[governance] CONSENSUS CALL - JPA statement

[Ian Peter]

Thanks everyone

While respecting that two members voted against this statement, sufficient
support has been given for it to be adopted. I will be posting the statement
as below today.



>>> 
>>>  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
>>> 


____________________________________________________________
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