Transcript The WSIS Process

The World Summit on the Information Society:
The Internet Governance Perspective
APTLD Meeting
23rd August 2003
Busan, Korea
1
Outline

Background to WSIS

The WSIS Process

The Internet Governance issue

Observations

Recommendations
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Background to WSIS

Objective: “To develop and foster a clear statement of political
will and a concrete plan of action for achieving the goals of
the Information Society, while fully reflecting all the different
interests at stake.”

Origin:


Initiated by the ITU (1998), endorsed by the UN General Assembly (1999)

Framework proposed by ITU (2001) and endorsed by UNGA (January
2002)
Process:

Two Summits involving Heads of State will be held. One in Geneva (Dec
2003) and one in Tunis (2005)

Three Preparatory Committee Meetings to prepare for the Geneva
Summit will be held in Geneva

Regional Consultations will be held to obtain widest possible input and
buy-in
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The WSIS Process
July’02
Geneva
PrepComm1
Feb’03
Geneva
PrepComm2
15-26 Sept’03
Geneva
PrepComm3
10-12 Dec’03
Geneva
Summit
(Phase1)
2005
Tunis
Summit
(Phase2)
4
The WSIS Process
July’02
Geneva
Feb’03
Geneva
PrepComm2
PrepComm1
15-26 Sept’03
Geneva
PrepComm3
10-12 Dec’03
Geneva
Summit
(Phase1)
2005
Tunis
Summit
(Phase2)

Election of Adama Samassekou (Mali) as President of PrepComm

Decided on the Rules of Procedure for future PrepComms

Agreed that nations are full participants and each have a vote. Accredited
entities (business sector, civil society and others) may attend as observers only.

Identified “principles” and “themes” (but bullet points only) for further deliberation
at PrepComm2
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The WSIS Process
July’02
Geneva
PrepComm1
Feb’03
Geneva
PrepComm2
15-26 Sept’03
Geneva
PrepComm3
10-12 Dec’03
Geneva
Summit
(Phase1)
2005
Tunis
Summit
(Phase2)
Informal Meeting on Content & Themes
16th Sept’02, Geneva

Fleshed out the “principles” and “themes” (i.e. substantial content) for further
deliberation at PrepComm2
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The WSIS Process
July’02
Geneva
PrepComm1
Feb’03
Geneva
PrepComm2
15-26 Sept’03
Geneva
10-12 Dec’03
Geneva
PrepComm3
Summit
(Phase1)
2005
Tunis
Summit
(Phase2)
Various Regional Consultations

African Regional Conference [25-30 May 2002, Bamako (Mali)]

Pan European Regional Conference [7-9 November 2002, Bucharest (Romania)]

Asia-Pacific Regional Conference [13-15 January 2003, Tokyo (Japan)]

Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Conference [29-31 January 2003, Bávaro
(Dominican Republic)]

Western Asia Preparatory Conference [4-6 February 2003, Beirut (Lebanon)]
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The WSIS Process
July’02
Geneva
Feb’03
Geneva
PrepComm1
PrepComm3
PrepComm2



15-26 Sept’03
Geneva
10-12 Dec’03
Geneva
Summit
(Phase1)
2005
Tunis
Summit
(Phase2)
Two “non-documents” were tabled: the President’s summary of principles and
issues, and a compilation of the Declarations from the Regional Consultations
After much debate, towards the end of PrepComm2 a sub-committee was created
to consider both “non-documents” and draft two new documents: the Declaration
of Principles and the Plan of Action
Due to insufficient time, both documents were placed in “square brackets” (i.e.
the whole document is still open for debate) and it was decided that an additional
meeting was necessary to develop some consensus on the content
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The WSIS Process
July’02
Geneva
PrepComm1
Feb’03
Geneva
PrepComm2
15-26 Sept’03
Geneva
PrepComm3
10-12 Dec’03
Geneva
Summit
(Phase1)
2005
Tunis
Summit
(Phase2)
InterSessional Meeting
15-18 July’03, Paris

Both the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action were considered paragraph
by paragraph but with great haste. Whenever a very contentious issue arose, the
Chair (Lyndall Shope-Mafole of South Africa) set up drafting groups around the
main contenders charging them with developing an acceptable paragraph.

