The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has recently issued a paper on Internet Governance in an attempt to clear up the confusion over this concept. The paper has been prepared by the ICC‘s Commission on E-Business, IT and Telecoms (EBITT).
The Paper examines the proposal in which governments called upon the UN Secretary General to create a multi-stakeholder Working Group on Internet Governance at the close of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), December 2003.
Such governments asked the Secretary General of the United Nations to set up a working group on Internet governance, in an open and inclusive process that ensures a mechanism for the full and active participation of governments, the private sector and civil society from both developing and developed countries, involving relevant intergovernmental and international organizations and forums, to investigate and make proposals for action, as appropriate, on the governance of Internet by 2005. The group shall:
• develop a working definition of Internet governance;
• identify the public policy issues that are relevant to Internet governance;
• develop a common understanding of the respective roles and responsibilities of governments, existing intergovernmental and international organizations and other forums as well as the private sector and civil society from both developing and developed countries;
• prepare a report on the results of this activity to be presented for consideration and appropriate action for the second phase of WSIS in Tunis in 2005.
Moreover, the Paper divides the issue of Internet governance into three main components: technical engineering, coordination of the names and numbers system and public policy matters. The paper lists organizations involved in the technical coordination of the Internet.
Two events related to the WSIS follow-up on Internet Governance have been scheduled. The first is an ITU Workshop on Internet Governance scheduled for 26 and 27 February 2004 in Geneva. The second is a multi-stakeholder Open Global Forum being convened by the UN Information Communication Technology Task Force (UN ICT TF) scheduled for 25 and 26 March 2004 in New York.
It is worth noting that the UN ICT TF Bureau agreed to create an Internet Governance Advisory Committee. This Committee will be chaired by Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, who serves as the Vice-Chair of the UN ICT TF and Chair of the ICC Commission on E-Business, IT & Telecoms.
Furthermore, the ICC has created a special work program under its Commission on E-Business, IT and Telecoms to parallel the UN Working Group on Internet Governance. Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh, given his leadership both within the ICC and the UN ICT TF, will serve as a liaison between the ICC and the UN work going forward.
For more information on this subject, kindly refer to www.iccwbo.org
For full text of the ICC paper, please click here.