[governance] Final text of letter from IGC, ICC and ISOC

[Lee W McKnight]

Well done.

Lee
_______________________________________
From: Jeremy Malcolm [jeremy at ciroap.org]
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 8:43 PM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Subject: [governance] Final text of letter from IGC, ICC and ISOC

Here is a version of the text to which the ICC and ISOC are also agreed.  The changes are minor.  Before making a consensus call, we are still clarifying one of the changes, which is the statement that there will be three representatives rather than one allowed to summarise the submissions of the non-governmental stakeholders.  Perhaps this has been agreed privately and we have not yet been informed.

Once we clarify this, due to the unanimity of support for this letter already already expressed on the list, it is probably not necessary to subject you all to an another online poll to make a consensus call.  Instead, I propose that Izumi and I will make that call based on list statements only.  If anyone disagrees, please let us know.

His Excellency Sha Zukang

Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs
United Nations
3 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017

Dear Undersecretary General Sha ZukangYour Excellency,

Thank you for your open letter of 7 October 2010, addressed to civil society and private sector stakeholders, in which you invite them to participate in consultations in New York on 14th December.

Quoting resolution 2010/2 of the Economic and Social Council, the letter explains that these are meant as "open and inclusive consultations involving all Member States and other stakeholders with a view to assisting the process of enhanced cooperation ... in respect of international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet ... through a balanced participation of all stakeholders in their respective roles and responsibilities."

In this context we are concerned that the consultations scheduled for 14 December in New York is not in fact as open and inclusive as the ECOSOC resolution requires.  Specifically, we were surprised that non-governmental stakeholders were invited only to give written contributions, and to nominate a single representative of each stakeholder group (Internet technical community, civil society and business) to speak during the consultations to summarize the contributions of all that non-governmental stakeholders group.

In our respectful view We respectfully submit that this does not amount to the open and inclusive consultation called for by ECOSOC, but rather is effectively an intergovernmental consultation with constrained participation by the other stakeholders who are critical to the continued development of the Information Society. This runs counter to the principle established at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) including that "The international management of the Internet should be multilateral, transparent and democratic, with the full involvement of governments, the private sector, civil society and international organizations.” In addition, paragraph 71 recognizes enhanced cooperation involves all stakeholders in their respective roles and responsibilities.

We understand that limits acknowledge that the restraints that have been placed upon the participation of business, private sector and civil society, and the Internet technical community stakeholders in this consultation are said to be as a result of space constraints at the United Nations complex in New York.

Might we suggest, then, that due to the importance of securing wide and inclusive participation of all stakeholders in this consultation, the date and venue be changed to the Palais des Nations in Geneva, perhaps following the open consultations of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) that are already scheduled for 22 November 2010 or that a larger venue be found at the UN in New York.

Thank you for your ongoing support of the multi-stakeholder process of Internet governance, and for considering the important concerns we have raised above. We look forward to receiving your response in due course.
--

Signed by
The Internet Governance Caucus, the Internet Society (ISOC) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)

--
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<http://www.consumersinternational.org/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=100521&int1stParentNodeID=89765>. Don't print this email unless necessary.

____________________________________________________________
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