Enhanced Cooperation Task Force For Internet Governance?

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch

An unconventional proposal to solve the international fight around internet governance has been put forward that would create multi-stakeholder working groups to tackle tough issues.

The proposal for an Enhanced Cooperation Task Force (ECTF) comes from a member of the Swiss Internet User Group (SIUG) and Internet Governance Caucus, Norbert Bollow.

Using the typical format of the standards documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) – and also the IETF working group model – Bollow proposes to allow governments, international organisations, industry and civil society representatives to get together in the ECTF to form working groups to agree on policies for some of the nagging issues, like more international domain name system root zone oversight, and law enforcement issues in the cross-border internet.

The ECTF proposal, Bollow wrote, would provide a way to implement “enhanced cooperation,” as foreseen by the Tunis Agenda, without further undue delay. The UN system so far has failed to implement important aspects of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the so-called enhanced cooperation resolution from the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – which organised the WSIS – is the most relevant specialised institution that has continued to violate the multi-stakeholder principle by excluding civil society stakeholders, Bollow wrote in the draft text.

Yet the chances for such a group seem to be feeble at best, even if the need for action seems to be obvious with calls for more discussion alongside the upcoming IGF in Baku and inside the UN system further mounting.