[governance] Internet Shutdown: An IGC Statement to the ISOC Cameroon Chapter?

Norbert Bollow nb at bollow.ch
Wed Feb 1 07:01:43 EST 2017 

I'm in full agreement with all of Mawaki's points below.

Greetings,
Norbert


On Wed, 1 Feb 2017 09:18:46 +0000
Mawaki Chango <kichango at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Arsène et al.
> 
> We deliberately decided to keep it short, on purpose. This should not
> be approached as an input from IGC to a complex global policy issue,
> on the world stage. (Not to mention that we did not want this to get
> into endless debates as IGC is accustomed to.) Neither did we want it
> to take a turn to, or us to be suspected of, lecturing. That's why we
> further motivated the exercise, with a narrow focus, by recalling the
> specific communication that prompted it.
> 
> You can see from Javier's first response that even those precautions
> prove not to be enough to warrant our declaration, in his view.
> Apparently he would want us to withdraw altogether from, and keep
> quiet, on the issue (if I'm being mistaken here on the implications
> of your response, I stand to be corrected.)
> 
> In the meantime, I personally think our above described precautions
> should suffice. The statement doesn't get into the presumably complex
> political and security issues that the government might be dealing
> with on the ground. In the communication that prompted our statement,
> maybe Janvier just got carried away in an attempt to avoid a
> wholesale condemnation of his country in the global community of
> civil society. But the email posted is there including terms and a
> rationale which are unacceptable to us, and we needed to express our
> concern and register our disapproval of such. We are not making
> claims as to how hard working and committed ISOC Cameroon may or may
> not be toward facilitating Internet access to all in Cameroon, in
> ordinary times.
> 
> Mawaki
> 
> On Feb 1, 2017 6:13 AM, "Arsène Tungali" <arsenebaguma at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> Dear Norbert, Mawaki,
> 
> Thank you for the draft as suggested. It is very short, i wonder if
> anyone who was not part of these discussions or who will see it for
> the first time on our website will be able to understand the
> background. Just thinking outloud :)
> 
> I leave it open to the community for comments, etc if applicable. I
> suggest we close it by 11:pm UTC this Feb 1st.
> 
> We will then post it on our website and send it to the appropriate
> persons, to follow the process as agreed here.
> 
> Meanwhile, i see Mr Janvier already responded (which is a good sign
> imo) and i suggest we discuss his response once we have formally sent
> this letter.
> 
> Hope this is fine with you'all.
> 
> Thanks,
> A
> -----------------
> Arsène Tungali,
> @arsenebaguma
> +243 993810967
> GPG: 523644A0
> Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo
> 
> Sent from my iPhone (excuse typos)
> 
> > On Jan 31, 2017, at 9:32 PM, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
> >
> > Dear Arsène and all
> >
> > Please find our proposal at
> >
> > https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pQjEQ5UtR4D7f0HYeJsK0upPKnJTE
> yWULk-fUSajTd8/edit
> >
> > I'm also including the text below.
> >
> > Greetings,
> > Norbert
> >
> >
> > -- draft starts --
> > To the ISOC Cameroon Chapter
> >
> > Dear Colleagues
> >
> > The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus (IGC,
> > http://igcaucus.org) is a global network of civil society actors
> > who originally came together in the context of the World Summit on
> > the Information Society (WSIS) to promote global public interest
> > objectives in Internet governance policy making.
> >
> > We are firmly convinced that Internet shutdowns are not acceptable
> > in regard to any region and not justifiable in any way, and that
> > such shutdowns must be opposed vigorously.
> >
> > We would have expected everyone who associates themselves with ISOC
> > to be committed to ISOC's principle stating that “The Internet is
> > for Everyone”.
> >
> > For further elaboration of the important principle of /Internet
> > access and affordability/ along with related rights and freedoms,
> > we refer to the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms,
> > http://africaninternetrights.org/articles/ .
> >
> > In light of these principles and rights, we would like to
> > respectfully urge the ISOC Cameroon Chapter to adopt a
> > corresponding strong stance in regard to Internet shutdowns in some
> > regions of the country, and to denounce and oppose such dreadful
> > measures with all earnestness.
