[ga] ALAC Statement on WSIS Declaration of Principles and Plan of Actions

[Vittorio Bertola <vb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This statement has just been released by the ALAC. Comments or questions 
are welcome.


At Large Advisory Committee's Statement
on WSIS Declaration of Principles and Plan of Actions

January 20, 2004

At the World Summit on the Information Society held on December 10 to 12 
in Geneva, the member states of the United Nations adopted the Declaration 
of Principles and the Plan of Action that include specific language on the 
issue of “Internet Governance” (as attached).

ICANN’s At Large Advisory Committee welcomes the fact that these 
statements clearly recognize the role of civil society as a full 
participant in the international management of the Internet, and bring 
attention to the need for a deep involvement of individual users into its 
governance.

Specifically, we believe that the technical management of the Internet 
should remain as much as possible in the private sector and civil society, 
or providers and users of the specific services, and include governmental 
participation only as overseer and ultimate guarantor of the public 
interest. We are concerned that excessive intervention by governments into 
technical Internet operations, in local, regional and international 
arenas, might interfere with its smooth and healthy operation, limit 
innovation and cause over-regulation, countering the existing workings of 
the Internet and the principles that caused its success as a tool to 
foster economic development and to increase freedom of communication.

This is why we strongly endorse the idea of a community-driven consensus 
that is behind the very existence of ICANN. We would also like to mention, 
however, that user participation in ICANN activities has not yet been 
given the full attention or support  it deserves, and call for further 
improvements of the users’ role inside the ICANN framework. This should be 
an issue of primary importance in the Internet governance discussions 
between now and the second WSIS phase in Tunis, together with other 
fundamental items such as increasing ICANN’s international footprint, 
internal diversity, and multilingualism.

However, the scope of ICANN activities should remain limited to technical 
matters that require world-wide coordination, understanding that in some 
areas they cannot be parted from their social and political consequences, 
and that these consequences must be considered in the technical 
policy-making process. ICANN can be successful only if it focuses on those 
issues that it can address. Issues such as the Digital Divide, in-country 
competitive and pricing policies, and, more generally, those that pertain 
to Internet usage control rather than to Internet technical coordination, 
should be left to those fora best-suited to handle them.

The At Large Advisory Committee, as mandated by the ICANN Bylaws, is 
currently setting up a practical organizational structure to foster the 
representation and participation of Internet users and their civil society 
organizations from around the globe. This structure will be based on 
Regional At Large Organizations (RALO) that will be constituted in each of 
the five ICANN Regions by a set of accredited At Large Structures (ALS), 
or civil society groups and organizations who represent different types of 
Internet users and different countries of the world. This ambitious 
program will create an effective and diverse instrument for participation 
to global and regional Internet policy-making processes by all netizens of 
the world.

For this reason, we declare our willingness to participate in the 
forthcoming multi-stakeholder working group activities organized by the 
Secretary General of the United Nations, to channel into these activities 
the voices of the global user community on Internet name and address 
resource management issues, as mandated by our mission.

Moreover, while pointing out that ICANN-specific issues only constitute a 
part of the broader set of issues labeled as “Internet Governance”, we 
also think that the experience gathered in these years of ICANN could be 
positively used to draft a workable model for the multi-stakeholder 
governance of other issues. We want to remain focused on finalizing and 
operating an effective user participation mechanism within ICANN, but at 
the same time we think we can bring an important contribution to the next 
phase of Internet Governance discussions at WSIS.

Finally, we support the Civil Society Declaration, "Shaping Information 
Societies for Human Needs", which clearly endorses inclusive 
participation, transparency, and democratic accountability and recognizes 
the need for “full and effective participation of marginalized 
stakeholders like developing and transitional countries, global civil 
society organisations, small and medium-sized enterprises, and individual 
users.” This, in the interest of the global network, should be considered 
one of the main objectives of any revised structure for Internet governance.



Reference 1
Declaration of Principles of WSIS
Final version as adopted on Dec 12, 2003 in Geneva

48.	The Internet has evolved into a global facility available to the 
public and its governance should constitute a core issue of the 
Information Society agenda. The international management of the Internet 
should be multilateral, transparent and democratic, with the full 
involvement of governments, the private sector, civil society and 
international organizations. It should ensure an equitable distribution of 
resources, facilitate access for all and ensure a stable and secure 
functioning of the Internet, taking into account multilingualism.
The management of the Internet encompasses both technical and public 
policy issues and should involve all stakeholders and relevant 
intergovernmental and international organizations. In this respect it is 
recognized that:
policy authority for Internet-related public policy issues is the 
sovereign right of States. They have rights and responsibilities for 
international Internet-related public policy issues;
the private sector has had and should continue to have an important role 
in the development of the Internet, both in the technical and economic fields;
civil society has also played an important role on Internet matters, 
especially at community level, and should continue to play such a role;
intergovernmental organizations have had and should continue to have a 
facilitating role in the coordination of Internet-related public policy 
issues;
international organizations have also had and should continue to have an 
important role in the development of Internet-related technical standards 
and relevant policies.
50.	International Internet governance issues should be addressed in a 
coordinated manner. We ask the Secretary-General of the United Nations to 
set up a working group on Internet governance, in an open and inclusive 
process that ensures a mechanism for the full and active participation of 
governments, the private sector and civil society from both developing and 
developed countries, involving relevant intergovernmental and 
international organizations and forums, to investigate and make proposals 
for action, as appropriate, on the governance of Internet by 2005.

