[governance] Meeting report ECOSOC presentations

[Roland Perry]

In message
<CACpVkK2=dx_ScpL-x4VnJZO7m80XQGVaBeoehanf9jX-9FPq_w at mail.gmail.com>, at
08:24:05 on Mon, 1 Aug 2011, Marilia Maciel <mariliamaciel at gmail.com>
writes
>Please, see some comments below

>>    Just to complement and make my previous message more clear, what
>>    Brazil has successfully advanced (after difficult diplomatic
>>    negotiations with US and Iran) was a request for CSTD Secretariat
>>    to make a list of CS organizations that wish to participate in
>>    CSTD, but do not have accreditation with WSIS (text of the
>>    resolution quoted below). In the meantime, the current unequal
>>    arrangement was extended until 2015.

>  What is the significance of 2015? On previous occasions, my
>  understanding was that the various deadlines were in place in order
>  for organisations to apply for ECOSOC Consultative Status (as
>  discussed in the context of attending the recent ECOSOC meeting).
>
>I do not believe that this is the main reason why the deadlines are
>there. The same deadlines apply to the business and technical and
>academic communities, even though they are not required to apply for
>ECOSOC (actually, I do not think they even can, formally speaking).

RIPE NCC, ICC and ISOC have all achieved ECOSOC consultative status.

>These arrangements have been almost automatically renewed since 2008,
>without further discussion. The doors of CSTD remain open for business
>and tech organizations created after WSIS, but CS has been "frozen" to
>the list of WSIS accreditation.

Academic and tech organisations are part of:

        "all non-governmental organizations and civil society entities"

so civil society hasn't been singled out. And separately, private sector
business has to be WSIS-accredited:

        "business sector entities including the private sector
        accredited to the World Summit on the Information Society"
or:
        "Requested the secretariat of the commission to propose to the
        council lists of business sector entities including the private
        sector not accredited to the World Summit on the Information
        Society that express the wish to participate in the work of the
        Commission"

So an exercise to extend that to non-WSIS Civil Society, Academia and
Tech would indeed seem fair.

>Personally, I do not think ECOSOC accreditation should be required from
>all who wish to participate in IG discussions in CSTD because of the
>unique nature of this regime. Getting ECOSOC accreditation is a very
>cumbersome and difficult procedure, especially for some organizations.

So is the United Nations! What we are asking for is to be able to creep
inside their tent through a back door. We may feel entitled to ask that,
but should recognise what it is we are asking for.

>Additionally, we are living a bizarre situation: if we apply and
>receive ECOSOC status, only then we will be treated as equal to
>business and technical organizations that have only expressed their
>wish to participate in CSTD. That makes no sense!

See above.

>I think that we (CS) should know more about what CSTD does.

That probably means it would be a good idea to attend (and contribute)
in the main sessions all week, rather than just the days when IG is on
the agenda. Something to consider when planning future attendance.

> A lot of things we discuss here are deeply related to the work of the
>Commission. But I personally never knew about CSTD until I was dragged
>there by IGF discussions. So awareness must be raised before we decide
>if we want to follow it or not.

I wasn't aware of it until early in 2009, when Marcus started to
encourage people to attend that year's session. More awareness is very
helpful.

>And even if just a few of us do wish to participate, it is wrong that
>this kind of ad hoc unequal arrangement exists, so we should fight to
>change it weather or not we (our organizations) are personally
>interested on CSTD.

Or align ourselves with an accredited attendee (not necessarily a
government).
-- 
Roland Perry
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