[governance] Consensus call on letter from IGC, ICC and ISOC

[Izumi AIZU]

Hi,
As we approach to the 72 hour consensus call deadline within a few hours,
and it seems we have almost unanimous support, and Jeremy is or will be in
the air by then, I plan to declare the consensus then.

Before doing so, here is the final text taking Jacqueline's and Adam's
suggestions
for minor edit. I also added "Civil Society" to the Internet Governance Caucus
following the letter we sent to the UN SG: http://www.igcaucus.org/node/35
And also put the date, "October 22, 2010", for the record.

I hope this is all OK and then sent to Mr. Sha. jointly signed by IGC,
ICC and ISOC.
Just for the confirmation.

izumi

-------------------
October 22, 2010


His Excellency
Mr. Sha Zukang
Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs
United Nations
3 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017

Dear Mr. Sha,

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 consultation 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 (civil society, Internet technical community and
business) to speak during the consultations to summarize the
contributions of that non-governmental stakeholder group.

In our respectful view 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 that have been placed upon the participation
of civil society,
business 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 Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus, the Internet Society
(ISOC) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
____________________________________________________________
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