[governance] Chairs statement from GCCS

Mon Apr 20 14:18:57 EDT 2015

But surely that is the point of my blogpost <https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2015/04/19/another-example-of-multistakeholder-governance-in-action-the-global-cyberspace-15-unicorn/>  Milton… Of course, the GCCS Chairman’s report isn’t “binding”, but nor is the NM Outcome document with which the Chairman’s report so closely associates itself; and read this below as but one example (from ISOC) among an avalanche of others of the ascribed status of this “Multistakeholder” document of unknown legitimacy, questionable accountability and no evident representivity.

Panel on Global Internet Cooperation and Governance Mechanisms

http://internetgovernancepanel.org

| MAY 2014

I.              Foundational principles enabling more collaborative internet governance

The Panel recognizes, fully supports, and adopts the IG Principles produced 

in the NETmundial Statement, which “identified a set of common principles 

and important values that contribute to an inclusive, multistakeholder, effective, 

legitimate, and evolving IG framework and recognized that the Internet is a global 

resource which should be managed in the public interest” (see Annex 1). These 

NETmundial Principles are fundamental for the operationalization of a 21st century, 

collaborative framework of governance for a unified Internet that is unfragmented, 

interconnected, interoperable, secure, stable, resilient, sustainable, and trust 

building. 

Either “unicorns” such as the GCCS (or the NetMundial) have status and thus should be held publicly accountable to some standards of determining legitimacy, accountability, transparency, representivity; or they have no status and thus their outcomes should be treated as merely PR statements (Press releases/public relations outputs) with no significance or legitimacy beyond the opinions of the selected few who have been involved in issuing them.

Clearly they can’t be both and the studied ambiguity of switching from one status to the other depending on the intended audience is both fraudulent and dangerous.

M 

From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org [mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Milton L Mueller
Sent: April 19, 2015 1:55 PM
To: 'governance at lists.igcaucus.org'; 'Ian Peter'; 'bestbits at lists.bestbits.net'; 'forum at justnetcoalition.org'
Subject: RE: [governance] Chairs statement from GCCS

I was offered a chance to comment on a draft of the Chair’s statement. I have no idea how many others were, but I am sure I was part of some much larger list. 

I note with satisfaction that certain language about the “abuse” of free expression rights, which I objected to, was corrected in the final statement. 

I note that other items I didn’t like were not changed, and that some aspects related to state surveillance may have been weakened (though it is hard to tell because I can’t find the original doc). 

In that respect, the Chair’s statement is typical of a MS gathering; you get some of what you want and you don’t get other things. It reflects the lowest common denominator of what the collection of folks in the meeting could agree to, or what the Chair thought they could agree to.

The Netmundial statement adopted a far more bottom up and open methodology in its development, and thus has greater political significance and legitimacy in my opinion, so it would be a mistake to equate the two. But in terms of “official” status, neither of them are binding, and in some sense both are just statements competing for attention in the increasingly crowded bazaar of Internet governance related statements. 

Milton L. Mueller

Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor

Syracuse University School of Information Studies

 <http://faculty.ischool.syr.edu/mueller/mueller/Home.html> http://faculty.ischool.syr.edu/mueller/mueller/Home.html 

From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org <mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org>  [mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Ian Peter
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2015 8:38 AM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org <mailto:governance at lists.igcaucus.org> ; bestbits at lists.bestbits.net <mailto:bestbits at lists.bestbits.net> ; forum at justnetcoalition.org <mailto:forum at justnetcoalition.org> 
Subject: [governance] Chairs statement from GCCS

The Chairs statement from this conference is now released at https://www.gccs2015.com/sites/default/files/documents/Chairs%20Statement%20GCCS2015%20-%2017%20April.pdf

CS people are now working on a response and final call at the unconference and this will (probably) be released later today. It will include disappointment at the non inclusion of references to necessary and proportionate principles, NetMundial principles, and the lack of reference to mass surveillance. Huge gaps, but we have also had some wins, eg inclusion of privacy by design, and quotes like this

“The Conference emphasised that our commitment to the protection of human rights must be unequivocal and that the protection of human rights and security online are complementary concepts. We must remain vigilant about those who use the Internet for incitement to (imminent) violence, and for the recruitment for or financing of terrorism, and ensure that such violations are countered within the framework of the rule of law without allowing ourselves to be governed by a climate of fear. We must also take full account of the need to protect the security and integrity of people, as well as their personal information, networks and devices, in ways that are fully compliant with international law, including human rights law.”

I’m sure others will have things to report from this event and there will be more later.

Ian Peter

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