[governance] History of the IGF

Sun Aug 1 09:40:46 EDT 2010

Oooops, sorry, Icann meeting Rio 2003, not Rome...

--c.a.

On 08/01/2010 10:05 AM, Carlos A. Afonso wrote:
> Quite interesting recollection, Wolf. So it seems the seminal IG
> proposals derive from the multilateral Beirut declaration of Feb.2003.
> For me was an interesting time, as I was joining the Brazilian Internet
> Steering Committee again (my first Icann meeting was the Rome one in
> March 2003 incidentally) after helping to build a proposal for a
> multistakeholder CGI.br to the new federal government (Lula), which was
> basically accepted. At the time, I had no idea of the Beirut meeting and
> got in contact with this new "universe" as my NGO also joined the WSIS
> process.
>
> I think putting together the many historical pieces could result in an
> interesting story indeed.
>
> frt rgds
>
> --c.a.
>
> On 08/01/2010 06:00 AM, "Kleinwächter, Wolfgang" wrote:
>> Hi Avri, Milton, Bill& Co.
>>
>> With regard to our Meissen discussion on the history of the IGF I
>> found in my archives two statements long before Tunis which I made on
>> behalf of the Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus and where
>> "forum function" and "multistakeholderism" were key points. In the
>> Paris Statement (July 2003) we called it the "Global Information
>> Society Observation Council" (GISOC). The GISOC proposal more or less
>> outlined functions which later reflected in the Tunis mandate for the
>> IGF. The more formal proposal from the CS was drafted by Bill and me
>> on behalf of the CS Internet Governance Caucus at PrepCom3 in
>> September 2003 in Geneva, long before the WGIG was created and
>> proposed the launch of the IGF.
>>
>> The whole IG discussion within WSIS was kick started during PrepCom2
>> in June 2003 in Geneva when we had, inter alia, a Workshop "Civil
>> Society and WSIS" in the official programme of PrepCom2 organized
>> (and moderated) by Bertrand and me. (21 February, 10:00-13:00 - ILO
>> building - Workshop lll: CIVIL SOCIETY AND WSIS. see flyer>> 27 kB
>> [English<http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/pc2/inf/workshop/flyer3.doc> ]
>> ). http://www.itu.int/wsis/preparatory/prepcom/pc2/inf/index.html
>> After the workshop we moved to the ILO rerstaurant where we discussed
>> the need to establish an institutionalized platform which we called
>> "CS Internet Governance Caucus" (IGC). Originally, Internet
>> Governance was not a main issue in the WSIS. First priority for WSIS
>> was bridging the digital divide, however the ITU was very interested
>> to bring the IG debate under the WSIS umbrella as a counterplatform
>> to ICANN, which as established in 1998 as an alternative to ITU
>> efforts to get the control over the DNS and the A Root Server.
>>
>> The IG debate within WSIS was triggered by the the "Beirut
>> Declaration" (February 2003), the regional ministerial conference for
>> West Asia which includes the following paragraph "Securing national
>> domain names: The responsibility for root directories and domain
>> names should rest with a suitable international organization and
>> should take multilingualism into consideration. Countries'
>> top-level-domain-names and Internet Protocol (IP) address assignment
>> should be the sovereign right of countries. The sovereignty of each
>> nation should be protected and respected. Internet governance should
>> be multilateral, democratic and transparent and should take into
>> account the needs of the public and private sectors as well as those
>> of the civil society."
>>
>> The rumor says that the ITU was not satisfied with the outcome of the
>> other four regional ministerial conferences, where Internet
>> Governance was sidelined. To get a "mandate" for IG, the Beirut
>> conference was the last chance for the ITU to include it into the
>> WSIS agenda as a high priority issue. I myself did not participate in
>> the Beirut conference, but I was told that YJ Pak from Korea made the
>> relevant statement which then was reflected in the "Beirut
>> Declaration". If you compare the "Beirut Statenment" with the
>> "Paris/Geneva statements" you see a difference. Insofar - looking
>> backwards - it was not a surprise, that when YJ and I co-chaired the
>> IGC in the first WSIS phase until December 2003, we had some internal
>> disputes and it was not easy to reach consensus within the IGC from
>> the very early day ;-(((. However, the net result - seven years
>> later - is that we avoided to bring DNS etc. under an
>> intergovernmental control/oversight mechanism and we were able to
>> launch a multistakeholder IGF. Nice history, isn´t it?
>>
>> Do other people have more documents in their archives? Probably it
>> would make sense to write a short history of the IGF. Too late for
>> the UN GA in 2010, but probably helpful for the forthcoming deeper
>> IGF evalution forseen for 2011.
>>
>> Wolfgang
>>
>>
>>
>> Here is the key part of the Paris statement
>>
>> " In a broader context of ICT policy making and global governance, we
>> invite the WSIS to consider launching a "Global
>>
>> Information Society Observation Council" which could serve as a
>> meeting point for improved coordination, consultation
>>
>> and communication on ICT issues. Such a "Council" should be composed
>> of representatives of governments, private
>>
>> industry and civil society. It could promote the exchange of
>> information, experiences and best practices on issues from
>>
>> privacy to free speech on the Internet, from IPR to eCommerce, from
>> Ipv6 to ENUM. Listening to the good experiences
>>
>> of others is a cheap investment and could become a source of
>> inspiration for innovative policy development in the 21st
>>
>> Century. We will provide the WSIS secretariat with a new proposed
>> language for the Items 33 and 44.
>>
>>
>> WSIS Interesessional, Paris, July 2003
>> http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/pcip/plenary/internet_governance_group.pdf
>>
>> Here is another Statement I made a year later in the GFC meeting on
>> Multistakeholderism
>>
>> WSIS Group of the Friends of the Chair, Geneva, September 2004
>> http://www.worldsummit2005.de/downloa
>> d_en/Speech-Geneva-2004-10-Kleinwaechter.pdf
>>
>>
>> Wolfgang
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>

-- 

Carlos A. Afonso
CGI.br (www.cgi.br)
Nupef (www.nupef.org.br)
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