[governance] A Group of ITU Members vs. the IGF

[William Drake]

Hi,

This is related to the message I just sent concerning the ITU/GAC proposal, but it merits a different thread.  The list discussion has all been building off the Kevin Murphy piece Wolfgang circulated.  Alas, the article being ICANN-oriented did not bother to take note of another part of the RCC proposal that should be of some concern here.  The Russian text includes a section on The Future of the Internet Governance Forum that says, inter alia,

"The WSIS Forum 2010 was held in May 2010 in Geneva, and the venue for the next one, in 2011, is the United Nations headquarters in New York.  The question of Internet governance is just one of the many questions raised by WSIS, and it would appear logical that IGF should in future be held as part of the WSIS Forum in order for there to be a common platform for all stakeholders seeking to implement WSIS outcomes. This will serve to broaden the audience, particularly within developing countries, and reduce costs for organizers and participants alike. Proposal: To consider IGF as a part of the WSIS Forum in the interests of combining efforts, facilitating participation, especially for developing-country representatives, reducing costs and avoiding duplication of effort."

So voila.  This isn't exactly news either, I had ITU staffers tell me in Tunis when the IGF was endorsed that "we'll be running this thing in five years."   There's always been a contingent of governments, generally the same ones supporting ITU uber ICANN, arguing that ITU should have the IGF; indeed, the Russians said this in Tunis, and insisted on the inclusion in the mandate of those provisions about ITU competence etc.  And Toure et al have in the past held up the WTPF, the WSIS Forum, etc as evidence that the ITU does this sort of thing better.   All of which harks back to our earlier debate on the WSIS Forum and whether it would be a swell idea to hold it in NYC where UN GA reps could see what a proper UN forum looks like, etc.

Best,

Bill

 







***********************************************************
William J. Drake
Senior Associate
Centre for International Governance
Graduate Institute of International and
 Development Studies
Geneva, Switzerland
william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
www.graduateinstitute.ch/cig/drake.html
www.linkedin.com/in/williamjdrake
***********************************************************


____________________________________________________________
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