[governance] SECOND DRAFT suggested statement on MAG's future

[Jeremy Malcolm]

This incorporates Yrjö's changes in place of the original paragraph 3, and moves some contested passages into [square brackets].  Additions will appear underlined in rich text email clients.

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The Internet Governance Caucus (IGC) supports the maintenance of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), as the body that links the UN Secretariat to the stakeholder groups that are recognised by the Tunis Agenda as the joint sovereigns of Internet governance.  The MAG has shown the feasibility and positive effects of non-bureau like structures.  We would therefore like to see the democratic legitimacy and effectiveness of the MAG strengthened as it continues into a renewed term for the IGF.

To this end, in our statement for the February 2010 open consultation and MAG meetings, the IGC suggested that the composition of the MAG itself should be more evenly divided between the stakeholder groups.  [We also reported that many believe that the stakeholders should have a more direct role in the selection of MAG members, and that MAG discussions should continue to be made more transparent.]

The roles of the UNSG and MAG in controlling the IGF process should be re-examined in the light of he relevant articles of the Tunis agenda and of the IGF experience so far. While the UNSG has the overall authority over the IGF in terms of convening it (§72, §74), reporting on its operation (§75) and examining the desirability of its continuation (§76), the IGF in its working and function, will be multilateral,multi-stakeholder, democratic and transparent (§73). In post-Tunis practice, the MAG has evolved into the main actor managing the actual "working and function" of the IGF, ensuring "the complementarity between all stakeholders involved in this process - governments, business entities, civil society and intergovernmental organizations" (§73a)

In underlining this, the appropriate role of the MAG, as the only representative body of the stakeholders within the IGF process, becomes clear.  Namely, it should be responsible for every decision that effects the substantive work of the IGF.  This includes agenda setting, overseeing the preparation of briefing and synthesis documents, and reshaping the IGF's structure and working methods (such as the establishment of thematic working groups).

[In the future, its role may go further still.  Until now, the IGF has been largely just a forum for discussion.  Looking to the future, the Secretary-General's report on the continuation of the IGF envisages that it may come to produce some form of recommendations.  If so, the MAG will have a role in supporting that process too, likely in shaping the content of any statements that are to be issued in conformity with the consensus of the plenary forum.]

Whatever the future may hold for the IGF, the MAG will be integral to it.  This is why it is so important that the composition of the MAG is balanced, that the process of selection of its members satisfies the stakeholder groups from which they are drawn, that its operations are conducted with a high degree of transparency in order to ensure its accountability to the stakeholders at large, and that its legitimate role is not usurped.

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-- 
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

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