[governance] Meeting report ECOSOC presentations

Wed Jul 27 04:07:35 EDT 2011

Dear All,

please find hereby some notes I took during the ECOSOC presentations. For reading and archiving purposes, I  enclosed the Word document.
Kind regards,
Philippe

Data

Author : Philippe Blanchard

Subject : UN Ecosoc plenary session, reports on the « World summit on information society » and « internet governance forum »

1.  Referential documents

Please refer to the ECOSOC webpages  and especially the internet activity related reports :

•       Report of the Secretary-General on progress made in the implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society at the regional and international levels (A/66/64 – E/2011/77)

•       Report of the Working Group on improvements to the Internet Governance Forum (A/66/67-E/2011/79)

2.  Points of interest

I will not paraphrase the content of the two reports and I am just taking the liberty to highlight some elements of interest.

Strong agreement on some stakes both on the citizen level (privacy,…) and the economical level (growth factor, cloud computing…) and on some risks (fraudulent use ; espionage…). But no mention of key elements such as “freedom of speech”, “local vs universal jurisdiction”… I fear those elements are definitely more controversial and will be/must be addressed once the e-governance principles have been set.

·       I would personally suggest we work in parallel the meta-level (e-governance) and the fields of application. We are bound to proceed in a co-development scheme rather than a (more historical) sequential process.

·       IGF is definitely the opportunity to address this.

The principles of stake-holder participation, multilateral work are clearly understood and (at least) communicated. After the panelists’s presentation, we had the opportunity to have some comments from the civil society (ISOC- Internet Society ; CCI – International Chambers of Commerce).

·       Nicolas SEIDLER, Policy Advisor for ISOC : for more information on his report. (seidler at isoc.org)

We were reminded the “sovereignty of States” (not a surprise) and the “necessity to engage in a multistakeholders”.  IGF role is unanimously recognized. US representatives praised the “consultative role” and the fact it was “a no-decision body” (to ensure leeway and avoid being struck in some diplomatic vocabulary bargaining).

·       However, I would have liked to have some definition of “internet eco-system”. I am afraid there is still a misunderstanding about the existence of a theoretical frontier between IRL (in real-life) and e-life. Cf some comments, for instance on “internet is a global facility” from a State representative (Venezuela, I think)

·       Some confusion between “e-governance” and “internet governance” also appeared in floor comments, following the reports presentation.

·       Some demands to extend IGF role (CUBA) and a request from the Working group (India, Brasil and RSA- South Africa) to benefit from a “official platform”. I am not sure if it was complementary to IGF or not. This platform would support more effectively the developing countries actions and would bring up “processes to enhance collaboration”.

Points of interest (cont’d)

We were told that Key performance indicators have been agreed upon by the CSTD. I think this is key and would suggest these are shared and monitored by all the stake-holders and followers. (but it is probably my “If you cannot measure it, it is just a hobby” mindset J ).

I am afraid network neutrality was only mentioned once and I hope I wasn’t listening carefully enough.

·       For me this element is definitely key. Yes I understand both the political and economical stakes… but it is core.

We were also told that IGF Executive Coordinator (Markus Kummer’s previous position) should be soon filled. No deadlines announced yet.

Conclusion

Very interesting and informative session. I understood the meeting room was slightly more packed on the previous days, with more politically sensitive discussions but the attendance was fairly high. And that is definitely a good sign.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank twice Mrs Renate BLOEM:

ü  she found the way to get me accredited. And I can swear it was no piece of cake. Despite the confirmation she had beforehand, she had to spend 30 mn securing my access. My accreditation was issued at 10:02 for a meeting starting at 10:00.

ü  The discussion we had after the session was really great and she brought challenging food for thought.

Vielen Danke, Renate, du bist wunderbar.

On Jul 22, 2011, at 2:06 PM, Renate Bloem (Gmail) wrote:

Hi Philippe,

I have tried to accredit you under CIVICUS, hope it is not too late
BTW, this item will only be dealt with on Tuesday, 26 July, 10h00-11h030 
Best
Renate

Renate Bloem
Main Representative
Civicus UN Geneva
Tel:/Fax +33450 850815/16
Mobile : +41763462310 
renate.bloem at civicus.org
renate.bloem at gmail.com 
skype: Renate.Bloem

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
PO BOX 933, 2135, Johannesburg, South Africa
www.civicus.org
Read e-CIVICUS, a free weekly newsletter on civil society
(http://www.civicus.org/ecivicus-newsletter)

Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to. Thank you.

-----Original Message-----
From: governance at lists.cpsr.org [mailto:governance at lists.cpsr.org] On Behalf
Of Philippe Blanchard
Sent: vendredi, 22. juillet 2011 11:39
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Roland Perry
Subject: Re: [governance] ECOSOC

Dear Roland

thank you for the follow-up.
I have enquired and unfortunately, only the "usual suspects" :-) can make
it.
I discovered that the "International NON-Olympic Committee" is welcome
whereas the "International Olympic Commitee", despite its UN recognition, is
not !!!

I will follow the outcomes through the net.

Kind regards,
Philippe

On Jul 21, 2011, at 1:57 PM, Roland Perry wrote:

In message <1D8E4662-5BB4-40E1-9E5E-C8BCB994F2AA at me.com>, at 11:35:13 on
Thu, 21 Jul 2011, Philippe Blanchard <philippe.blanchard at me.com> writes

> Anyone knows the access condition for public viewing ?

I have a feeling you have to be [a government or] ECOSOC accredited.

http://csonet.org/index.php?menu=113

Several of the 'usual suspects', here, have this.

<http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/substantive2011/docs/2011_registration_&_ac
creditation.pdf>

ps. It's the CSTD (in effect an ECOSOC subgroup) which is still
admitting "WSIS accredited" people, which in practice means 'anyone'.
But you would still have to register for that [1] in advance.

[1] http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ecn162011d1_en.pdf
-- 
Roland Perry
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