Plan of Actions of WSIS

C6.     Enabling environment
13.	To maximize the social, economic and environmental benefits of the 
Information Society, governments need to create a trustworthy, transparent 
and non-discriminatory legal, regulatory and policy environment. Actions 
include:
a) Governments should foster a supportive, transparent, pro-competitive 
and predictable policy, legal and regulatory framework, which provides the 
appropriate incentives to investment and community development in the 
Information Society.
b) We ask the Secretary General of the United Nations to set up a working 
group on Internet governance, in an open and inclusive process that 
ensures a mechanism for the full and active participation of governments, 
the private sector and civil society from both developing and developed 
countries, involving relevant intergovernmental and international 
organizations and forums, to investigate and make proposals for action, as 
appropriate, on the governance of Internet by 2005.  The group should, 
inter alia:
i)      develop a working definition of Internet governance;
ii)	identify the public policy issues that are relevant to Internet 
governance;
iii)	develop a common understanding of the respective roles and 
responsibilities of governments, existing intergovernmental and 
international organisations and other forums as well as the private sector 
and civil society from both developing and developed countries;
iv)	prepare a report on the results of this activity to be presented for 
consideration and appropriate action for the second phase of WSIS in Tunis 
in 2005.
c) Governments are invited to:
i)	facilitate the establishment of national and regional Internet Exchange 
Centres;
ii)	manage or supervise, as appropriate, their respective country code 
top-level domain name (ccTLD);
iii)    promote awareness of the Internet.
d)In cooperation with the relevant stakeholders, promote regional root 
servers and the use of internationalised domain names in order to overcome 
barriers to access.
di)


Reference 2

"Shaping Information Societies for Human Needs"
Civil Society Declaration to the World Summit on the Information Society
Unanimously Adopted by the WSIS Civil Society Plenary on 8 December 2003

(http://wsis-online.net/smsi/file-storage/download/WSIS-CS-Decl-08Dec2003-eng1.htm?version_id=313554)


2.4.7 Global Governance of ICT and Communications
International "rules of the game" play an increasingly central role in the 
global information economy.  In recent years, governments have liberalised 
traditional international regulatory regimes for telecommunications, radio 
frequency spectrum, and satellite services, and have created new 
multilateral arrangements for international trade in services, 
intellectual property, "information security," and electronic commerce. 
At the same time, business groups have established a variety of 
"self-regulatory" arrangements concerning Internet identifiers (names and 
numbers), infrastructure, and content.

It is not acceptable for these and related global governance frameworks to 
be designed by and for small groups of powerful governments and companies 
and then exported to the world as faits accomplis.  Instead, they must 
reflect the diverse views and interests of the international community as 
a whole.  This overarching principle has both procedural and substantive 
dimensions.

Procedurally, decision-making processes must be based on such values as 
inclusive participation, transparency, and democratic accountability.  In 
particular, institutional reforms are needed to facilitate the full and 
effective participation of marginalized stakeholders like developing and 
transitional countries, global civil society organisations, small and 
medium-sized enterprises, and individual users.

Substantively, global governance frameworks must promote a more equitable 
distribution of benefits across nations and social groups.  To do so, they 
must strike a better balance between commercial considerations and other 
legitimate social objectives.  For example, existing international 
arrangements should be reformed to promote: efficient management of 
network interconnections and traffic revenue distribution, subject to the 
mutual agreement of corresponding operators; equitable allocations of 
radio frequency spectrum and satellite orbital slots that fully support 
developmental and non-commercial applications; fair trade in electronic 
goods and services, taking into account the developing countries' need for 
special and differential treatment; an open public domain of information 
resources and ideas; and the protection of human rights, consumer safety, 
and personal privacy.  In parallel, new diverse international arrangements 
are needed to promote: financial support for sustainable e-development, 
especially but not only in less affluent nations; linguistic, cultural, 
and informational diversity; and the curtailment of concentrated market 
power in ICT and mass media industries.

In light of the relevant controversies in the WSIS process, special 
attention must be given to improving the global coordination of the 
Internet's underlying resources.  It must be remembered that the Internet 
is not a singular communications "platform" akin to a public telephone 
network; it is instead a highly distributed set of protocols, processes, 
and voluntarily self-associating networks.  Accordingly, the Internet 
cannot be governed effectively by any one organisation or set of 
interests.   An exclusionary intergovernmental model would be especially 
ill suited to its unique characteristics; only a truly open, 
multistakeholder, and flexible approach can ensure the Internet's 
continued growth and transition into a multilingual medium.  In parallel, 
when the conditions for system stability and sound management can be 
guaranteed, authority over inherently global resources like the root 
servers should be transferred to a global, multistakeholder entity.

The international community must have full and easy access to knowledge 
and information about ICT global governance decision making.  This is a 
baseline prerequisite for implementation of the principles mentioned 
above, and indeed for the success of the WSIS process itself.   We need 
public-interest oriented monitoring and analysis of the relevant 
activities of both intergovernmental and  "self-governance" bodies 
including, inter alia, the International Telecommunication Union, the 
World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, 
the United Nations Conference on International Trade Law, the Organization 
for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Hague Conference on 
International Private Law, the of Europe, the Asia Pacific Economic 
Cooperation, the North  American Free Trade Agreement, the Internet 
Corporation for Assigned  Names and Numbers, and Wassenaar Arrangement.

As a viable first step in this direction, we recommend the establishment 
of an independent and truly multistakeholder observatory committee to: (1) 
map and track the most pressing current developments in ICT global 
governance decision-making; (2) assess and solicit stakeholder input on 
the conformity of such decision-making with the stated objectives of the 
WSIS agenda; and (3) report to all stakeholders in the WSIS process on a 
periodic basis until 2005, at which time a decision could be made on 
whether to continue or terminate the activity.

--
.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo vb.
Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu.org
http://bertola.eu.org/    <-- Vecchio sito, nuovo toblog!