[governance] URGENT Brazil Conference on Internet Governance #Details #Strategy URGENT CALL FOR COMMENTS

Mon Nov 18 09:01:20 EST 2013

Dear IGC,

Greetings from Buenos Aires! As you know a note went out this morning and
you can read the email below. In essence the model for engagement *had
already been decided *by the Government of Brazil and ICANN, some of the I
stars until this was released were also surprised that the model for
engagement* had already been developed* without discussion within the
global Internet Governance community.

Regardless of whether this was developed by Brazil nor ICANN, it is simply
unacceptable and lacks the necessary legitimacy and openness and
transparency that is warranted of anyone desiring to create a space to have
multistakeholder dialogue on Internet Governance. Having the form but
lacking the spirit and legitimacy is like having token participation. To
this end, it becomes expedient that we as the IGC need to move quickly to
finalise the letter that global civil society will send out to the
Government of Brazil now that we have full and better details.

*Background About the I star Group*

This was formed to essentially be a round table where those that come
around it come as equals and feed into the process of selecting their
representatives to the organising committee and Agenda of the Meeting in
Brazil. The High Level Panel that was published yesterday is separate from
the I star although there are some who are part of the I star like ICANN
and ISOC *which includes IETF, IAB etc. Personally, I feel that the
mechanism in which the bottom up process for planning and giving input has
effectively hijacked the good faith discussions with ICANN CEO in Bali.

It is important to distinguish at this stage that the organisation of the
High Level Panel is separate and divorced from the I star. The steering
committee at this stage will hold the power and discretion to accept and
receive proposals and influence the Agenda. As global civil society, we
should not only be submitting proposals but we should as we unequivocally
mentioned in Bali be influencing the Agenda. Clearly from the nature of the
planning committee that has already put in place the rules for engagement
and ruled on content and effectively dictating the Agenda. This is simply
NOT multistakeholder, no matter how much it gets dressed up.It may have
components of MS but for legitimacy within a global landscape it lacks
legitimacy.

We were told in Bali that the details were vague but from the extensive
details about the model for engagement clearly both Brazil and ICANN held
out on us.

Anything less is simply not acceptable. This gives us two options>

1. That we demand space in the Steering Committee not as separate civil
society organisations but as a single coherent voice into the process and
this is where the letter that was drafted prior to Bali becomes relevant
and needful,
2.That the joint civil society organisations jointly issue a Press Release
and send to all Media Networks globally and we have many journalists on
this list who can help accelerate this process.
3.That global civil society organisation accelerate the discussions that
have already been taking place off list to work on jointly framing the
discussions and preparing our position papers before March 1, 2014
following which there will be community consultation and proposal
consolidation.

*Reasons Why We should Engage with I star group*

There will be certain positions where we will need alliances on and it does
not make sense to burn bridges but rather to engage and do so intelligently
with wisdom. Even if there is an appearance of bad faith in some quarters
that should not stop up from behaving with integrity, character and in good
faith.

Values command the respect of our colleagues as engagement and negotiations
will play out not just in 2014 but beyond. Because of this, we should not
isolate ourselves but dialogue and engage. My advice would be to come to
the table in the I star engagement and lend our voice as civil society. To
lend our voices as civil society, we need to engage with all these
stakeholders. The key thing here is to ENGAGE. There will be certain
positions that we will need our alliances to agree on, in terms of key
positions on things like the preservation of an open and free internet as
mandated by our Charter.

*Recommendations for the IGC*

1.Start preparing proposals for the Conference and we need to submit it on
March 1, 2014. The email below shows that there will be a 60 day period for
community consultation and proposal consolidation prior to the Conference
in late April/early May 2014 . A special mailing list can be created within
the IGC that is closed where we will invite people to subscribe and the
list will be unnaccessible until full discussions have been aired out. The
work will be consolidated, synthesised, summarised and then put to the the
IGC mailing list for calls for consensus before it is submitted.
2.That civil society globally also monitors the Plenipot preparation
meetings taking place globally and focus all our energy into preparations
for Brazil. We should also prepare to monitor discussions in Busan, Korea.
3.That civil society needs to also consider that 89 countries who signed
the Seoul Framework will be in the Hague next year and as such this could
shift the landscape of things to greater demands for control by governments
that could just as easily affect internet governance.

On a macro scale, I would encourage civil society groups to start thinking
about the critical issues or agenda that should be considered by the
community not only for Brazil but for broader engagement in other key
forums coming up.
Let me have your thoughts please.

Warm Regards,
Sala in my personal capacity

*From: *Adiel Akplogan <adiel at afrinic.net>
*Subject: **[I-coordination] Brazil Meeting Planning*
*Date: *18 November 2013 6:43:04 pm GMT+8
*To: *"I-coordination at nro.net" <i-coordination at nro.net>

Dear 1net participants

Following a meeting held this week between Brazil and some I*
representatives, we have got some further details that I would like to
share with you on the meeting, specifically on its planing and the need for
us (1net initiative) to contribute by appointing representatives to the
committees being setup to drive its preparation. The information below will
be used to update the Meeting concept paper circulated on this list earlier
(which can now be published on our web site as well)

It is clear that the tight timelines for this meeting will require
expedient processes,
and would ask that everyone work as best they can within the constraints we
have been
given. While this is not ideal from a planning perspective, it is better
for us to still strive to work together as a single community to get
something positive out of the meeting in Brazil.

An extract of the salient points of the meeting is reproduced further down.

As immediate action from this group we will need:

1.  Representatives from the 1net initiative who can be in Sao Paolo on 25
November to attend part of the CGI meeting along with Virgilio Almeida
where CGI support to the Brazil meeting will be discussed. We are also
invited to be represented the next day (26 November) at the press
conference where Brazil will announce additional details about the meeting
(most likely some of the information in this planning document];  If you
are interested and can attend either of these days, please notify me (
cel at afrinic.net);  we do not know at this time how many or process for
selection of attendees.

