[WSIS CS-Plenary] letter from UN ICT TF to Forum participants

[Frannie Wellings]

United Nations Nations Unies
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES TASK FORCE
SECRETARIAT
Room DC1-1464, One UN Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10017
Telephone: (1-212) 963-5796 Fax: (1-917) 367-4340 or ((1-212) 963-2812
e-mail address: icttaskforce at un.org Website address: www.unicttaskforce.org


6 April 2004

Dear Global Forum Participant,

On behalf of the United Nations Information and 
Communication Technologies (ICT) Task Force, we
would like to extend our deep appreciation for 
your valuable contribution to the Global Forum on 
Internet Governance. More than 300 participants - 
Task Force members, leaders of the Internet 
community, government officials and 
representatives of the private sector, civil 
society and academia - engaged in an open and 
inclusive dialogue, sharing their perspectives, 
concerns and vision for the Information Society 
of the future.

The feedback that we received from many 
participants indicates broad satisfaction with 
the Forum as a useful and productive event. The 
discussions were free and open and there was 
respect for the diversity of views expressed by 
various stakeholders. There was also genuine 
dialogue and a willingness to find common ground 
and areas of agreement, in order to move forward 
on this difficult issue. The Forum, thus, 
provided an important opportunity to enhance our 
understanding of the many issues that fall under 
the rubric of Internet governance, to clarify the 
positions of the many stakeholder groups and to 
discover and broaden common ground among them.

We detected broad support for a number of 
baseline principles that should guide the 
evolution of
governance arrangements. Some issues were also 
identified on which international cooperation is 
required and there was general recognition of the 
need for effective participation of developing 
countries and civil society in governance 
arrangements. The Task Force was asked to 
undertake several tasks, including 
capacity-building and education and 
awareness-raising. It was also requested to 
develop a matrix of the current status of 
governance of non-technical issues.

We would like to assure you that all statements 
and interventions during the Plenary sessions and 
the
thematic break-out discussions were carefully 
noted and the full range of views expressed will 
be reflected in the summaries of the proceedings. 
The Forum will constitute an important 
contribution to the Secretary-General's 
consultations on Internet governance, leading up 
to the formation of a Working Group on the 
subject.

The UN ICT Task Force intends to continue to 
contribute to the consultation process, including
through its regional networks, to ensure that the 
overall outcome preserves the freedom, openness, 
security and stability of the Internet and, as 
the Secretary-General urged in his opening 
statement, makes the medium "accessible and 
responsive to the needs of all the world's 
people".

We encourage you to remain engaged in this 
process and to continue to build on a good 
beginning to
ensure that the Internet remains a vital, dynamic 
medium for promoting human development.

With our best regards.

José-Maria Figueres-Olsen
Chairman

Sarbuland Khan
Executive Coordinator
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Frannie Wellings
Policy Analyst, Electronic Privacy Information Center
Coordinator, The Public Voice
1718 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Suite 200 
Washington, D.C.  20009   USA 
wellings at epic.org
+1 202 483 1140 extension 107 (telephone)
+1 202 483 1248 (fax)
http://www.epic.org
http://www.thepublicvoice.org
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