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世界情報社会サミット（WSIS）とインターネットガバナンス^*1

アダム・ピーク（GLOCOM主任研究員）

　

Most of my work involves looking at issues around broadband, but for some years I have also been involved in ICANN, and more recently in discussions in the World Summit on the Information Society （WSIS）about Internet Governance.

My intention today was to try and give you a perspective from civil society on the new Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) that Secretary General Annan has been asked to set up. Particularly the structure of the group and also a few ideas about some basic principles that the working group should hold important as it goes about its tasks. Much of what I was to discuss is in a statement (currently draft) that WSIS civil society organizations will submit to the consultation on the WGIG to be held in Geneva later this month.

We ask 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 should, inter alia:

1. develop a working definition of Internet governance;
2. identify the public policy issues that are relevant to Internet governance;
3. 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;
4. 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

I'm sure you have read it many times, but here's the first sentence again:

We ask the (1) Secretary General of the United Nations to set up a working group on Internet governance, in an (3) open and inclusive process that ensures a mechanism for the (2) full and active participation of governments, the private sector and civil society from (4) both developing and developed countries, (5) involving relevant intergovernmental and international organizations and forums, to investigate and make proposals for action, as appropriate, on the governance of Internet by 2005.

I hope the numbering will become clearer in a few minutes.

(1) So the Secretary General of the United Nations is to set up a working group on Internet governance to prepare a report to be presented for consideration and appropriate action for the second phase of WSIS in Tunis in 2005. We believe it's clear that the Working Group on Internet governance must operate under the auspices of the Secretary General and be independent of the WSIS PrepComs leading up to the Tunis Summit. That is, it is independent of the PrepComs and intergovernmental process. This might not be very attractive to any governments in the room, but for those us who have been WSIS observers --mainly the private sector and civil society-- it is a significant improvement on the Geneva phase of WSIS and appropriate recognition of the expertise we bring.

So the WGIG is an independent group, it works to SG Annan.

And because the Summit asked the UN Secretary General to set up the working group we think it's also quite clear that the working group is not negotiating language on behalf of nations states, it supports the work of the Secretary General and as such members of the working group should serve as peers.

(2) Full and active participation of the three sectors. This has a number of implications. First: Membership of the working group must be balanced between participants from governments, the private sector and civil society, not favoring one group over any other. So we see the working group's core membership as a one third/one third/one third spilt.

And I hope it goes without saying that gender balance is essential in any working group convened by the UN Secretary General.

I will come back to (3) "open and inclusive process" in a moment.

Since the ITU's Workshop on Internet Governance held in February this year (and I recommend people new to these issues to look at the archives of that meeting, the ITU has done a great job a capturing the content of the workshop in presentation files, background papers and some very high quality audio archives) we have begun to hear bits and pieces about what the WGIG is expected to do --its scope-- and when it should do it by --its timeline. So while the scope of the working group and timeline it will work to has not been agreed, discussions to date strongly suggest that the working group will address a broad range of issues and will need to complete its work in a relatively short period of time. It is likely to tentatively begin work during October and finish in July of next year.

So we think the working group should be large enough that its members bring the required experience and diversity, but not so large as to slow the pace of work.

We also think it should be a working working group. That is, not a High Level group, but people who will themselves be involved with fact finding, drafting texts, etc.

These ideas lead us to recommending the following basic structure:

Women and men with a high level of experience in international ICT policy making and the issues the WGIG will address, comprised of:

• Six to 10 participants from Governments
• Six to 10 participants from Civil Society
• Six to 10 participants from the Private Sector
• A Chairperson or co-chairs (from civil society and private sector)

  Governments, the private sector and civil society will be represented by an equal number of members: a WGIG of between 19 and 32 members. Every effort should be made to ensure there is a balance within each sector's membership between people from developing and developed countries.

  It's also clear that a small, nimble group will not have all the necessary skills, so the working group should be supported by permanent expert advisory group(s) and ad hoc expert consultations convened as the working group requires.

  One characteristic of the group that cannot be over emphasized is linguistic diversity. Not just UN languages, but Japanese, German, Hindi, etc.

  (3) "open and inclusive process".

  • The working group should hold open public meetings where any interested individual may participate, either in person or remotely.
  • Formal consultations between member or members of the working group and parties external to their home institutions should be summarized and made publicly available.
  • Reports of the working group, its interim and final proposals and decisions must reflect consideration of comments received and explain how those comments were taken into account.
  • The working group should accept substantive comments in all official UN languages and as many other languages as it can reasonably manage.

    Two concluding thoughts.

    And no one should forget that the key issue underlying these discussions is developing nations' exclusion from most ICT policymaking processes. Industrialized countries are making the rules of the road for Information Society, and this is the core issue that underlies this governance debate.

    Second, and last. The governance principles I mentioned earlier --governance processes should be multilateral, transparent, democratic, and open to full participation by governments, the private sector and civil society-- these should be held in mind as we look at current ICT policy development processes and regimes.^*2 We can consider these a governance test where we ask to what degree is a particular regime, process or forum is multilateral, transparent and democratic and open to all stakeholders? And after considering the question, what can we recommend to make that arena, forum or process more transparent and democratic and open.

    *1 本稿は、ITU Telecom Asia 2004の「インターネット・ガバナンス」セッションにおけるアダム・ピークの講演予定稿（ただし、9月8日の講演は飛行機の運航中止により実現しなかった）。

    *2 This concept was proposed by Don MacLean in a keynote presentation at the ITU Workshop on Internet Governance, see " Herding Schrodinger's Cats: Some Conceptual Tools for Thinking about Internet Governance", URL < http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/forum/intgov04/index.html>

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