[Chapter-delegates] Call with Chapters in advance of the ITU Plenipotentiary 2018 (18 Oct, 10:00 and 20:00 UTC)

Tue Oct 16 10:08:14 PDT 2018

On Tue, Oct 16, 2018, 10:02 PM Alejandro Pisanty <apisanty at gmail.com> wrote:

> Richard,
>
> one of the ways in which this works to the detriment of Internet
> principles is to force the counterpart into a drill-down to ever more
> minute detail until the investment of effort in counterarguments has too
> little return to be worth the effort. Thanks but no thanks.
>
> The first type of violation experienced in large ITU conferences is the
> schedule. There is an evident sigh when the first meeting after dinner is
> called. It goes from then on.
>
> The other type of egregious violation consists of suddenly superseding the
> supposedly tidy, long rules-compliant process of building up text for
> resolutions through national and regional preparatory processes to drafting
> and negotiating text on the fly.
>

...which, by design, leads to a premeditated pro-telecom outcome????

> The third thing ISOC representatives attending the Plenipot should be wary
> of is of consultants who appear to be friendly to the Internet but are
> actually doing hack jobs for operators
>

+1

and governments; and sometimes both, as some operators are owned by
> governments or closely allied. This gets to the point of becoming a fifth
> column against the long-term evolution of a free, open Internet for all.
> Fortunately just watching who they sit with over sessions - in the middle
> of enfranchised participants, while ISOC is given one chair in the last
> table at the end of the room - is enough to unmask them.
>

The Internet requires a far more active and balancing presence in these
forums.

> Alejandro Pisanty
>
> On Tue, Oct 16, 2018 at 6:32 AM Richard Hill <rhill at hill-a.ch> wrote:
>
>> Please see below.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks and best,
>>
>> Richard
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Chapter-delegates [mailto:
>> chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] *On Behalf Of *Alejandro
>> Pisanty
>> *Sent:* Monday, October 15, 2018 22:20
>> *To:* Elizabeth Oluoch
>> *Cc:* ISOC Chapter Delegates
>> *Subject:* Re: [Chapter-delegates] Call with Chapters in advance of the
>> ITU Plenipotentiary 2018 (18 Oct, 10:00 and 20:00 UTC)
>>
>>
>>
>> Elizabeth,
>>
>>
>>
>> fully agree and I again commend this approach as taken. Now is the time
>> for us in chapters to forcefully make our basic points of view known to the
>> national delegations that will be attending, and to make sure they continue
>> to listen to us through the Plenipot.
>>
>>
>>
>> >RH: Agreed. However, as I’ve pointed out before, I think that we should
>> devote at least as much energy to influencing trade negotiations, in
>> particular because trade negotiations result in binding treaty provisions,
>> whereas the ITU PP can at most adopt non-binding resolutions.  Recall that
>> the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) mandates that the ccTLD will publish WHOIS
>> data. I would not be surprised if such proposals appeared in future trade
>> negotiations.
>>
>>
>>
>> It is a long, gruelling few weeks, full of surprises and jarring
>> violations of ground rules disguised in different ways.
>>
>>
>>
>> >RH: Could you please provide examples of violations of procedural
>> rules?  ITU’s procedural rules are very complicated and many people don’t
>> actually understand them. So it would be good to have actual examples of
>> violations.
>>
>>
>>
>> Secrecy in negotiations should not be allowed to hide what each
>> delegation is doing, what principles they are actually championing and
>> which they are hiding or openly violating.
>>
>>
>>
>> >RH: All of the proposals to the ITU-PP are publicly accessible on the
>> ITU web site. And all the formal negotiating sessions are open to all
>> people registered to attend PP.  Non-state actors (including ISOC) can ask
>> to speak (but cannot take part in formal decision-making).  There are
>> informal negotiating sessions between states that have differing views, and
>> those are limited to the representatives of those states, but in the end
>> the concerned states have to present their proposals in sessions that are
>> open to all registered participants.
>>
>>
>>
>> >RH: Contrast that to WTO (and other trade negotiations), where not all
>> proposals are made public, and the negotiations are limited to state
>> representatives who make it a point not to consult (except perhaps big
>> business).  Had anybody seen the text of the USMCA before it was formally
>> agreed?
>>
>>
>>
>> SNIP
>>
>>
>>
>> there is a lot of non-transparent politics for these elections and that
>> the negotiations may involve trading off or becoming silent on principles.
>>
>>
>>
>> >RH: The negotiations for elections are indeed kept confidential (secret,
>> if you wish). But the voting is secret: nobody knows who voted for which
>> candidate. So a state can promise a vote, and fail to deliver it. So I
>> seriously doubt that there is any real horse-trading going on. What does go
>> on is that many states tell several candidates that they will vote for
>> them. In my experience,  in the past, several candidates had been promised
>> enough votes to have a majority on the first round, which is obviously
>> impossible.
>>
>>
>>
>> SNIP
>>
>
>
> --
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>      Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
> Facultad de Química UNAM
> Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico
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