[WSIS CS-Plenary] [Gov 546] Re: OECD Civil society reference group & OECD 2008 Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy

[Meryem Marzouki]

Le 9 juin 08 à 19:52, Francis MUGUET a écrit :

>> As I recall, around the time of its recognition by the OECD  
>> meeting in OCtober, a French delegate
> who may be not aware of WSIS
>> gave us a list of French CS organizations to contact. They were  
>> duly contacted but none really came forward.
> I was not among the ones being contacted, neither do seem most of  
> my friends...

Neither was I.. Actually, It's first time I hear this. As far as I'm  
concerned, I'm officially part of the ref group on behalf of EDRI  
(European digital rights, an association of 28 organizations from 17  
European countries) since late Feb. 2008. I'm reproducing below  
excerpts of a message from the OECD liaison person to CS, sent to the  
public voice coalition list on March 13, 2008 for clarification. It's  
important to bear in mind that the OECD is not a UN body or forum  
claiming for multistakeholderism, but an intergovernmental  
organization in the "classical" sense, I would say.
Best,
Meryem
> I am glad to clarify the framework of civil society participation  
> in the OECD Ministerial meeting in Seoul.
>
> As a general matter, the process to involve civil society in OECD  
> work is still very informal and mostly rely on non-governmental  
> stakeholders providing input as experts either to the Secretariat  
> or the governmental bodies of the OECD.  Some stakeholder groups,  
> like BIAC and TUAC, have a long standing consultative status with  
> the OECD, and other groups, such as CS groups, have been  
> increasingly involved on a case by case basis.
>
> Going a few years back, the Ottawa ministerial on E-commerce in  
> 1998 highlighted the importance of involving non-governmental  
> stakeholders in policy discussions on the Internet (http:// 
> www.ottawaoecdconference.org/english/homepage.html). Since then,  
> much of the work of interest to civil society in the OECD, such as  
> consumer protection issues, privacy, and information security, has  
> been developed with the benefit of civil society expertise.
>
> With regard more specifically to the Ministerial meeting in Seoul,  
> the starting point is that the meeting has a prominent  
> intergovernmental focus –the outputs are planned for adoption by  
> governmental representatives only – however it is complemented by a  
> number of  vehicles for dialogue and exchange with non-governmental  
> stakeholders.
>
> In order to support non-governmental stakeholder participation and  
> coordinate contributions, we are working closely with a group of  
> experts from business, labour, the internet technical community and  
> civil society. In this context, we called on a small group of  
> selected experts from the civil society to help us channeling the  
> civil society input in a more efficient way. This small group of  
> experts constitute the “reference group”, i.e. a group helping  
> coordination of CS participation. Many of these experts have a long  
> history of working with OECD on these issues.
>
> To benefit from a broader cross-section of views, three non- 
> governmental stakeholders’ forum are planned as part of the  
> Ministerial meeting programme: the CS and TUAC forum, the Business  
> forum, and the ITC forum. They will all take place in the same  
> venue as that where Ministers will meet (COEX).
>
> In the first Ministerial meeting plenary on 17 June, non- 
> governmental stakeholder groups will have a “rapporteur” presenting  
> to Ministers the outcome of their Forum.
>
> Background papers from different groups are welcome, and will be  
> posted on the Ministerial website. In addition, and more  
> importantly, each group is invited to issue its own final  
> statement, that we will post on our Ministerial site, as part of  
> the proceedings, and will be highlighted in the Ministerial Chair’s  
> conclusions. During the closing session, one speaker from each  
> group will also have the possibility to intervene briefly.
>
> At an earlier stage, you might remember that we also launched a  
> public consultation (from July to September 2007). Results are  
> available online at www.oecd.org/FutureInternet, under  
> Participation. With the consultation we sought input on the main  
> themes to be covered at the meeting, touching upon social and  
> economic impact of the internet, addressing issues such as  
> convergence, competition, privacy, digital content, etc.
>
> In general, the Ministerial sessions and roundtable are for the  
> most part open to all participants. In fact, the only part of the  
> process that is more restricted is the final negotiating session  
> for the Ministerial declaration, which is limited to governments,  
> at their request.
>
> In this context, I would like to point out that the documents  
> (Draft Declaration + Draft Policy Framework) have not yet been  
> approved by our member countries, and therefore are not  
> declassified. This means they are still working documents in  
> circulation only among OECD members, some member economies invited  
> to participate in the Ministerial meeting, and the standing  
> advisory committees to OECD:  BIAC and TUAC. We also informally  
> requested directly comments/inputs from some experts from civil  
> society on these classified documents. This latter process is based  
> on the mutual understanding and commitment that these individuals  
> will not widely distribute the documents.