[WSIS CS-Plenary] WIPO denies ad hoc NGO observor status
for April Development Agenda meeting
Adam Peake
ajp at glocom.ac.jp
Thu Feb 17 16:50:13 GMT 2005
Shari, hi.
WSIS is important right now, not content for IPR
but process. The working group on Internet
governance (WGIG) might be a means to gain more
access for civil society and developing nations
to all ICT policy processes. See statement below
the WSIS civil society Internet governance group
made yesterday to the WGIG meeting in Geneva.
Quite well received. Participation is an issue we
will be pushing hard.
Thanks,
Adam
Statement on behalf of the Internet Governance Caucus:
1. The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus
would like to express its support for the Working
Group on Internet Governance's multi stakeholder
approach. We believe that legitimate and
successful Internet Governance can only be
achieved if all concerned or affected groups have
an opportunity to influence the outcome of
governance processes. We want to stress that
there is a fundamental difference between
multilateral and multi stakeholder processes.
It should be remembered at all times that the
WSIS declaration of principles states that
Internet governance decision making should be
pursued on a multi-stakeholder basis reflecting
the full participation or civil society. The
governments that agreed to this new international
norm should now take positive steps to ensure its
full implementation.
As a first step, conformity with this norm should
be carefully assessed with respect to existing
arrangements at intergovernmental level, like the
ITU, OECD and WIPO, private sector arrangements
like ICANN, and to any new emerging mechanisms.
2. The Internet Governance caucus proposes that
the WGIG places greater emphasis on basic
principles such as human rights, freedom of
expression, openness and innovation. The caucus
believes that two outcomes of the WGIG that will
add significant value are:
- an understanding of how governance mechanisms
can further these basic principles, and,
- an elaboration of the concept of democratic
internet governance in the context of the
interplay between local and global
decision-making.
3. We would like to point out that the extent of
participation from the developing parts of the
world in the various Internet governance
mechanisms is still far from sufficient. This is
especially true for civil society actors. We
would like to suggest that the WGIG make
appropriate recommendation to ensure the
effective participation of ALL stakeholder groups
from developing countries.
4. We think it is important for WGIG members to
recognize the diversity of processes and
mechanisms involved in Internet governance,
including:
- decisions by individual users
- private agreements
- national policies, and,
- international and transnational bodies.
These correspond to a diversity of perspectives
on what issue areas are important in Internet
governance. The caucus would recommend that all
relevant issues of importance to stakeholder
groups should be addressed by the working group.
Unresolved controversies should be documented in
papers and statements and not used as a basis to
omit particular issues.
END
At 11:59 AM -0800 2/16/05, Shari Steele wrote:
>Hi Milton.
>WIPO's decision to reject ad hoc observers is
>terrible, and EFF plans to publicly criticize
>this. But I believe our work at WIPO has been
>worth the time and effort we've put in, and I
>think our decision to focus resources there has
>been a good one. We're not fighting the
>international IP battle at WIPO alone and never
>have been. We've been working in a more focused
>way on free trade agreements, and we've recently
>dipped our toe into UNESCO's cultural diversity
>proceedings. We believe that we can be
>effective in all of these fora, and we'll
>continue to focus our efforts there.
>
>EFF has stretched our limited resources as far
>as we can at this point, and I don't believe
>we'd be able to be as effective at any of the
>things we're doing if we added WSIS to our
>queue. I'm glad you're there fighting the good
>fight, because I know the work there is no less
>important.
>Shari
>
>
>At 09:14 AM 2/16/2005, Milton Mueller wrote:
>>So, now maybe CPTech, EFF and others will
>>understand better why it is necessary for them
>>to help us push the WGIG into linking internet
>>governance and ipr issues. This battle cannot
>>be fought in WIPO alone, because the playing
>>field is tilted (deliberately).
>>
>>
>>Dr. Milton Mueller
>>Syracuse University School of Information Studies
>>http://www.digital-convergence.org
>>http://www.internetgovernance.org
>>
>>
>>>>> martin_olivera at yahoo.com.ar 2/16/2005 9:10:57 AM >>>
>>FYI
>>
>> --- James Love escribió:
>>> WIPO has apparently decided to reject applications
>>> for ad hoc observor
>>> status for the April Development Agenda meeting.
>>> That will leave a very
>>> large number of speaking slots for right-owner NGOs,
>>> and very few for NGOs
>>> representing development groups, free software, or
>>> consumer interests.
>>> Perhaps a letter should be drafted to ask the WIPO
>>> Secretariat to change
>>> its position on this issue, in order to permit
>>> groups concerned about
>>> development and IP to attend. I note also that few
>>> developing country
>>> NGOs have permanent NGO status at WIPO.
>>>
>>> Jamie
>>>
>>> --
>>> A2k mailing list
>>> A2k at lists.essential.org
>>> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k
>>>
>>
>>=====
>>SOLAR Software Libre Argentina
>>http://www.solar.org.ar
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
>Shari Steele
>Executive Director
>ssteele at eff.org
>Electronic Frontier Foundation
>415.436.9333 (voice)
>454 Shotwell Street
>415.436.9993 (fax)
>San Francisco, CA 94110
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