[governance] APC Remarks on the occasion of the NMI Scoping Meeting, 28 August 2014
CAPDA CAPDA
capdasiege at gmail.com
Thu Aug 28 08:33:46 EDT 2014
Hi Anriette,
Congratulation for this proposition, these remarks in very insterresting.
Best
2014-08-28 13:19 GMT+02:00 Anriette Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org>:
>
> *Remarks from the Association for Progressive Communications on the
> NETmundial Initiative (NMI) Initial Scoping Meeting to be held in Geneva on
> 28 August 2014*
>
>
> By the time most members of civil society active in Internet governance
> heard of the NETmundial Initiative (or Alliance as it as originally termed)
> it was already a fait accompli. A few carefully selected civil society
> invitees were given a choice to get on board, or miss their chance to
> participate in internet governance's next 'great event'. A further few were
> invited to the initial scoping meeting.1
> <#1481c574ab3c7463_sdfootnote1sym>
>
>
> APC was one of the organizations that received an invitation but as we
> are not attending the meeting we are sharing these remarks.
>
>
> The NMI appropriates the name of NETMundial, the multistakeholder event
> held in Brazil earlier this year. Yet there are few resemblances between
> the NMI and NETMundial outside of the name. The initiative was conceived of
> in a top down manner, and efforts to implement it so far - the scoping
> meeting- have reflected this approach. It has been neither inclusive nor
> transparent. It is of great concern to APC that information about the event
> was only released to the public by the organisers after it had been leaked.
> This is not an appropriate profile for any event that purports to operate
> in the spirit of the NETMundial principles. And it does not bode well for
> its future success as a multistakeholder initiative. It is hard to grasp
> how an initiative that starts off in this manner can become a democratic,
> transparent and participatory venue for the global community serving human
> rights and the public good.
>
> Started, it appears, by the Chief Executive of ICANN, and facilitated and
> hosted by World Economic Forum (WEF), the NMI appears to have good
> intentions, namely to (quoting from the brief): 1) "Facilitate a
> distributed environment of effective global cooperation among stakeholders
> through innovative and legitimate mechanisms to tackle current and future
> Internet issues; 2) Inform and equip capacity development initiatives to
> ensure global participation in Internet cooperation, especially from
> under-represented regions; and 3) Work to build trust in the Internet and
> its governance ecosystem." 2 <#1481c574ab3c7463_sdfootnote2sym>
>
> But is the WEF an appropriate forum for these processes? The WEF has
> close links to business, and is mostly financed by big business. It has
> expertise in facilitating engagement between business and governments, and
> sometimes also with civil society, and its interest in internet governance
> should be seen as positive. But very few civil society organisations,
> particularly from the developing world (or Global South) would feel
> comfortable in WEF spaces. Many identify with the World Social Forum, the
> alternative forum which was established to challenge approaches to
> globalization and development promoted at the WEF. Many developing country
> governments also do not feel that they have equal voice at the WEF.
>
>
> Looking at the list of participants at the NMI Scoping Meeting it is
> clear who is present, and who is not. By far the majority of participants
> come from Europe and North America. Business representation dramatically
> outweighs that of civil society.
>
>
> WEF events are seen as grand events for the rich and powerful that have
> very little, if anything, to do with civil society and the daily lives and
> struggles of the general population This discomfort leads to questions and
> concerns:
>
>
>
> -
>
> There is a general lack of diversity among the civil society
> participants in most WEF events in general, and in this event - the NMI
> Scoping Meeting - specifically. What will be done to remedy this situation
> as the process continues?
>
>
>
> -
>
> Does WEF have the capacity to establish something sustained, inclusive
> and bottom up that can gradually lead the way in building the legitimacy
> and inclusiveness needed to operationalise the NETmundial outcomes at
> global, regional, and national levels?
>
>
>
> -
>
> What experience does WEF have at bridging the gap between those who
> hold power and influence, and a civil society that has neither power nor,
> frequently, influence?
>
>
>
> -
>
> Most the pressing internet governance challenges of the moment involve
> containing actions by governments and businesses to fragment the internet
> (intentionally or unintentionally). For example, insufficient data
> protection, and new challenges to protecting user's rights, and business
> models which rely on data mining practices which put these rights at risk?
> While business and governments need to be part of these solutions, is a
> forum dominated by them (the case for the WEF and thus far for the NMI)
> likely to come up with solutions that challenges their interests?
> -
>
> How can WEF help to integrate what the NETmundial stands for (public
> interested, multistakeholder, democratic, and human rights oriented
> internet governance) into the day to day running of the internet in ways
> that will be felt by existing and future users?
>
>
>
> -
>
> What is the NMI relationship to the IGF? Will it focus on
> strengthening it? Or will it attempt to be complimentary? How can it
> guarantee that it will not disrupt the work of thousands that has gone into
> building the IGF over the last decade?
>
>
>
> -
>
> Will the NMI stand for human rights and make them a priority in
> internet governance?
>
>
>
>
> -
>
> How will those developing country governments that currently feel
> excluded and disaffected with multistakeholder internet governance
> processes (and this includes both the NETmundial and the IGF) be included
> and how will they be challenged to change their behaviours with regard to,
> particularly, civil society participation in national internet policy
> processes?
>
>
>
>
> -
>
> Will it approach capacity building as a process needed by the
> developing world only? Will it look beyond attributing the primary reason
> for the lack of support for multistakeholder processes among developing
> country governments to lack of capacity and knowledge? Or will it use
> capacity building is often used as a bandaid, with rich countries proposing
> resources/aid for multistakeholder processes as means of securing political
> support at international processes? If capacity, and its building, is to be
> defined by the north for the south it will only reinforce existing
> inequalities in power and will fail to strengthen multistakeholder
> processes at either national or global levels.
>
> Having pointed to our concerns, we also want to point to our wishes. Since
> this meeting is happening, we wish it the greatest success. We strongly
> support its goal of building support for a strong IGF. We would be willing
> to assist the WEF during the next six months in trying to make this
> initiative a genuinely multistakeholder effort that pays heed to democratic
> and bottom-up processes with outreach and accountability to the global
> stakeholder community. APC also believes that there is value in expanding
> the conversation to include people who have heretofore been absent from the
> discussion; we realize that cooperation with the WEF is one way to build
> awareness of critical issues and processes among those actors they have an
> established relationship with. Broadening the range of business voices
> involved in internet governance is needed. But dominance of business voices
> in the internet governance ecosystem is not only not needed, it will
> destroy any chance that this distributed, decentralised system has of being
> regarded as legitimate and focused on the public interest.
>
>
> APC insists that greater transparency and inclusiveness going forward is
> vital. WEF has committed to a six month period of consultations regarding
> whether and how to establish a dedicated organizational structure to
> support the NMI going forward, whether or not connected to the Forum.3
> <#1481c574ab3c7463_sdfootnote3sym> The next six months will determine the
> degree to which this effort can reach the global community in all of its
> diversity in a manner that is worthy of the brand NETMundial.
>
>
> 28 August 2014
>
>
> 1 <#1481c574ab3c7463_sdfootnote1anc>
> http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-internet-governance
>
> 2 <#1481c574ab3c7463_sdfootnote2anc>
> http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_1NetmundialInitiativeBrief.pdf
>
> 3 <#1481c574ab3c7463_sdfootnote3anc>
> http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_2NETmundialInitiativeFAQ.pdf
>
> --
> `````````````````````````````````
> anriette esterhuysen
> executive director
> association for progressive communications
> po box 29755, melville, 2109, south africaanriette at apc.orgwww.apc.org
>
>
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