[Chapter-delegates] ECOSOC/CSTD Geneva meeting (26 July 2011)

[Nicolas Seidler]

Dear all,

I attended the Internet relevant segment of the ECOSOC Substantive Session 2011, on 26 July in Geneva. The segment related to the Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) included reports and decisions related to Internet governance and stakeholders participation. The following reports from the CSTD were submitted to ECOSOC:

*Report of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development on its fourteenth session (E/2011/31)  <http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ecn162011d5_en.pdf>
*Report of the Secretary-General on enhanced cooperation on international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet (A/66/77-E/2011/103)  <http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/66/77>
*Report of the Secretary-General on progress made in the implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society at the regional and international levels (A/66/64 -- E/2011/77)  <http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/66/64>
*Report of the Working Group on improvements to the Internet Governance Forum (A/66/67-E/2011/79)  <http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/66/67>

ECOSOC agreed on all Resolutions and decisions submitted by the CSTD, with no text modifications. Worth mentioning is the decision to extend the participation of academic and technical entities in the work of the CSTD until 2015. This extension was also granted to business and civil society, as well as opening participation to entities that had not been part of the WSIS process.

Below is an overview of the interventions by some key delegations:

The US delegate said his Government appreciated the steps that had been taken inside and outside of the UN following the WSIS. They showed strong support for the IGF, underlining its nearly universal support among stakeholders, its flexibility to changes and stressing that its non-decision making format allowed for open dialogue. The US wished this multi-stakeholder model would be applied in more international discussions. ISOC, IETF and W3C were quoted as good examples of the multi-stakeholder/enhanced cooperation process. Finally, the delegate said that a distributed Internet needed distributed action and that no single organization could respond to all challenges, emphasizing that existing expertise must be recognized. The UK held similar views, adding support for the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG). He also mentioned the organization of the Commonwealth IGF.

Different views were expressed by South Africa, representing also the views from India and Brazil. They regretted that the report on enhanced cooperation had no concrete recommendations, and they stressed that there was an urgent need to operationalize the process of enhanced cooperation, more than five years after Tunis. They said that the IGF, while useful, was a distinct (and complementary) process from enhanced cooperation and that a new UN platform was needed to allow for formal discussions among States on an equal footing, in consultation with stakeholders, to cover public policy issues pertaining to the Internet. They called for an integrated, systematic and coherent UN platform to deal with these issues. The UN body they hope for would act as a coordinator with international organizations and the IGF.
Iran and Saudi Arabia shared similar views, whereas Cuba advocated for an expanded IGF in the framework of the UN General Assembly, focusing on resolving Internet-related public policy issues.
ISOC and ICC were the only two non-governmental organizations registered to make oral statements during this very formal meeting. ICC shared similar views as ISOC.

Please find below the oral intervention I had the opportunity to make:

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Thank you Mr. President.

First of all, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to participate to this discussion.
I would like to start by saying that the Internet Society is pleased with the outcome of the 14th CSTD Session.

We welcome the draft decision from the 14th CSTD Session recognizing the need for maximizing and extending the meaningful participation and contributions by academic and Internet technical entities in the work of the CSTD until 2015. We also welcome and support the other draft decisions recognizing the value of the participation from our colleagues from business and civil society, as well as opening participation for entities that did not have the opportunity to take part in the process of the World Summit on the Information Society.

Regarding improvements to the Internet Governance Forum, we think that the extension of the mandate of the Working Group on the IGF provides an opportunity to continue the discussions in a multi-stakeholder setting. The technical and academic communities participated actively in the Working Group and intend to continue to do so. In terms of procedure, we would have preferred to participate as members of a truly multi-stakeholder working group. The multi-stakeholder approach is essential in dealing with all aspects of Internet Governance, as it has been recognized by the Tunis Agenda. However, we are pleased to note that the Working Group nevertheless developed modalities of participation that allowed representatives from all stakeholder groups to take part as equals. It is our expectation that the same modalities will be maintained and we look forward to bring the work to a satisfactory conclusion.

Finally, the Internet Society would also like to thank the Secretary-General for his report on "enhanced cooperation". We found that this document sums up the discussion in an accurate and objective manner. The Internet Society agrees with those who hold the view that "enhanced cooperation" is taking part within and between all the organizations involved in dealing with Internet governance. Internet governance is a collaborative and distributed process which involves many organizations; no single organization is in charge and therefore no centralized process is needed.

I would like to finish by stressing that the Internet Society is the institutional home of the Internet Architecture Board and Internet Engineering Task Force - which are the main Internet standard developing organizations. In this capacity, and feeding into efforts to report on enhanced cooperation, we are happy to provide an annual report on the progress achieved, as we have done in previous years.

Thank you.

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Best regards,
Nicolas

Nicolas Seidler
Policy Advisor
Internet Society

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