Your Excellency Secretary-General Guterres, Your Excellency the High Commissioner for Human Rights, We write to…
Well-funded and well organized interest groups from within the technical and business communities will be advancing their agendas at the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance, with the intent of securing outcomes that favour their perceived interests. Civil society’s responsibility is to ensure that these outcomes do not conflict with the broader, long-term public interest. Our challenge is therefore to be equally well organised as the other stakeholder representatives, even though we do not enjoy the same funding and staffing resources that they do.
This meeting is a joint initiative of
Registration is now closed.
The “CS pre-NM” is a gathering of over 90 civil society groups from around the world involved in internet governance and broader internet-related public policy debates regionally and globally. This is an action-oriented group with the aim to facilitate the expression of civil society views and feed them into the discussions at NETmundial and beyond.
The agenda is focused on setting points of consensus, discussing strategic action and distilling key messages for members of civil society that are able to pursue common goals, based on 1) defending fundamental Human Rights; 2) ensuring the Open, Decentralized and Interoperable Architecture of the Web and 3) fostering an Open, Inclusive, Democratic and Decentralised Multistakeholder model of Internet Governance.
Based on these three pillars, in order to have a clear mapping of the state of consensus within Civil Society, we are convening 3 working groups (Principles, Roadmap and IANA transition) of resource persons that will be focused until the day of our meeting on analyzing CS contributions and comments posted at NetMundial platform to deliver: a) a set of bullet points of possible ground of consensus and b) a set of questions around key issues that will require us to have agreement on during our meeting. Our hope is to honor different CS points of view presented so far, and quickly air disagreements and the arguments for each approach.
We hope we can count on your collaboration to achieve our goals and, in the end, have a clear message from civil society that enable those who seek to refine their tactics and strategies for the Conference to do so.
Welcome coffee
NETmundial 2014 introduction and Goal of our meeting
Principles: Guaranteeing protection of Human Rights and Ensuring the Open and Interoperable Architecture of the Web
Break
Roadmap: towards a coordinated, decentralized, inclusive and open multistakeholder model of Internet Governance
Lunch
NetMundial: The rules of the game: how to maximize civil society impact in the interventions and the meetings to follow
Transfer to venue: Upstairs Lounge, 2nd floor (next to restaurants), Grand Hyatt São Paulo, Av. das Nações Unidas, 13301, São Paulo – SP (transport provided [TBC])
Open session with technical community
Meeting with invited governments (bilateral or mixed – TBC)
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[eventreports event=”94489″]
Registration
Welcome and introductions (moderation: Andrew)
Highlights and tactics for IGF (moderation: Nnenna)
Policy slam – people have 10 min to present or discuss something they find relevant
Lunch and networking break
Follow-up to WSIS+10 and tactics moving forward (moderation: Deborah + Anja)
Best Bits way forward
To add a background paper, click the Upload button above. [backgroundpapers event=”134671″]
To add a report, click the Upload button above. [eventreports event=”134671″]
We call for the establishment of the IGF as a multistakeholder forum within the framework of the United Nations with an open-ended mandate, that should be reformed and strengthened.
See also this statement which grew out of discussions at the meeting and is endorsed by a subset of participants.
On Monday, March 2, in Paris, a group of civil society organisations including Global Partners Digital (GPD), Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Internet Democracy Project, KICTANet, Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University Delhi, and the Internet Rights and Principles (IRP) Coalition – in collaboration with the Internet Society (ISOC) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) – will be holding a 1-day event focused on the WSIS+10 Overall Review.
For more information about the WSIS review and why it matters, follow this link. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness of the review process and to facilitate coordination and strategy development for effective civil society engagement. Part of the event will be dedicated to facilitating cross-community dialogue with representatives from the technical community, the business sector and governments.
A rough agenda for the day is as follows:
| Time | Session |
| 09:00-12:00 | Civil society awareness raising and coordination session 1 |
| 12:00-13:00 | Lunch |
| 13:00-14:00 | Cross-community session 1: Setting the scene for the WSIS process in 2015: what is at stake?* |
| 14:00-15:00 | Cross-community session 2: Sharing strategies and finding synergies* |
| 15:00-15:30 | Break |
| 15:30-17:30 | Civil society awareness raising and coordination session 2 |
A detailed agenda for the civil society sessions as well as info on speakers for the cross-community sessions will be shared closer to the date. The event will be held on the margins of UNESCO’s CONNECTing the Dots conference.
To participate remotely at the cross-community sessions, please follow this link: http://www.
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UNESCO has undertaken a consultative study on Internet-issues that will be discussed at this multi-stakeholder conference on 3-4 March 2015 in Paris. The study draws on 30 questions on Internet-related issues in the four areas of access to information and knowledge, freedom of expression, privacy, and ethical dimensions of the information society. The questions also explore the intersections between these areas and options for future UNESCO action in these fields.
This comprehensive Internet-related study was mandated by UNESCO’s 195 Member States through Resolution 52 of the Organization’s 37th General Conference Resolution in November 2013. The questions and design of the study have been elaborated through a five-month multi-stakeholder consultation process with civil society, academia, the private sector, the technical community, inter-governmental organizations and UNESCO’s Member States. In addition to written submissions from a range of stakeholders, consultation events were held in a dozen global fora, including the World Press Freedom Day International Conference, the Stockholm Internet Freedom Forum, the Freedom Online Coalition Meeting, and the WSIS+10 High Level Review Event.
A civil society side meeting will take place on the preceding day, 2 March 2015, focusing on the WSIS plus 10 process, for which UNESCO are keen for their study to be an input. Its objective is to produce a civil society strategy for what we want from the process.
10-year review WSIS report finalised and sent to UNGA though ECOSOC
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Best Bits mailing listBest Bits was a global civil society network on the topic of Internet governance, that was formed in 2012 and closed in 2019. Many of the former members of Best Bits participate in the Internet Governance Caucus.