Fwd: [governance] work for Working Group on Internet Governance

[Milton Mueller]

Forwarded from the WSIS civil society lists.

>>> Adam Peake <ajp at glocom.ac.jp> 8/28/2004 11:22:33 AM >>>
The Internet governance caucus is drafting statements for the
"Consultations on the establishment of the Working Group on Internet
Governance (WGIG)" planned for Sept. 20-21
<http://www.itu.int/wsis/preparatory2/wgig/index.html>.

The consultations will discuss the structure, working methodology and
scope of the working group, and contributions on these should be made
by September 13 (the address is <wgig at unog.ch>)

We expect the Sept. 20-21 consultations are also when we should be
submitting names from civil society to join the WG.

As a first step we have drafted a statement on the working group
structure and some basic principles.  The working group is important
and contributions should be sent from civil society in WSIS, so we
have prepared this draft for the content and themes list to consider
and comment on.  Comments by next Saturday, September 4 would be very
helpful.

We hope to draft some other comments on how the working group should
go about its work and perhaps its scope later. We've also been
discussing the qualities of people we think should be on the working
group.  And sometime very soon we need to start talking about names.
More on this later.  But anyone interested, please join the caucus
list (List-Subscribe:
<https://ssl.cpsr.org/mailman/listinfo/governance> or
<mailto:governance-request at lists.cpsr.org?subject=subscribe>)

The non-commercial users constituency of ICANN's  Generic Names
Supporting Organization (GNSO) has also started a process to select
names (see <http://www.ncdnhc.org/> so if you would like to suggest
names for the working group immediately, please look at the NCUC's
process.

I am sorry, the draft is quite long and we do not have resources to
translate. I am not sure if a translation can be completed in time?

Thank you,

Adam and Jeanette
Coordinators, Internet governance caucus



(note about the text below:  any line beginning + means it's an
underlined sub-heading.)

Draft

WSIS Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus
Contribution to the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG),
first open consultation 20-21 September, 2004.  Geneva


Recommendations on General Structure and Operating Principles for the
Working Group on Internet Governance

(tentative introduction. This is the first in a series of
contributions from the WSIS Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus
and addresses the general structure and operating principles of the
Working Group on Internet Governance. (TBC) The WSIS Civil Society
Plenary has endorsed these recommendations?)


1. The Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) must be
independent of WSIS Preparatory Committee Meetings (PrepComs)

The final documents adopted in the Geneva phase (Declaration of
Principles and Plan of Action) ask the Secretary General of the
United Nations to set up a working group on Internet governance to
prepare a report to be presented for consideration and appropriate
action for the second phase of WSIS in Tunis in 2005.  As such, the
Working Group on Internet governance must operate under the auspices
of the Secretary General and be independent of the WSIS PrepComs
leading up to the Tunis Summit.


2. Basic composition of the working group

+ Membership of the working group must be balanced between
participants from governments, the private sector and civil society,
not favoring one group over any other

The Geneva Summit Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action
provide a basic outline of the structure of the working group.  The
Summit documents recommend that the working group ensure the full and
active participation of governments, the private sector and civil
society, from both developing and developed countries.

+ The working group should be large enough that its members bring the
required experience and diversity, but not so large as to slow the
pace of work

The scope of the working group and time line it will work to has not
been agreed.  However, discussions to date strongly suggest that the
working group will address a broad range of issues and will need to
complete its work in a relatively short period of time. The working
group membership will need a wide range of skills, be able to support
active regional consultations and inquiries, and have necessary
gender, linguistic and cultural diversity.  The practical need to
complete a heavy workload in a short period of time also suggests a
working group with a relatively small membership.

+ The working group should not be a High Level Group, it should be
constituted at the working level

Practical considerations of compressed schedule, heavy workload, and
need for a significant commitment of time over a short period
suggests that the working group should be formed at the working level
not as a High Level Group.

+ The working group should respect gender diversity

These concepts lead us to the following suggested basic structure:

Women and men with a high level of experience in international ICT
policy making and the issues the WGIG will address, comprised of:

* Six to 10 participants from Governments
* Six to 10 participants from Civil Society
* Six to 10 participants from the Private Sector
* A Chairperson

Governments, the private sector and civil society will be represented
by an equal number of members: a WGIG of between 19 and 31 members.

