[governance] Meeting report ECOSOC presentations

Thu Jul 28 06:56:48 EDT 2011

Dear Philippe and Jean-Louis,

Let me first thank Philippe for his kind words and his report. Just to add:
South Africa, on behalf of India and Brazil, made a strong statement in
calling for an intergovernmental mechanism for enhanced cooperation,
separate from but in close cooperation with the IGF.

Otherwise ECOSOC adopted without vote all the decisions from its subsidiary
body the CSTD, including Participation on non-governmental organizations
and civil society entities not accredited to WSIS in the work of CSTD,
taking down the last barrier for participation in the Commission.

However, participation in ECOSOC itself is still restricted to ECOSOC NGOs.
But these 4 week long substantive sessions in July, alternating between NY
and Geneva, are seen by many NGOs/CSOs just as rubberstamping exercises,
apart from the High level segment at the beginning, and therefore not worth
their attendance (I have a slightly different opinion) , except for Geneva
or NY based entities for sections of their interest. Jean Louis, this may
explain the low attendance of CSOs. But the relative high attendance of
Governments at least indicates interest in the issues. NGOs are invited and
can also take the floor on any item.

Best

Renate

  _____  

From: governance at lists.cpsr.org [mailto:governance at lists.cpsr.org] On Behalf
Of Jean-Louis FULLSACK
Sent: jeudi, 28. juillet 2011 10:45
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Philippe Blanchard
Subject: re: [governance] Meeting report ECOSOC presentations

Dear members of the list 

Philippe wrote :
< we had the opportunity to have some comments from the civil society (ISOC-
Internet Society ; CCI  International Chambers of Commerce).>

I'm surprised to find these orgs under a "civil society label". Some
complementary comments are needed ... especially related to the sentence
< the attendance was fairly high. And that is definitely a good sign.>

Can we, CS representatives in the WSIS process, qualify such a "biased
attendance" as a good sign ? For which of our goals ? What I would like to
know is how many true CS delegates attended these meetings and which
organisatiions they represented. Additionnally it'd be interesting to know
how DCs were represented in these meetings : governement, regional orgs, CS
and private sector. 

Perhaps Philippe -or any other delegate on these meetings- could provide us
these data. Many thanks in advance.

Jean-Louis Fullsack
CSDPTT  

> Message du 27/07/11 10:11
> De : "Philippe Blanchard" 
> A : governance at lists.cpsr.org
> Copie à : "Renate Bloem (Gmail)" 
> Objet : [governance] Meeting report ECOSOC presentations
> 
> 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 panelistss
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 (contd)
> 
> 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 wasnt
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 Kummers previous
position) should be soon filled. No deadlines announced yet.
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 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.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 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 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.
> 
> > 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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