technical management of CIRs. This process, as called 
for by the WSIS, should be, to repeat, 'multilateral, transparent and 
democratic, with the full involvement of governments, the private 
sector, civil society and international organizations'.


(text ends)


parminder
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