In addition, a limited number of participants from Intergovernmental
and International Organizations and forums should be invited to join
the working group as observers.

We recommend that as far as reasonably possible, representation from
governments, the private sector and civil society be divided equally
between participants from developing and developed countries, (e.g.
if each group is represented by eight members, then four would be
from developing countries and four from developed, a total 12 members
from developing countries and 12 members from developed.)

Regional diversity will be an essential feature of the working group
as it conducts consultations and gathers information. We suggest that
where possible consideration should be given to ensuring balanced
representation on the working group from the main geographic regions.
Strong consideration must also be given to ensuring linguistic
diversity in the group's membership.

The working group should also be supported by permanent expert
advisory groups and ad hoc expert consultations convened as the
working group requires. Such groups and consultations would help to
keep the working group small, efficient and functional while
providing it with a broad range of input.


3. Basic operational principles

+ Members serve as peers

The Geneva Summit documents ask the UN Secretary General to set up
the working group. As such it is clear that the working group is not
negotiating language on behalf of nations states, it supports the
work of the Secretary General and as such members of the working
group should serve as peers.

+ Ex Parte reporting procedures and public archives

The working group should respect the governance principles suggested
in the Geneva documents, i.e. that governance processes should be
multilateral, transparent, democratic, and open to full participation
by governments, the private sector and civil society. Consequently:

* The working group should hold open public meetings where any
interested individual may participate, either in person or remotely.
* All submissions to the working group should be publicly archived.
* Formal consultations between member or members of the working group
and parties external to their home institutions should be summarized
and made publicly available.
* Reports of the working group, its interim and final proposals and
decisions must reflect consideration of comments received and explain
how those comments were taken into account.
* The working group should accept substantive comments in all
official UN languages and as many other languages as it can
reasonably manage.

+ Objectives of the working group

The main task of the working group is to develop a working definition
of Internet governance and the public policy issues involved. The
priority is for a working definition, not diplomatic text. The
definition of long-term objectives would be very welcome, but an
essential target should be recommendations applicable in the short
term (one to two years).

+ Chair of the working group

The Working Group on Internet Governance should be independent of the
WSIS process. The process must be independent of political blocs and
lobbies or risk a continuation of the deadlock experienced during the
Geneva phase. As such we recommend that the chair (or dual chairs)
should be from Civil Society and/or the Private Sector chosen with
the following criteria in mind:

* Recognized leadership in international, multi-sector groups
* Non partisan personality
* Coming from a developing country
* Fluent in several UN languages

+ The Working Group on Internet Governance must be provided with
necessary resources

The Working Group on Internet Governance must be provided with
resources necessary to achieve the tasks demanded by the Summit of
the Geneva phase. In particular, resources should be made available
to enable participation from developing countries and from civil
society (irrespective of location), and for the translation of
materials into major languages and interpretation at meetings.


About the WSIS Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus

The caucus was formed during WSIS PrepCom2, February 2003 to provide
civil society with expert opinion on issues around Internet
governance, and to represent civil society's views on Internet
governance in WSIS. It is a means by which any interested
organization or individual from civil society is able to contribute
and participate, and provides a regular communication channel with
other civil society caucuses and working groups and with the Civil
Society Plenary. The Internet Governance Caucus is one of 29 such
working groups established during the preparatory process of WSIS to
provide civil society as a whole with expert advice on specific
thematic issues. A Content and Themes Group coordinated the work of
these content related entities, and this group and the Civil Society
Plenary presented civil society's collective views.

The Caucus made substantive written and spoken plenary contributions
to the debate of Internet governance to the Summit in Geneva, and has
been active in discussion in the WSIS Tunis phase.

END first contribution.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: CaucusDraftIG.rtf
Type: application/msword
Size: 29987 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.ncuc.org/pipermail/ncuc-discuss/attachments/20040828/eb3193fb/attachment.doc>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Part.002
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 151 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.ncuc.org/pipermail/ncuc-discuss/attachments/20040828/eb3193fb/attachment.obj>