2. The meeting secretariat apparently will have some 1net representatives;
 again,
if you are interested, please identify yourself.  We might need to wait to
see how
CGI (presuming they accept being the meeting secretariat) wishes to handle
selection of these representatives.

3. There are 4 important meeting planning committees; these identify some
specific counts of reps from various communities.  while the I* group can
figure out how to handle the Internet technical community representation,
we will need civil society, business and academia to also quickly nominate
representatives to these committees. While We do not yet have timing
regarding how long to appoint representatives, but given the meeting
timelines it would be best if these were completed by the end of this month.

We count on your cooperation and support throughout this process.

Thank you.

==================== Information gathered from the meeting
==========================

Name: Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance

Date/Location: Sao Paolo, Brazil on April 23/24, 2014.

Brazil is forming a global multistakeholder steering committee to organize
the event.  The committee will include representatives from the Brazilian
CGI, the Brazilian government, and representatives of 1net (the global
dialog on the evolution of multistakeholder internet governance). 1net
representatives will include members of the global technical, academic,
civil society, and business communities.

** Purpose. The meeting will aim to produce universal internet principles
and an institutional framework for multistakeholder internet governance.
The framework will include a roadmap to evolve and globalize current
institutions, and new mechanisms to address the emerging internet
governance topics.  The conference will not include any discussion or
activity to create solutions for specific topics such as security, privacy,
surveillance, etc.

- Success is a final joint declaration of internet principles and an
institutional framework for multistakeholder internet governance. The
declaration should aim to be concrete/practical, linked to prior/current
internet governance initiatives, and hopefully include some next steps.

- The conference is not intend to discuss or engage in creating solutions
for specific topics such as security, privacy, surveillance, etc.

- Any party/stakeholder may submit proposals to the conference. Proposed
deadline for submittal of proposals is set as March 1, 2014. Giving a 60
day period for community consultation and proposal consolidation prior to
the conference in late April/early May 2014.

- One of several input sources to this conference will be the high-level
panel that ICANN will introduce shortly in partnership with The University
of Southern California / Annenberg Foundation and the World Economic Forum.
The panel aims to produce its final document by end of February with
proposed Internet principles and an institutional framework.  Virgilio
Almeida will act as the chair of the Brazilian side throughout the
preparatory processes.   CGI will be asked to serve in an important
operational and strategic role. Virgilio will seek the support of all the
CGI stakeholders at their regularly scheduled meeting of November 25 in Sao
Paolo. He asks that /1net community leaders to attend part of that meeting,
to lend their global support of the Brazil conference.

Planning & Organisation: 4 committees will be formed to ensure the success
of the meeting (see details below). The four committees will be
supported/coordinated by a common secretariat to manage the work of the
committees and coordinate communications activities including a conference
web site. The secretariat is likely to be housed at CGI (pending approval
on the 25th); the secretariat will also include representation from /1net
(the global Internet community) to ensure constant alignment.

++ Committee No.1: Multistakeholder High-Level Committee. This is the
committee that will set the high-level political tone and objectives of the
conference.  Committee members will engage on a global level with
stakeholders to encourage participation in the conference and maximize its
chances of success. This committee will include 8 high level governmental
representatives (ministerial level), and 8 /1net Internet community
representatives (senior executive level).

The 8 governmental reps. will include Brazil and other co-hosting
governments to be selected by Brazil. We discussed Germany, India, Ghana,
Turkey, and one of the "five-eyes" (possibly Australia or the UK). But this
selection is completely up to Brazil.

The 8 /1net Internet community members will be selected by the emerging
/1net coordination committee. They will be selected to include 2 from
industry/business; 2 from civil society; 2 from technical organizations;
1from academia; and 1 from NGO.

++ Committee No.2: Council of Governmental advisors. Participation in this
committee will be managed by Ambassador Benedicto (Foreign affairs) to
include any other governmental representatives who wish to provide
input/advice to Committee No.1. This ensures inclusivity and openness to
broad governmental engagement and eventual participation at the conference.

++ Committee No.3: Multistakeholder Executive Committee. This committee
owns the full responsibility of organizing the event, including: defining
conference purpose/agenda, managing invitations, organizing input received
by March 1 into a coherent set of proposals for the conferees to address,
managing conference proceedings and process, and directing all
communications activities pre-during-post conference.  This committee will
include  6 governmental representatives, and 6 /1net community
representatives.

The 6 governmental reps. will include Brazil, CGI, and other government
representatives to be selected by Brazil. We discussed the EU and South
Korea as good possibilities. But this selection is completely up to Brazil.

The 6 /1net community members will be selected by the emerging /1net
coordination committee. They will be selected to include 2 from
industry/business; 2 from civil society; 2 from technical organizations.

++ Committee No.4: Logistics/Organizing Committee. This is the team that
will oversee meeting management, venue, translation, activities, travel
visa support, etc. This committee will be staffed and managed by CGI (again
pending their approval at their 25th meeting). The global community may be
asked for support as needed.

** Finances. Brazil offered to cover all meeting expenses (thank you
Brazil!). We then discussed that /1net community may organize an
independent effort to support parties from developing countries who may
need financial support to attend the meeting.

** Launch. The conference global launch will be at a press conference to
held in Sao Paolo at the CGI office on the morning of Tuesday November 26.
The press conference will include members of the Brazilian community
(government and CGI),  /1net community leaders, and hopefully some co-host
governments to ensure broad/global representation.
------

- a.
_______________________________________________
I-coordination mailing list
I-coordination at nro.net
https://nro.net/mailman/listinfo/i-coordination
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