[governance] [bestbits] Remarks at UNESCO Closing Ceremony of "Connecting the Dots Conference"

Sat Mar 7 09:02:22 EST 2015

First to make my position clear I'm myself an advocate of democratic
governance and a holistic approach to human rights although not as an
alternative to multistakeholderism, the potential of which in my view
still needs to be developed.

Second I have myself proposed in writing to the Secretariat to include
certain language on global citizenship education, a concept supported by
the UN Secretary General and developed very actively in the educational
sector of UNECO while only mentioned once in the UNESCO study to resolve
ethical issues in cyberspace. Finally, the concept was only mentioned
without any elaboration. And I'm aware that several other proposals made
by others were not taken up at all.

Regarding the baggage issue, I'm not an insider to these discussions, I
have no problem with appeals to democratic values, but I'm aware that the
concept of democracy has also been misused a lot in history, take the
examples of the former German Democratic Republic(GDR), the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) or the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. It
would be good to work for a consensus on the understanding and role of
democracy in the context of the internet among civil society and academia
first before forcing it into international documents.

Wolfgang Benedek

Am 07.03.15 14:01 schrieb "Michael Gurstein" unter <gurstein at gmail.com>:

>And to be very clear, in the case of "democracy"  it wasn't simply a
>matter of the concept "not making it into the final document" but rather
>that those involved made the clear political choice to promote
>"multistakeholderism" and suppress "democracy".
>
>M
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org
>[mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Norbert Klein
>Sent: March 7, 2015 3:45 AM
>To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
>Subject: Re: [governance] [bestbits] Remarks at UNESCO Closing Ceremony
>of "Connecting the Dots Conference"
>
>
>On 03/07/2015 02:30 PM, Benedek, Wolfgang (wolfgang.benedek at uni-graz.at)
>wrote:
>> As a participant and speaker in the UNESCO conference Connecting the
>> dots: Options for future action  in Paris I think it is important to
>> put the record straight: the main purpose of the conference was to
>> give feedback to the UNESCO draft Internet study and advise on the
>> future priorities in this field. This was done in several plenary and
>> 16 breakout sessions in a MSH-approach quite successfully.
>> The fact that two concepts important to some did not make it into the
>> outcome document should not be overestimated as this is all work in
>> progress. Also other concepts dear to others were not or only partly
>> included. I also do not remember that these concepts were elaborated
>> on during the sessions or panels in any significant way in order to
>> deepen their understanding.
>>
>> Wolfgang Benedek
>>
>
>Dear Mr. Benedek,
>
>thanks for this, for this type of, clarification - using only formalities
>like "Also other concepts dear to others were not or only partly
>included."
>
>I cannot easily imagine what kind of "other concept" of a similar
>importance and weight could be lined up with "democracy." I would
>appreciate it if you, as a participant in this UNESCO conference, could
>share some of these "other concepts" which were also not, or only
>partially, included.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Norbert Klein
>Cambodia
>
>
>
>

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