On Dec 19, 2010, at 7:43 PM, Eric Brunner-Williams wrote: > fred, and others with (misspent) wsis++ / ig++ travel nickles, > > it would _really_ help me if you provided more context, off-line if > necessary, as i spent the week before last more involved with the gac than at > any prior point in my decade of icann involvement.
Eric (et al) - On Tuesday, December 14th, I spoke in NYC on behalf of the Number Resource Organization (NRO) at the "Open Consultations on the process towards Enhanced Cooperation on International Public Policy Issues pertaining to the Internet" held by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). This consultation was being held to get multistakeholder inputs regarding the "process towards the implementation of enhanced cooperation in order to enable governments, on an equal footing to carry out their roles and responsibilities in international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet". This was specifically not about the Internet Governance Forum, but a second initiative for a more decisional body regarding the Internet that some governments assert was already agreed to by means of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Tunis Agenda in 2005[1]. I presented an NRO prepared statement[2] which outlined the considerable progress that had been made in enhanced cooperation between governments, business, and Internet technical organizations in dealing with Internet policy issues, emphasized the increasingly complex nature of the Internet, and asked keeping these factors in mind when considering next steps. I also intervened twice requested clarification of exactly how a government-only decision body for Internet policy would fulfill the "consultation with all stakeholders" paragraph specified in the Tunis agenda. The answer from several countries was not encouraging, suggesting the consultation could be done in the UN manner through their Member State delegations. This government-only view is being asserted by several countries, but India, Brazil, South Africa and Saudi Arabia are carrying it most strongly, and it is likely to result in a recommendation in this matter from the Under Sec General to the UN General Assembly sometime next May. While we had many interventions speaking in favor of a more multistakeholder approach (including the US and UK, the Internet Society on behalf of itself and the IETF, and ICANN), several other presenters did not stay on topic of enhanced cooperation and fulfilling the Tunis Agenda, but instead explored a wide range of topical Internet concerns (those interested in detailed positions of presenters are recommended to review the filed positions, statements as presented or listen/view the UN archives all of which are available online [3]. Overall, I believe that the Internet community did well in presenting its points, and am hopeful that if a more decisional intergovernmental body is formed for addressing these matters, some functional mechanism for consultation with non-governmental parties will receive some consideration. I do not believe that there is much more that can be done until we see the draft recommendation that emerges from this process early next year. I hope this helps provide some context as you requested. Happy Holidays, /John John Curran President and CEO ARIN === REFERENCES [1] WSIS Tunis Agenda: http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs2/tunis/off/6rev1.html [2] NRO statement: http://www.nro.net/documents/pdf/StatementbyJohnCurran.pdf [3] DESA / WSIS Folloup website: http://www.unpan.org/dpadm/wsisfollowup
