AW: [governance] Internet G8 meeting

[Norbert Klein]

Thanks to Wolfgang for this substantial report of history.

And thanks to Parminder for drawing the correct conclusion: Nobody else 
will do it, speak up and remind those who forget the history in this 
case, if Civil Society does not speak up, reminding the (present 
representatives of governments) that their predecessors achieved great 
things which they seem to forget.

How is this going to be organized? The major elements are in Wolfgang's 
write-up; it has to be mad short, focused on what what at the UN General 
Assembly setting the WSIS process on the way as multi-stakeholder, and 
the Tunis commitments also BY THE GOVERNMENTS PRESENT to the 
multi-stakeholder approach. And add some achievements since (which?).

Norbert

=

On 5/5/2011 1:14 PM, parminder wrote:
> Wolfgang,
>
> Thanks for this very informative historical brief. There are many 
> points here that I will like to engage with, but let me just respond 
> to two connected ones.
>
> On Wednesday 04 May 2011 08:16 PM, "Kleinwächter, Wolfgang" wrote:
>> Hi everybody
>>
>> SNIP
>> Later Al Gore presented this to a G 7 summit in Brussels in 1995, where also a so-called "Global Business Round Table" took place in parallel (which led later to the establishmend of the Global Business Dialogue on eCommerce/GBDe). After the Brussels meeting the G 7 (later the G 8) continued to work on this issue which finally produced the G 8 Okinawa Declaration from 2000 when the G 8 established to Digital Opportunity Task Froce (DotForce).
>> http://www.undp.sk/uploads/Okinawa%20charter.pdf
>>
>> The G 8 DotForce Initiative was countered by an ECOSOC ministerial meeting in 2001 (a lot of UN member states felt excluded from the G7/8 process in Okinawa) and the UN established the UN ICT Task Force (UNICTTF).
>
> That is an interesting parallel. Now that G 8 seems to be in a 'global 
> agreement (read, among powerful countries, who are the self appointed 
> trustees for the whole world) on key Internet issues'  sorts of mood, 
> what next. Internet governance is even more political, globally, than 
> was ICTD (the latter being more national kind of thing). So do we 
> expect a UN backlash. It is already on through the politics around the 
> 'enhanced cooperation' process. What is our, global civil society's, 
> specifically, IGC's, position on this?
>
> Between a G8 led process of the kind underway, and a WSIS mandated 
> 'enhanced cooperation' process, where do we put our weight? (enough 
> burying our collective heads in the sand on the global IG policy 
> issue. That will only bring further harm to our cause. At least now we 
> must learn our lessons that abdication would do on this issue.)
>
> (SNIP)
>>
>> We should not forget that the WSIS/WGIG Internet Governance definition, which gives all stakeholder a role and calls for shared policy and rules development and decision making, was adopted by the heads of states of 190+ UN member states in Tunis in November 2005. Governments of the world commited themselves to the multistakeholder approach in Internet Governance. The French government, host of the G 8, obviously ignores this. Somebody should tell this to the president of this republic.
> Why not us, the IGC. Who else will? But can we just write to them to 
> make the process more multistakeholder, and not write that a closed 
> process among the most powerful countries is not acceptable to the 
> global civil society, representing marginalised interests, and all 
> countires should be brought to the table to discus the issues that the 
> G8 Internet meeting is proposing to do, and in this regard using the 
> WSIS mandated 'enhanced cooperation' track is the right way to go.
>
> Should IGC make such statement to the G8 meeting organisers?
>
> Parminder
>
>>
>> Wolfgang
>> ____________________________________________________________

-- 
Since 3 April 2011, The Mirror with reports and comments from Cambodia - originally since 1997 based on daily translations from the Khmer language press, is now only an archive of the past: http://www.cambodiamirror.org

But I started a new personal blog:

...thinking it over... after 21 years in Cambodia
http://www.thinking21.org/

continuing to share reports and comments from Cambodia.

Norbert Klein
nhklein at gmx.net
Phnom Penh / Cambodia


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