[WSIS CS-Plenary] Africa civil society contributions draft (WGIG)

[Emmanuel Njenga]

Hello all,

just forwarding to you the Africa civil society caucus contributions to 
the establishment of the WGIG - draft work in progress.

we will send our contributions on monday.

Any comments welcome.

Regards,

Emmanuel Njenga

---------

Africa Civil Society Caucus Contribution To The Consultation Meeting On
The Establishment Of the Working Group On Internet Governance.


Draft 1.0
11th September 2004



a) General Points:


1.	The Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) must be independent 
of WSIS Preparatory Committee Meetings (PrepComs)

Africa civil society caucus supports this position taken by the WSIS
civil society caucus on Internet Governance.



Composition of the Working Group:


2.	Basic composition of the working group.

- The Africa civil society caucus supports that membership of the
working group must be balanced between participants from governments,
the private sector and civil society.


3.	The working group should be large enough that its members bring the 
required experience and diversity, but not so large as to slow the pace 
of work.

- In addition, regional representation and gender balance must be
central to its establishment. Particular attention should be paid to the
membership and effective participation of developing country experts,
representatives and stakeholders particularly from civil society groups
and must be accorded with high importance.


4.	The working group should not be a High Level Group, it should be
constituted at the working level.




Structure of the Working Group:


5.	Suggested basic structure

While noting the working group should respect gender diversity we
support the basic structure suggested by the WSIS caucus on Internet
governance. We would also like to emphasize the important of ensuring an
equal representation between developing countries and developed countries.



Basic operational principles


6.	Basic operational principles

While supporting the position taken by the WSIS civil society caucus on
Internet Governance, we also would like to add the following:

- Working group members shall consult their specific stakeholder groups
while negotiating main issues deliberated during the working group
meetings/sessions. (This could be achieved by manner of public meetings
or online discussion forums as may be agreed).

- There is a need for the broadest outreach mechanism possible: the
Internet Governance issues are of the more obscure (even) to the
(concerned) public and more especially in Africa. They are hardly
debated while drafting the national ICT policies although they impact on
and condition all policies. Thus, there is a need for awareness
actions/discussions by organizing a number of open and public
meetings/discussions as well as representing the WGIG in any related
meetings held by all concerned parties.

- The Africa civil society caucus, conscious of the possibility of the
use of the Internet against basic human rights, we believe that the WGIG
will operate on the basis of, and pay particular attention to the
promotion, proclamation, protection, and respect of human rights.

- Further we strongly reiterate the importance of accountability from
not only of working group as whole but more importantly to individual
members who will join the working group. These individuals must
demonstrate accountability to their constituents (especially civil
society representatives) through consultation processes or working
mechanisms as will be determined to deliberate on key issues deliberated.


7.	Chair of the working group

While supporting the position of the WSIS Caucus on Internet governance
we would like to add the following:

- Supporting the call that the chair of the WGIG should come from a
developing country, we further stress that such a chair should have
demonstrated sufficient awareness of the development challenges of
developing countries and not be appointed merely on the basis of
nationality or such tokenism.


8.	The Working Group on Internet Governance must be provided with
necessary resources

While supporting the position taken by the WSIS caucus on Internet
governance, we also add:

- Resources should also be allocated to allow for some form of public
meetings between regions depending on additional criteria of need
especially for civil society stakeholders (this could be further
discussed during the September meeting).

- Resources allocated should also take into account special
consideration of developing countries of Africa where there is limited
knowledge and expertise to do with matter of Internet governance and as
such public meetings to discuss various issues should be supported to
ensure active and effective participation of Africa stakeholders in and
their contribution to the working group.

- We emphasize the need for adequate resources allowing an inclusive
process, namely participation from the Africa Civil Society, and beyond,
that of the Less Developed Countries' government.

- In the case where certain aspects of Internet Governance may need
regional ramifications, we suggest that support be ensured for such
regional Internet Governance consultations as long as they will feed in
and enrich the global Internet Governance process and contribute to
regional information society development.

- Support mechanisms must be put in place to ensure that membership of
the working group is facillitated to attend all relevant meetings. This
is particularly important for civil society groups (especially those
from global south) who have no constant funds source to enable their
continued participation to the relevant meetings.

- The support mechanisms must not only cover specific meetings related
to the working group on internet governance but also meetings of high
relevance related to internet governance issues such as the ICANN
meetings, the WSIS prepcoms meetings prior to Tunis Summit and any other
as will be defined. (This can be discussed further at the consultation
meeting in Sep 20/21).







(b) The scope of the Group's work and its method of operations

(c) The adequacy of existing international arrangements in facilitating
deployment and use of the Internet in a transparent and accountable manner

- The scope of the WGIG’s work should include a review of all existing
international arrangements in the deployment and use of the Internet to
determine their transparency, legitimacy and accountability and
revisions be made as necessary.

- In the light of the above, the WG should aim at elaborating standards
that will respect all development stages and ensure that any new
standards will not act as an obstacle to the development of countries,
be it ICT or otherwise.

(d) The respective roles of governments, the private sector, academic
and technical experts and civil society

(e) Any barriers to participation by developing countries in the
Internet governance framework.


~~~~~~~~~~
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ACSIS_contributions_WGIG.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 41472 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/pipermail/plenary/attachments/20040911/a8e6d131/ACSIS_contributions_WGIG.doc