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

Sat Mar 7 09:45:48 EST 2015

He did qualify his words with the obvious fact that democracy is a much 
misused term in a lot of contexts and for a lot of people.

You may want to specify in your suggested wording what specific form of 
democracy you support.

On March 7, 2015 8:13:15 PM parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:

> On Saturday 07 March 2015 07:32 PM, Benedek, Wolfgang
> (wolfgang.benedek at uni-graz.at) wrote:
> > 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.
>
> What about doing the same about the 'multistakeholder thing, which did
> go into the doc? Are you are saying that democracy is on more unsure
> grounds than MSism to go into international documents? If so, on what
> basis? You know that the whole thing would have been made to grind to a
> halt if the multistkeholder word was removed from the doc, or not
> included in the first place. The question is: why is democracy subject
> to such interrogation, and not the MS concept? Why are there so many
> defenders of MSism and none for democracy?
>
> Again, sorry to hear use of words like 'forcing into international
> documents' about democracy. You of course you say so in particular
> respect of Internet - but as a Professor of and expert in human rights,
> do you think that democracy may or may not be as applicable in relation
> to Internet, as it is about other issues, like trade, health, education,
> climate change, etc.
>
> This plot keeps thickening... Good to have a through continued
> education.... parminder
> >
> > 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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>
>
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