[governance] ECTF (was Re: Aspen)

[Norbert Bollow]

Jeremy Malcolm <jeremy at ciroap.org> wrote:
> On 24/07/12 18:40, Norbert Bollow wrote:
> > I can assure you that ECTF is definitely meant as an /input
> > providing process for policy making/, and that there is no
> > intention to give ECTF authority to make actual policy decisions.
> 
> On the other hand, recommendations are decisions.  They are just not
> authoritative decisions.

This is very true.

One point regarding which the distinction matters is that it is
possible (even if it's not recommended or necessarily desirable) under
the proposed ECTF rules for several competing working-groups to exist
for the same topic area, each of these working-groups having
different fundamental assumptions written into their respective
charters, and as a result arriving at making conflicting
recommendations.

I would consider this a fatal bug in the proposed rules for ECTF if the
output of ECTF were designed to be anything but recommendations
directed at bodies which have not only the responsibility of making
authoritative decisions but also expertise and robust processes for
making choices between conflicting recommendations.


> The authority that the ECTF would draw would be from the
> breadth and quality of participation in its processes
as well as the intrinsic quality of each particular recommendation
document and the arguments presented therein. 

> We both hope and expect that its
> recommendations would carry enough weight to guide policy-makers at
> various levels and through various mechanisms.  In my piece that is
> cited as a source for the ECTF, I've even suggested that the
> governmental members of such a body could choose to "bless" any of
> its recommendations as intergovernmental agreements.  That is
> probably far-fetched
Alternatively, recommendations that receive rough consensus endorsement
of ECTF as a whole (as opposed to only being a recommendation coming out
of the rough consensus process of a particular working-group) might, if
ECTF over time gains sufficient stature, eventually in practice have a
similar influence on national legislation as intergovernmental
agreements have. (Note: The present ECTF draft does not contain any
attempt to create recommendations of such great weight, and in fact
it does not even foresee a mechanism for determining that some
recommendations have "rough consensus endorsement of ECTF as a whole".
I have some hesitations in regard to even introducing such a mechanism
at the present stage, since I think that such a mechanism is needed only
after ECTF has much more weight and credibility than it can have
initially. But it might be difficult to create such a mechanism at a
later stage if it's not present from the beginning, so I should
probably add it to the draft in some form.)

> but illustrates that there need not be such a
> great divide between the "input providing process" and the "actual
> policy decision".
This is true but I would be inclined to think that the structure that
I'm proposing for ECTF for now is not really adequate for being able to
legitimately develop text for international treaties or recommendations
with similar de facto weight. I would suggest that before that kind of
thing could legitimately happen at ECTF, ECTF should somehow formally
be made part of the UN (I could even imagine an eventual UN specialized
mini-agency for Internet governance consisting of the IGF and ECTF
secretariats) and also there would need to be robust government based
funding of these secretariats, so that independence from private sector
interests is assured.

Let me emphasize however that ECTF can play an important and valuable
role quite independently of whether it ever reaches the point of
becoming part of the UN in some way or otherwise being formally
recognized in some way.

Greetings,
Norbert.


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