UN Official Stresses Importance Of Civil Society In Internet Future

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch

Frank La Rue, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, in a statement about last week’s World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), underlined the importance of civil society in discussions about the future of the internet.

“The only consensus reached so far on this matter, is that the future of the internet has to be determined in a multi-stakeholder dialogue, where no positions can be imposed unilaterally,” La Rue said in a press release. He did not comment on the heated disputes during the WCIT negotiations on how to deal with human rights issues in a telecom treaty, but instead warned, that “legitimate expression on the internet is already criminalized in various countries today” and that “international efforts must reverse this trend, not reinforce it.”

By focusing on the “meaningful participation of multiple stakeholders, including representatives of other international organizations, human rights entities, private sector representatives, including internet providers and NGOs” in future internet discussions, La Rue joined those who came forward with the statement that the international community will have these discussions in the months and years to come.

One prominent statement in that regard was made Wednesday at a “WCIT Postmortem” event of the Washington, DC Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC) by US Ambassador Terry Kramer, head of the US WCIT delegation. Kramer said: “It is very, very clear that the world is in the middle of a discussion now about the internet. This discussion is coming to a head, about what the internet does.”

Kramer said the US should advance the multi-stakeholder model and applauded civil society’s role in the WCIT process. Sally Wentworth from ISOC and Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge, said the role of civil society has to be enhanced. Most civil society participated as government delegation members in WCIT. Feld underlined that he hoped civil society would go on to engage in the post-WCIT debates, especially where countries had reserved the right to sign and would continue the discussion. To act as international civil society, an independent civil society is necessary, African civil society member Nenna Nwakanma said during WCIT.

[Update:] Civil society organisations around the world in a letter are requesting the ITU to take further steps toward multi-stakeholder involvement, and, for example include their comments in the official body of documents. The letter is here.

The two-week WCIT negotiation for new International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR) finally came to a halt after a controversial vote on the nondiscriminatory access of countries to networks. A conclusive vote ended the debate and also the possibility of many ITU member states agreeing on the future ITR. Only 89 of 144 eligible delegations signed, while 55 reserved their right to do as they please, which for the large blocs, like the US, EU and Japan, but also Kenya, Costa Rica and Colombia, means they can stick to the old ITR.

The link to the new ITR is here [pdf].

The list of signatories is here.

Next stop for international debate on internet governance is the World Telecom Policy Forum (WTPF) in 2013.