[governance] REVISION 4 Draft statement to UNSG on bypassing CSTD

Jeremy Malcolm jeremy at ciroap.org
Fri Feb 19 04:22:08 EST 2010


As per the latest comments received, here is a slightly rewritten combination of Parminder's new text with a couple of points from my original draft.  So that we can move forward towards a consensus call next week, please try to confine your comments to either significant points of substance, or grammatical/typographical corrections, rather than just rewriting the same ideas in a different form.

AN OPEN LETTER FROM THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE CAUCUS TO THE UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL, BAN KI-MOON

Dear Sir,

The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus (IGC) supports the views expressed by several government delegates at the recent open consultations on the IGF that the UN Secretary-General's report and recommendations on the desirability of the continuation of the Forum, based on formal consultations at IGF Sharm, should be presented to the CSTD's annual session in May 2010 before being considered by the ECOSOC and then by the UN Assembly.

Indications given at the meeting that this might not be the case have caused some confusion, since this would mark a departure from established practice.  The CSTD is formally mandated to engage with all issues of WSIS follow up, and its specialized knowledge and history of engagement with WSIS issues, including the IGF, will provide the best basis for an informed consideration of the issue by the ECOSOC and the UN Assembly.

In addition, consideration of the recommendations by the CSTD will enable widest possible discussion and engagement of concerned actors, including governments, with this very important issue.  The CSTD provides relatively greater multistakeholder involvement than its parent body, ECOSOC, following its "strengthening ... taking into account the multistakeholder approach"  (Tunis Agenda, para 105) pursuant to ECOSOC decisions 2007/215, 2007/216, 2008/217 and 2008/218.

It is also very relevant to note here that UN Secretary General's report on "enhanced cooperation" which was presented to the ECOSOC has been referred by the ECOSOC to the CSTD for its prior consideration, which does make it clear that ECOSOC would normally prefer CSTD's views on issues of WSIS follow up before it considers them. There is no reason why the same should not apply to the Secretary-General's report on the IGF. 

We therefore request that in the interest of an open and transparent process, the UN Secretary-General's report on continuation of the IGF be made available to the CSTD's annual session in May 2010, which will help the UN membership make an informed and considered decision on this matter as per the requirements of the Tunis Agenda.

-- 
Jeremy Malcolm
Project Coordinator
Consumers International
Kuala Lumpur Office for Asia Pacific and the Middle East
Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM, 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg, TTDI, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: +60 3 7726 1599

CI is 50
Consumers International marks 50 years of the global consumer movement in 2010.
Celebrate with us as we continue to support, promote and protect consumer rights around the world. 
http://www.consumersinternational.org/50

Read our email confidentiality notice. Don't print this email unless necessary.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20100219/48c682a8/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

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t


More information about the Governance mailing list