> >
> > The reason why we write to you in this matter is a posting to our
> > mailing list on January 26, 2017, which was signed “ISOC Cameroon,
> > President” and which expressed views that were not at all consistent
> > with the above.
> >
> > Best regards
> > Internet Governance Caucus (IGC)
> >
> >
> >
> > Cc: ISOC’s regional contact for Africa, bekele at isoc.org
> >
> > -- draft ends --
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 30 Jan 2017 17:54:30 +0200
> > Arsène Tungali <arsenebaguma at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Dear Norbert,
> >>
> >> Thanks for Mawaki and yourself for willing to take on this task. I
> >> am happy with the process as you suggest it (with the hope that
> >> everyone is happy as well): writing to ISOC Cameroon with cc to
> >> ISOC Global.
> >>
> >> Please do send us the draft once finalized and we will allow at
> >> least 24 hours for the IGC to comment before this can be sent.
> >> Please do share it in a Google Drive (do not allow edit by anyone
> >> but just allow people to make contributions in form of comments in
> >> the margins of the doc).
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> A
> >>
> >> ------------------------
> >> **Arsène Tungali**
> >> Co-Founder & Executive Director, *Rudi international
> >> <http://www.rudiinternational.org>*,
> >> CEO,* Smart Services Sarl <http://www.smart-serv.info>*, *Mabingwa
> >> Forum <http://www.mabingwa-forum.com>*
> >> Tel: +243 993810967
> >> GPG: 523644A0
> >> *Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo*
> >>
> >> 2015 Mandela Washington Felllow
> >> <http://tungali.blogspot.com/2015/06/selected-for-2015-
> mandela-washington.html>
> >> (YALI) - ISOC Ambassador (IGF Brazil
> >> <http://www.internetsociety.org/what-we-do/education-and-
> leadership-programmes/next-generation-leaders/igf-
> ambassadors-programme/Past-Ambassadors>
> >> & Mexico
> >> <http://www.internetsociety.org/what-we-do/education-and-
> leadership-programmes/next-generation-leaders/Current-Ambassadors>)
> >> - AFRISIG 2016 <http://afrisig.org/afrisig-2016/class-of-2016/> -
> >> Blogger <http://tungali.blogspot.com> - ICANN Fellow (Los Angeles
> >> <https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2014-07-18-en> & Marrakech
> >> <https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/marrakech55-
> attendees-2016-03-14-en>
> >> ). AFRINIC Fellow (Mauritius
> >> <http://www.afrinic.net/en/library/news/1907-afrinic-25-
> fellowship-winners>)*
> >> - *IGFSA Member <http://www.igfsa.org/> - The HuffingtonPost UK
> >> <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/liza-bel/drc_b_8958150.html>
> >>
> >> 2017-01-30 16:36 GMT+02:00 Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch>:
> >>
> >>> Dear Arsène and all
> >>>
> >>> After a quick exchange with Mawaki, I'm happy to report that
> >>> Mawaki and I are willing to work out a joint proposal.
> >>>
> >>> In regard to who the letter should be addressed to, Mawaki and I
> >>> think that the statement should be addressed to ISOC Cameroon. At
> >>> the most, we can cc ISOC Global for the record. As made clear in
> >>> the communication excerpts forwarded by Arsène, ISOC Global is
> >>> already taking action and Chapter office holders are volunteers
> >>> who are not bound to the organization by a required line of
> >>> conduct as would be expected from staff of ISOC Global. Therefore
> >>> we cannot reasonably hold the global organization accountable for
> >>> any Chapter official's position and put them in the position to
> >>> be answerable about it -- which will appear as being the case if
> >>> we address a letter to ISOC Global, -- especially when their
> >>> response is already known.
> >>>
> >>> We think that the statement should be short and narrowly focused,
> >>> and articulated on the basis of some basic principles which should
> >>> be sufficiently self-evident to not need any in-depth debate in
> >>> IGC.
> >>>
> >>> You may expect us to post proposed text shortly.
> >>>
> >>> Greetings,
> >>> Norbert
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, 30 Jan 2017 11:02:56 +0200
> >>> Arsène Tungali <arsenebaguma at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Dear colleagues,
> >>>>
> >>>> Starting a new thread.
