Notes from the ITU Council WG on WSIS meeting, 1st February 2006 by by Alejandra Mendoza Leon and Philippe Dam, Conference of NGOs (CONGO).

Statement by members of the WSIS-civil society Internet Governance Caucus

Submitted for the WG-WSIS ITU Reform Meeting
1 February 2006

The WSIS Principles state that Internet governance should be multilateral, transparent and democratic, with the full involvement of governments, the private sector, civil society and international organizations. The ITU clearly does not meet the last criteria. For the overwhelming majority of civil society organizations and individual academics, the barriers to becoming a sector member or even an associate are simply too high to overcome. In parallel, there are no options for participating on a more flexible, ad hoc basis in special workshops and seminars, or in the assemblies and conferences. In consequence, and unlike other UN agencies, true NGOs (as opposed to hybrid business/user/technical organizations) are almost entirely absent and alienated from the ITU. That this is not in the ITU’s own interest was demonstrated by the WSIS process, in which civil society opposed the ITU playing an expanded, leading role in Internet governance.

With WSIS follow-up and implementation efforts forthcoming, now would be a particularly appropriate time to make opening up to civil society a central element of ITU reform. Doing so would not in any way disrupt the work of the Union, and the administrative cost would be negligible (we can print our own documents, etc). The ITU would not face a stampede of hundreds of organizations seeking to participate in ongoing study group work on frequency propagation, signaling requirements and protocols, and other technical matters. A much more likely scenario would be that a manageable number of NGOs and academics would seek to participate in some of the above-mentioned workshops, seminars, assemblies and conferences. Civil society experts contributed significantly to the success of the February 2004 workshop on Internet governance, and there is every reason to believe that same constructive engagement would ensue in other forums. Allowing civil society participation in events like the March 2006 meeting on NGN policies would be a good first step, and would not require changes to the Constitution and Convention. WSIS and/or ECOSOC accreditation would seem sufficient for this purpose.

It is unfortunate that the ITU’s February 1 reform meeting is closed to civil society participation. Our exclusion from this and similar events has been debated extensively on civil society Internet listservs. There was little enthusiasm for the website’s cheery invitation to "be part of it" by submitting statements in this "open forum" for a meeting from which we are barred. If however the ITU were to initiate a genuine, open and inclusive dialogue on the matter, the response would be much more supportive.


Dr. William Drake
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility/
Graduate Institute for International Studies, Geneva

Dr. Wolfgang Kleinwächter
University of Aarhus

McTim
Internet Infrastructure Consultant

Dr. Lee McKnight
Syracuse University/Internet Governance Project

Parminder Jeet Singh
IT for Change

Dr. Jeanette Hofmann
Social Science Research Center, Berlin

Avri Doria
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility/
Nomadic Women's ICT Network

Robert Guerra
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility/
Privaterra

Dr. Ralf Bendrath
www.worldsummit2005.org

Max Senges
Committee for a Democratic United Nations

Veni Markovski
Internet Society, Bulgaria

Karen Banks
Association for Progressive Communications