[governance] IGF and Enhanced Cooperation

[Anriette Esterhuysen]

Dear Andrea and others

I think Jeremy's interpretation is accurate and a good summary of
what I think most authors (governments, after all) of the TA intended.

If you read the text preceding paragraph 67 (which describes IG) and
then para 67:

"67. We agree, inter alia, to invite the UN Secretary-General to convene
a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue."

.. and then the text from paras 68 to 82 (the rest of the TA under the
heading 'internet governance' it is very, very clear that the IGF was
meant to be a forum to continue discussion about EC in IG.

As for that UNGA resolution that states EC and the IGF are two distinct
processes...it is also usually assumed and stated that it still implies
they are complimentary.. so the TA's mandate for the IGF to be the
primary forum for taking EC forward is not contradicted.

It is also worth considering whether that 2010 GA resolution would ever
have been made if some governments, and some members of business and the
tech community were not so averse to having serious discussion of EC in
the IGF for its first few years.

As for 'multi-lateral and multi-stakeholder. Yes, this is in the TA, and
there are different interpretations of what it means, as there are
different interpretations of what EC means.

Anriette




On 28/05/2012 08:35, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
> On 28/05/12 14:23, Andrea Glorioso wrote:
>> both during the WSIS week in Geneva and recently on this mailing list
>> I had the occasion to hear/read a number of persons claiming (rather
>> forcefully) that the conclusions of the WSIS "clearly" meant the IGF
>> to be the or at least an instrument to implement Enhanced Cooperation.
>>
>> Leaving aside for a moment the subsequent UNGA resolution on the
>> matter (but noting that even though, strictly speaking, we are not
>> talking about binding international law, the principle of "lex
>> posterior" could apply) I would be curious to know your views on which
>> passages of the WSIS texts could lead to such conclusion.
>>
> 
> Lazily, just copying and pasting from page 518 of my 2008 book on the
> IGF (http://books.google.com.my/books?id=G8ETBPD6jHIC):
> 
> "...there is no clear division between the role of the IGF and the
> process of enhanced cooperation in the Tunis Agenda; rather the former
> is treated as an integral component of the latter.[341] What can be
> taken from this is that whilst governments will continue to maintain
> sovereignty over the authoritative statement of public policy principles
> in international and domestic law, those principles are to be developed
> in a multi-stakeholder forum, the IGF (from where they may equally find
> implementation through other, non-legal mechanisms of governance)."
> 
> [341] See WSIS, Tunis Agenda for the Information Society (as in n. 5 on
> page 2), paras 67–72, in
> which the middle paragraphs on enhanced cooperation are sandwiched by
> those calling for the
> establishment of the IGF.
> 
> -- 
> 
> *Dr Jeremy Malcolm
> Senior Policy Officer*
> Consumers International
> Kuala Lumpur Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
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-- 
------------------------------------------------------
anriette esterhuysen anriette at apc.org
executive director, association for progressive communications
www.apc.org
po box 29755, melville 2109
south africa
tel/fax +27 11 726 1692

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