> >>>>
> >>>> I would like to thank everyone for raising your concern about
> >>>> what's going on in Cameroon which is just another country added
> >>>> to the list of African countries that have experienced Internet
> >>>> shutdown. I am from the DRC and we have experienced this more
> >>>> than 3 times and I am in the best position to highly condem this
> >>>> new form of oppression.
> >>>>
> >>>> I would also like to thank everyone who have expressed their
> >>>> concern over what Mr. Janvier had to say about the shutdown in
> >>>> his country, where he volunteerly serve as ISOC Cameroon
> >>>> President. I join you all and condemn his position on this, which
> >>>> I can assure you, is his own position, not shared by his other
> >>>> colleagues at theISOC Chapter. Proof is he reacted to his other
> >>>> colleague who had a different view and who was making an appeal,
> >>>> asking for more coverage and action regarding what's going on in
> >>>> his country.
> >>>>
> >>>> For your information, ISOC has issued a statement
> >>>> <http://www.internetsociety.org/lets-keep-internet-
> everyone?utm_content=
> >>> bufferc442c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_
> campaign=buffer>
> >>>> condemning the shutdown in Cameroon as well as in other
> >>>> countries. This show that ISOC, as an organization, does not
> >>>> support shutdowns but rather condem it firmly (as we all know).
> >>>>
> >>>> And, on a different mailing list, Mr. Nicolas Seidler
> >>>> <https://www.internetsociety.org/who-we-are/people/mr-nicolas-seidler>,
> >>>> who is Senior Policy Advisor for ISOC said the following:
> >>>>
> >>>> We felt it was time to formally express our long-standing
> >>>> concerns on such measures, in the context of the Cameroon
> >>>> situation and in view of others to come up in the future. We are
> >>>> also supporting and giving visibility to efforts from Access and
> >>>> members of the Keep it on campaign on our social media channels.
> >>>>
> >>>> And he reacted on Mr. Janvier's stance and ONLY had this to say:
> >>>> Finally, we have an ISOC Chapter in Cameroon, as in many other
> >>>> parts of the worlds. While not all members of Chapters share the
> >>>> same view (a Chapter is made of local volunteers, not staff),
> >>>> there are some who want to act and we’ll make sure to direct them
> >>>> to Deji, Julie and others involved in the advocacy effort.
> >>>>
> >>>>> From the above, we understand that it was a personal point of
> >>>>> view from Mr.
> >>>> Janvier which, as most of our colleagues said here, is completely
> >>>> wrong. I do personally believe that when a single person is
> >>>> restricted access, this should be raised and condemned. In
> >>>> Cameroon, we have 2 regions affected and this is terrible.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> *Now, coming back to the discussion on this list regarding a
> >>>> statement, I would like to suggest the following:*
> >>>> 1. We can issue a statement adressed to ISOC Global (to ISOC
> >>>> Executive Director for example) condemning the public stance
> >>>> taken by ISOC Cameroon President. May I suggest *Norbert and
> >>>> Mawaki* to make an initial draft statement and share with us
> >>>> within the next 48 hours (if at all possible)?
> >>>>
> >>>> 2. We then issue a more general statement condemning Internet
> >>>> shutdown across the world as a civil society coalition because I
> >>>> am sure this is the new form of opression that Gov are taking (as
> >>>> said by Snowden). It will be very useful we use the expertise we
> >>>> have here to draft this and circulate it widely in all networks
> >>>> as a way to condemn the act but also to raise awareness about the
> >>>> issue (which is still unfamiliar with those who are not actively
> >>>> involved in these discussions or who have never experienced any
> >>>> shutdown). *For this, I would like to ask request few volunteers
> >>>> to make an initial draft statement as well?*
> >>>>
> >>>> Please do let me know what you think or if there is another
> >>>> approach that we can all agree on and take action without
> >>>> wassting more time. If you want to be part of the team of 3 to
> >>>> draft the second statement, please do let us know on this list
> >>>> within the next 48 hours.
> >>>>
> >>>> Very best,
> >>>>
> >>>> Arsene, IGC Co-cooordinator
> >
> > ____________________________________________________________
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> 
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