The Internet Governance paragraph was drafted by a group led by Kenya and
consisting of approximately 20 countries and several observers.
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The WSIS Process
July’02
Geneva
PrepComm1
Feb’03
Geneva
15-26 Sept’03
Geneva
10-12 Dec’03
Geneva
2005
Tunis
PrepComm2
PrepComm3
Intended to finalise both documents (i.e.
take them out of “square brackets”)
Summit
(Phase1)
Intended for Heads of State to agree to
and sign the two documents
Summit
(Phase2)
Intended for follow-up of the Action Plan,
including measurement of progress
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Internet Governance in WSIS (1)
Article 44 of the Declaration of Principles (18th July version)
[The international management of the Internet should be
democratic, multilateral, transparent and participative with the
full involvement of the governments, international organisations,
private sector and civil society. This management should
encompass both technical and policy issues. While recognizing
that the private sector has an important role in the development
of the Internet at the technical level, and will continue to take a
lead role, the fast development of Internet as the basis of
information society requires that governments, take a lead role,
in partnership with all other stakeholders, in developing and
coordinating policies of the public interests related to stability,
security, competition, freedom of use, protection of individual
rights and privacy, sovereignty, and equal access for all, among
all the other aspects, through appropriate
[intergovernmental/international] organisations.]
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Internet Governance in WSIS (2)
Article 44 of the Declaration of Principles (18th July version)
Alternative
text 1 for 44 [Internet governance must be multilateral,
democratic and transparent, taking into account the needs of the
public and private sectors as well as those of the civil society, and
respecting multilingualism. The coordination responsibility for root
servers, domain names, and Internet Protocol (IP) address
assignment should rest with a suitable international, intergovernmental organization. The policy authority for country code
top-level-domain names (ccTLDs) should be the sovereign right of
countries.]
Alternative text 2 for 44 [The international management of the
Internet should be democratic, multilateral and transparent. It
should secure a fair distribution of resources, facilitate access for
all and ensure a stable and secure functioning of the Internet. It
should respect geographical diversity and ensure
representativeness through the participation of all interested States,
including public authorities with competence in this field, of civil
society and the private sector, with due respect to their legitimate
interests].
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Internet Governance in WSIS (3)
Article 44 of the Declaration of Principles (18th July version)
44A. A vital aspect of securing consumer confidence in electronic commerce is to
ensure that consumer transactions occur within a sound legal framework. To this end,
consumers using electronic commerce should be provided with protection that is at
least equivalent to that provided to consumers using other forms of commerce.
44B. Spam is a significant and growing problem, not just for individuals but for
networks and the Internet as a whole. Spam refers to an electronic mail message that
is transmitted to a large number of recipients and most or all of the recipients have
not requested those messages. Spam raises key issues that need to be addressed
and these include privacy, illicit content, misleading and deceptive trade practices and
network issues.
 Privacy: issues surrounding the manner with which personal information such as e
mail addresses is collected and handled - address collectors harvest e mail
addresses off the Internet or even buy and sell them in bulk without the consent of
the owner.
 Illicit content: most promotes scams, pornography, illegal online gambling services,
medical cures, get rich quick schemes or misleading and deceptive trade practices.
 Network issues: The cost of spam is borne by the recipient in the form of higher
cost Internet subscriptions due to larger downloads. The increased volume of e
mail can significantly slow Internet speeds and could threaten the viability of the
entire network. In addition, there is some evidence that spam is being used
deliberately in Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.

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Internet Governance in WSIS (4)
Article 8 of the Plan of Action (20th June version)

Interconnection: The information and communication
infrastructure is global in its nature. A decentralized and
proportionate growth of the global information and
communication infrastructure must be promoted. No country
or region shall concentrate traffic flows or control the central
parts and components of the global information and
communications infrastructure, such as traffic hubs and root
servers. Connectivity among major information networks
should be optimized through the creation and interconnection
of regional traffic hubs to reduce interconnection costs and
broaden network access.
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Observations

Usually about 30 countries attend GAC. Whereas at the WSIS
InterSessional Meeting over 100 countries were represented
and at PrepComm2, over 150.

Only a few of the GAC representatives also attend WSIS
meetings



WSIS is ITU based and as such is usually attended by
representatives from Ministries of Telecommunication
ICANN’s GAC has a wider base – science, trade, industry,
communication, Internet
Only a few countries have a clear position on Internet
Governance. Most representatives are still learning but prefer
the “inter-governmental” model as they are familiar with the
processes
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Recommendation

Too late for direct participation – deadline for accreditation
was 1st August

What can we do?

Speak to your government representatives so that they are aware
of the issues and lobby them to speak out at PrepComm3

Lobby organisations that are already accredited. Check the
website www.itu.int/wsis for lists

Propose that ccNSO submit a statement to the WSIS Bureau

Submit an APTLD statement to the WSIS Bureau
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end
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