[governance] Meeting with EC/EP: short report

Tue Nov 13 06:44:00 EST 2012

Dear all

I support Jovan's comments about government participation very strongly.

It is not that we cannot have useful IGFs without government
involvement... but for the whole process of dialogue/soft power/building
of capacity and understanding and relationships to have positive policy
outcomes (and to influence day to day behaviour) we do need them there.
And we need more than North American and European governments andthe
regular handful of developing country reps. In some ways this imbalance
consolidates distrust of of multi-stakeholder inclusion in the places
where we most need to build it.

I think it can be addressed.. and one mechanisms is the MAG. For
example, I think that the Special Advisor (should this person ever by
appointed) should be from a developing country. Similarly if a chair (or
co-chairs) is to be appointed from among MAG membershavinga developing
country person as one of these co-chairs could also make a huge
differencein building the MAG's legitimacyamong developing country
governments.

Anriette

On 13/11/2012 12:55, Jovan Kurbalija wrote:
> Thank you, Tijani, for a very useful summary.  I have just one
> clarification on my statement. While I agree that governments should
> /support/ the multistakeholder model, my main point is that we must
> ensure more /government participation /in the IGF.
>
> In Internet governance, governments are the 'new kids on the block',
> while in other international regimes, it was civil society and
> business that had to carve out a space in existing inter-governmental
> arrangements (e.g. climate change, human rights, food security).
> Therefore, business, civil society, and the technical community face
> the challenge and responsibility of ensuring substantive government
> participation in the IGF.
>
> My statement is supported by Diplo's pilot research project on the IGF
> Language Corpus <http://www.diplomacy.edu/igflanguage/geography>,
> which shows that only 28% of governments (54 out of 193 UN member
> states) have spoken during the IGF process (preparatory and main
> meetings) in the six meetings from 2006 to 2011; and even this has
> declined over the last few years.
>
> Substantive government participation will be the make-or-break point
> for the IGF and other Internet governance multistakeholder bodies. How
> to achieve it? While it won't be easy, it's not an impossible task.
>
> Regards, Jovan
>
> *Jovan Kurbalija, PhD*
>
> Director, DiploFoundation
>
> Rue de Lausanne 56 *| *1202 Geneva*|***Switzerland
>
> *Tel.*+41 (0) 22 7410435 *| **Mobile.*+41 (0) 797884226
>
> *Email: *jovank at diplomacy.edu*| **Twitter:*@jovankurbalija
>
> *The latest from Diplo:*today – this week – this month
> <http://www.diplomacy.edu/currently> *l* Conference on Innovation in
> Diplomacy (Malta, 19-20 November 2012)
> <http://www.diplomacy.edu/conferences/innovation> *l *new online
> courses <http://www.diplomacy.edu/courses>
>
>
>
> On 11/12/12 1:12 PM, Tijani BEN JEMAA wrote:
>>
>> Parminder and Marie Georges,
>>
>> The meeting was organized as a round table where everyone take the
>> floor for a short time to express him/herself. All was about the
>> internet governance but we didn’t take a specific item, and discussed
>> it.
>>
>> As for the “Intermediate international standards”, they were
>> presented as a third layer between the international general
>> principles and the national laws. They described it to be more
>> simplified and more acceptable for all the countries so that they may
>> be applied by all at the national level. My reaction to this concept
>> was that I find it is a good idea to elaborate more simple and more
>> precise standards, but I don’t think it will be a third layer; the
>> so-called “intermediate standards” can only be the same layer as the
>> international general principles since they will be international
>> agreements, and their use at the national level will still depend on
>> the willing of the governments.
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>> *Tijani BEN JEMAA*
>>
>> Executive Director
>>
>> Mediterranean Federation of Internet Associations (*FMAI*)
>>
>> *Phone:*   +216 98 330 114
>>
>> *Mobile:*+216 41 649 605
>>
>> *Fax:*         +216 70 825 231
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>> *De :*parminder [mailto:parminder at itforchange.net]
>> *Envoyé :* dimanche 11 novembre 2012 22:00
>> *À :* governance at lists.igcaucus.org; tijani.benjemaa at planet.tn
>> *Objet :* Re: [governance] Meeting with EC/EP: short report
>>
>> On Saturday 10 November 2012 03:32 AM, tijani.benjemaa at planet.tn
>> <mailto:tijani.benjemaa at planet.tn> wrote:
>>
>>     Dear all,
>>
>>     Sorry for the late report: No Internet access in the meeting rooms.
>>
>>     snip
>>
>>     The European parliamentarians expressed their support to all those
>>     issues, and introduced a concept of intermediate international
>>     standards accepted by all and easily applicable, to be between the
>>     international general principals such as the human rights
>>     declaration and the national laws.
>>
>>
>> Very interested to know what kind of international standards they
>> were referring to that fall in between " general principals such as
>> the human rights declaration and the national laws". Can someone
>> throw some light on the nuances involved here.
>>
>> parminder
>>
>>
>> Dioplo Foundation emphasized the importance of the Governments’
>> commitment to support the IGF and its multi-stakeholder model
>>
>> The meeting was held in a warm and friendly ambience.
>>
>> Y.J. PARK and Tijani BEN JEMAA
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Tijani BEN JEMAA
>> Executive Director
>> Mediterranean Federation of Internet Associations
>> Phone: +216 70 825 231
>> Mobile: +216 98 330 114
>> Fax: +216 70 825 231
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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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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