[governance] Meeting with EC/EP: short report

Suresh Ramasubramanian suresh at hserus.net
Tue Nov 13 07:02:15 EST 2012


That won't quite help.  The igf and mag themselves have to become more regional and try to reach out directly to individual stakeholders from governments

Especially from developing countries, international conference travel is often treated by extremely senior management (sometimes, equivalent to 'political appointee') at different agencies and ministries as a perk that gives them a free foreign tour and shopping trip at their governments expense.  So while several more government officials than you think may have been present at Baku, the only time you might have seen them would be at champagne receptions

--srs (iPad)

On 13-Nov-2012, at 17:14, Anriette Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org> wrote:

> 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 and the 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 members having a developing country person as one of these co-chairs could also make a huge difference in building the MAG's legitimacy among 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 
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
>>> 
>>> Aucun virus trouvé dans ce message. 
>>> Analyse effectuée par AVG - www.avg.fr <http://www.avg.fr> 
>>> Version: 2013.0.2793 / Base de données virale: 2624/5889 - Date: 11/11/2012         
>>> 
>>> Aucun virus trouvé dans ce message. 
>>> Analyse effectuée par AVG - www.avg.fr <http://www.avg.fr> 
>>> Version: 2013.0.2793 / Base de données virale: 2624/5889 - Date: 11/11/2012        
> 
> -- 
> ------------------------------------------------------
> 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
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> To be removed from the list, visit:
>     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
> 
> For all other list information and functions, see:
>     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
> To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
>     http://www.igcaucus.org/
> 
> Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20121113/3089ceb1/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t


More information about the Governance mailing list