SHARM EL SHEIKH - On the third day of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) meeting, November 17, 2009, in Sharm el-Sheikh, participants from government, the private sector, civil society and the Internet community tackled the key issues of access and diversity as well as Internet governance in the light of WSIS principles. Parallel meetings held on Tuesday included 20 workshops, as well as "best practices forums", "dynamic coalitions", and other meetings.
According to the UN Department of Public Information, at a press conference held Tuesday, Markus Kummer, executive coordinator of the Internet Governance Forum, said attendance in Sharm el-Sheikh had been the most important so far, with 1800 participants from 112 countries, including representatives from 95 governments.
He also stressed that the discussions were continuing in an open and constructive manner, including on the issues relating to critical Internet resources, where governments were ever more engaged in the discussions.
In this respect, Kummer said participants considered as "a step in the right direction" the recent signing of an agreement between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Government of the United States providing for "the end of the oversight by one government" and inviting all governments to participate in the functioning of ICANN.
Kummer also referred to an incident involving a poster displayed at the venue on November 16. The incident had been widely portrayed as an attempt by the UN to stifle freedom of expression. Kummer said that nothing could be further from the truth. The UN holds high article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which precisely guarantees freedom of expression. If it were otherwise, no room would have been assigned to the concerned organization -- the Open Net Initiative (ONI) -- to hold its meeting and launch the book. However, the UN also has to operate within certain rules, including the respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Member States as enshrined in the UN Charter.
He regretted the misunderstanding about rules governing posters and welcomed efforts taken by ONI to correct the misreporting on the Internet concerning the chain of events. A representative of ONI took the floor and thanked the Executive Coordinator for clarifying the misunderstanding and confirmed that they have indeed taken steps to correct erroneous reporting on this matter.
During the morning’s main session, participants discussed issues such as linguistic diversity and disability, in this respect, a presentation was made on Web accessibility: the Web provides unprecedented opportunities for people with disabilities to interact, to access information, and to act as equal peers on the Web by providing content and by using the information and using the Internet.
The improvements in the coding that allows for a screen reader or other types of assistive technologies make it possible for people with different types of disabilities to use other types of assistive technologies, and in the end, benefit all, regardless which languages, cultures, or technologies they are using. This is an example of why standards in ICT are so important for people with disabilities and for the inclusion of accessibility requirements.
The issues of affordability and accessible design were also discussed with respect to accessibility, disability and connectivity with the Internet.
It was also underlined that accessibility for persons with disabilities was a significant obligation of the UN Convention on the rights of people with disabilities and was supported by the Tunis commitment of the World Summit on the Information Society. The Convention states the obligation of the signatories to promote the design, development, production, and distribution of accessible ICT and systems at an early stage, so that these technologies and systems become accessible at minimum cost. Participants will need to interpret nationally what the UN Convention means in the context of the Internet.
The UN Global Alliance on ICT and Development (GAID) also indicated that the Global Alliance had adopted a practical approach to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and would be submitting to the next Summit, in 2010, a program with clear indicators of how ICT can be used for development in every sector of development, including business, health, education, disability.
Turning to the related issue of access, participants underlined the essential nature of literacy to access, the cognitive skills associated with being able to use the network. It was important to have access to relevant content, and access to institutional support, including political access and a voice. It was noted that global debates on access had moved from just infrastructure-based arguments to issues of policy, regulation, and rights. But infrastructure was critical, and focus was drawn to issues such as bandwidth and regulatory issues.