Kofi Annan: the United Nations won't "take over" the Internet (2/3)

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Read the below op-ed critically. It's designed to assuage political 
concerns in the U.S., but it downplays concerns that other nations 
participating in the summit have raised. For instance:

http://www.wgig.org/June-scriptmorning.html
CHINA: "We feel that the public policy issue of Internet should be 
solved jointly by the sovereign states in the U.N. framework...For 
instance, spam, network security and cyberspace--we should look for an 
appropriate specialized agency of the United Nations as a competent body."
GHANA: "There was unanimity for the need for an additional body...This 
body would therefore address all issues relating to the Internet within 
the confines of the available expertise which would be anchored at the 
U.N."

Information on U.N. summit next week in Tunisia:
http://www.itu.int/wsis/

-Declan

---

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/04/AR2005110401431.html

The U.N. Isn't a Threat to the Net
By Kofi A. Annan
Saturday, November 5, 2005; Page A19

The main objective of the World Summit on the Information Society to be 
held this month in Tunisia is to ensure that poor countries get the full 
benefits that new information and communication technologies -- 
including the Internet -- can bring to economic and social development. 
But as the meeting draws nearer, there is a growing chorus of 
misinformation about it.

One mistaken notion is that the United Nations wants to "take over," 
police or otherwise control the Internet. Nothing could be farther from 
the truth. The United Nations wants only to ensure the Internet's global 
reach, and that effort is at the heart of this summit...

Governance of matters related to the Internet, such as spam and 
cybercrime, is being dealt with in a dispersed and fragmented manner, 
while the Internet's infrastructure has been managed in an informal but 
effective collaboration among private businesses, civil society and the 
academic and technical communities. But developing countries find it 
difficult to follow all these processes and feel left out of Internet 
governance structures...

The need for change is a reflection of the future, when Internet growth 
will be most dramatic in developing countries. What we are seeing is the 
beginning of a dialogue between two different cultures: the 
nongovernmental Internet community, with its traditions of informal, 
bottom-up decision making, and the more formal, structured world of 
governments and intergovernmental organizations.

The Internet has become so important for almost every country's economy 
and administration that it would be naive to expect governments not to 
take an interest, especially since public service applications in areas 
such as education and health care will become even more widespread. They 
need to be able to get their Internet policies "right," and to 
coordinate with each other and with the Internet community...

At the summit two years ago in Geneva, discussions on Internet 
governance reached a stalemate. So the U.N. member states asked me to 
establish a group to examine the issue further. This Working Group on 
Internet Governance presented its findings in a report that reflects the 
views of its members, but not of the United Nations. It proposed 
creation of a "new space for dialogue" -- a forum that would bring all 
stakeholders together to share information and best practices and 
discuss difficult issues, but that would not have decision-making power.

The group also offered several options for oversight arrangements, with 
varying degrees of government involvement and relationship to the United 
Nations. None says that the United Nations should take over from the 
technical bodies now running the Internet; none proposes to create a new 
U.N. agency; and some suggest no U.N. role at all. All say that the 
day-to-day management of the Internet should be left to technical 
institutions, not least to shield it from the heat of day-to-day 
politics. These and other suggestions are being considered by U.N. 
member states...
_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)