[governance] FINAL? DRAFT statement on enhanced cooperation

[Jeremy Malcolm]

There is still active discussion about this statement, so excuse me labelling this as "final?", but we need to try to quickly wrap things up in order to meet our deadline of Monday.  You can still make comments which can be incorporated into the version that goes to a consensus call, but please try to make them minor and specific, if you can.

Please also try to remember that we are trying to craft a statement that will be acceptable by as many IGC members as possible, which - because we have such a wide diversity of views - probably means that nobody will find it completely to their satisfaction.  This is not to excuse the deficiencies in the statement, but just to ask for your tolerance. :-)  If there is no way that you can agree to the statement even with minor amendments, you can make this point, or just reject it at the poll.

This time, I just put the revision marks below, since I'm sure at least 90% of you can see them.  (Izumi and I have discussed putting together a proper collaborative editing environment for drafting statements, but this is still just a vague plan.)

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The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus (CS-IGC) regards the process towards enhanced cooperation as a vital step towards addressing the "many cross-cutting international public policy issues that require attention and are not adequately addressed by the current mechanisms" (Tunis Agenda para 68).

Despite an intergovernmental mandate from WSIS to address this governance deficit, much remains to be done.  It is imperative that this deficit continue to be addressed, where appropriate through new institutional developments that comply with the WSIS process criteria of being multilateral, transparent, democratic and inclusive.

It is now especially critical that the global community give renewed attention to these principles, at a time when we see danger of them being forgotten - for example, in that a proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that will affect Internet users around the world (including the most marginalized), has been shaped almost entirely by powerful corporate and state actors from the global North.

We make three further points.  First, enhanced cooperation should encompass all Internet-related public policy issues; second, many of our members believe the existing arrangements of relevant organisations (including the Internet Governance Forum) do not fully implement enhanced cooperation, and thirdly whatever new arrangements may be put in place, civil society must play an integral part in them, as one of the prerequisites for their legitimacy.

These points will be explained in turn:

1. Although much of the discussion of enhanced cooperation at WSIS turned around the narrow issue of internationalising the oversight of Internet naming and numbering functions critical Internet resource administration, the Tunis Agenda expresses this principle far more broadly to include other substantive Internet related public policy issues that require attention and resolution at the global level.  It also reminds us that the ultimate objective of our cooperation is to advance a people-centred, inclusive, development-oriented and non-discriminatory Information Society.

This is not to say that the broadening of oversight of critical Internet resource administration is not an important issue - it is, and CS-IGC members are among many who strongly consider the continuing supervisory role of the US government to be inappropriate for a truly global resource such as the Internet. But this is only one of many important public policy issues on which enhanced cooperation is needed.

2. The IGF in its present form is a very important part of the broader enhanced cooperation process, in that its multi-stakeholder process can provide input to shape decisions taken on Internet related public policy issues in other fora.  However the full realisation of enhanced cooperation will require a multi-stakeholder process to extend to all other Internet governance organisations, whether new or established.

If institutional changes are to be made, tThere are various options for enhancing multi-stakeholder cooperation within and amongst all relevant organisations (which may be complementary).  These include:

* making no institutional changes but encouraging organisations to enhance their own cooperation with other stakeholders and to report to the CSTD on their progress;

* establishing a lightweight multi-stakeholder observatory process perhaps hosted under the auspices of the IGF (pursuant to its mandate in paragraph 72(i));

* utilising a virtual and voluntary global social community or ecosystem, linking together all Internet governance organisations, in which all stakeholders would participate; or

* establishing a new umbrella governance institution for Internet policy development establishing new governance arrangements designed to address any pressing public policy matters that cannot be managed through existing institutions, with space for the full participation of each stakeholder group in its respective role.  This might also be situated within the IGF, but pursuant to a new and supplementary mandate.

3. Paragraph 71 of the Tunis Agenda makes very clear that civil society is an integral participant in the development of any process towards enhanced cooperation.  Therefore the IGC, in our capacity as members of civil society, looks forward to contributing constructively in transparent, accountable and democratic multi-stakeholder consultations towards this end.

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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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