[NCUC-DISCUSS] NCUC EC Election - Statement - Carlos Affonso Souza

[Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza]

Hi everyone: this is my statement for the next EC's election. Sorry for
this small delay, but I hope it's ok.

Best,
Carlos

*1. Why do you want to serve on the EC?*

I served on the EC back in 2009, right after two years serving as GNSO
Councilor. At that time, the non-commercial interests were granted extra
seats in the Council and there was some expectation to see how far could we
foster the non-commercial representation at ICANN. Four years have passed
and internet governance issues are slowly shifting from an esoteric
perspective to a more broad understanding, thanks mostly to the
infringement of a number of fundamental rights by either companies and
governments alike. In the same movement, a number of fora end up being
created or expanded, some of them more inviting to civil society
participation, some of them quite less. In this scenario, I believe ICANN
can play an important role, but there is a long road to be taken for that
to come out as a viable channel for communicating the demands from civil
society. NCUC has been uniting activists, academics, NGOs and users that
see in ICANN a forum that could push the multistakeholder model to an
improved experience. I see the NCUC's EC is a privileged space to foster
debates that are crucial for this changing moment of the internet
governance landscape, so that is why I want to serve on the EC for this
next term. Another reason for running in this election is to try to advance
the debate of a number of IG issues related to ICANN in the Latam region. I
believe we have seen some progress in the recent years, but there is a lot
to be done, especially with Brazil taking a tentative position to push for
a rights-based internet governance. It is too soon to assert what is going
to come out of this endeavor, but the NCUC can certainly play a role in
engaging in productive discussion and in communicating to other civil
society entities (especially those not involved with IG) the importance of
engaging in the debate.

*2. Provide a brief biography of recent experience, associations, and
affiliations relevant to serving on the Executive Committee. Describe the
relevance of your personal and professional experience to serve on the NCUC
Executive Committee, and identify any conflicts of interests you might
have.*

I am the director of the Rio de Janeiro Institute for Technology of Society
(ITS). The ITS is a non-profit think-tank specifically aimed at dealing
with the interplay of technology and all it’s social spheres: law,
politics, economics, culture, development and democracy. The ITS is a new
entity created as a hub for professors and researchers from different
institutions to join forces in advancing the debate in a number of issues,
such as internet governance and regulation.

I am lawyer and I teach intellectual property, contracts and internet
governance/regulation at the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), at the
Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and at the IBMEC
University.

Last year I've spent five months at Yale's Information Society Project to
finish a book on the concept of abuse of rights in Civil Law, focusing on
copyright/trademark and freedom of expression cases.

In the recent years I have been involved with a number of internet
governance and regulation initiatives such as: (i) the co-creation and
implementation of the Marco Civil initiative (the so-called Brazilian
Internet Bill of Rights) as a online consultation process; (ii) researching
internet governance issues for the Brazilian Internet Observatory, a joint
project with the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br), from
2010-2012; (iii) researching the process of the blocking of Port 25/TCP as
an example of a multistakeholder practice coordinated by the CGI.br; (iv)
organizing of a number of IGF's workshops and events; (v) participation in
the last phase of the ATRT1, replacing Willie Currie as a GNSO
representative; (vi) writing and researching extensively on internet
governance and regulation.

In what concerns the activities related to the "Marco Civil" initiative, they
included: (i) assistance to the Ministry of Justice in analyzing the
comments received through the online consultation platform; (ii) lecturing
about the initiative on national and international seminars; (iii)
presenting the initiative to foreign authorities, such as the European
Parliament or the Organization for American States, or in foreign
universities; (iv) presentations on public hearings in Brasilia, both in
the House of Representatives and in the Senate; (v) engaging in public
debates about the Bill of Law, authoring OP-Eds in newspapers and magazines
on issues like intermediary liability, privacy protection and net
neutrality.


*3. The EC performs several functional responsibilities for the
Constituency.  What  level of time commitment can you bring to your EC role
on a weekly and overall basis?  Describe any concerns or limitations on
your ability to attend online meetings of the Executive Committee and ICANN
Meetings in person. *

I am available to join the calls and meetings of the EC. My only fixed
commitments are the classes that I teach, but knowing in advance the dates
of ICANN meetings make it easier to prepare for that. I have been following
ICANN for ten years now and I am quite used to the dynamics of traveling
and finding the time for calls.

*4. Communication with the membership is critical. How would you keep
members apprised of your EC-related activities?*

Through regular posts on the lists and reaching out to members of the
constituency to have their inputs and feedback heard on a regular basis. I
believe the quantity and quality of the report back to the constituency
from EC members is improving in the last years, but I would be happy to
help out fostering those communication channels.

*5. How do you foresee NCUC’s function, scale, or role changing in the
future? What areas of ICANN policy, if any, need more attention and why?
 Be concise (200 words maximum).*

There is always a huge workload related to administrative and procedural
issues to be discussed in ICANN, especially in what concerns the activities
of the GNSO. In the lats years the whole community has been focusing for
obvious reasons on the new gtld program. NCUC has been active in a number
of issues pertaining this topic, especially the need for a human rights
impact assessment on the introduction of new gtlds. The next years will
bring to NCUC not only the challenges of the new gtlds implementation, but
a larger question concerning the ICANN role in the internet governance
landscape. If ICANN will truly stand out for the defense of a multi -
equal? - stakeholder model, it will be for groups such as the NCUC to
provide an expert and informed analysis on the process and the outcomes of
such struggle. Securing an independent and effective channel to communicate
non-commercial demands in the ICANN ecosystem has been one the missions of
the NCUC. The next years may turn out to be sort of a trying times for
civil society to figure out how to better represent itself and stand for
its values in a complex multistakeholder environment. I may be overly broad
here, but I believe NCUC can play an important role in this scenario.






-- 
Diretor
Instituto de Tecnologia e Sociedade do Rio de Janeiro (ITS)
https://www.facebook.com/ITSriodejaneiro
+55 21 3235-6315
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