Open letter to the ITU on transparency of its Plenipotentiary in Busan

October 8, 2014

TO: Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun Touré
CC: Deputy Secretary-General of the ITU, Mr Houlin Zhao

Dear Secretary-General Touré,

We write to you as a group of civil society organisations who are keen to engage with the important work of the ITU and its upcoming Plenipotentiary Conference.

At various ITU meetings in the recent past, positive steps have been taken to facilitate and encourage the engagement of stakeholders in the work of the ITU and to increase transparency of the organization and its processes. Efforts were made at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), the World Telecommunication Policy Forum (WTPF) and the WSIS+10 Multistakeholder Preparatory Platform (MPP), all of which helped to further increase recognition within the ITU of the importance of opening up its processes more generally.

These moves towards greater openness and inclusivity were also lauded in your speech at the WSIS+10 High Level Event in June 2014: “As the ITU Secretary-General, I’m nonetheless very proud that these two documents have been developed by a bottom up and all inclusive approach, exercising true multistakeholderism with the highest level of openness.”

The undersigned organizations have been encouraged by this evolution and believe that it is now time – at the ITU Plenipotentiary in Busan and as the ITU nears its 150th birthday – for the organization to do more to demonstrate its commitment to openness and to welcome greater and more diverse participation in its processes from across all stakeholder groups.

We understand that the ITU will be webcasting some of the proceedings of the Plenipotentiary including Plenary Sessions, Plenary Working Group, Committee 5 and Committee 6.  We welcome these commitments and encourage the ITU to webcast all Committee proceedings.

In addition, we encourage the ITU to:

• Open the Plenipotentiary Plenary and Committee Sessions to on-site observers, regardless of their participation status. This would provide an opportunity for public interest groups and other interested organizations to participate at the Plenipotentiary without the constraints imposed by participation through national delegations.
• Organize regular briefings for civil society at the Conference. We understand that the ITU is already considering holding briefings with civil society representatives, and welcome this. We encourage the ITU to facilitate such briefings and to use them as an opportunity to share information on the progress of the discussions and negotiations, as well as to solicit civil society feedback on the proceedings.
• Create an online public contribution platform (as there was at the WCIT) and register such contributions as official Information Documents. Delegations and participants should be encouraged to take such contributions into account during their deliberations.
• Highlight the benefits of openness and transparency in an effort to formalize greater public access to ITU processes and documentation.

We believe that wider participation and greater openness are critical to enable all stakeholders to deepen their understanding of the ITU’s mandate and role and constructively engage with the important work the ITU does. We urge the ITU to seize the opportunity presented by the Plenipotentiary to take the next steps towards true inclusion and collaboration. We also urge the ITU to continue and strengthen its involvement in global and regional multi-stakeholder forums such as IGFs.

We remain available and committed to collaboration with the ITU Secretary General, the ITU Secretariat, and all other relevant individuals and bodies within the ITU to work towards a more inclusive, transparent and accountable ITU.

Organisational endorsements

45		Universidad Dr.Andres Bello.	El Salvador	Jun 19, 2018
44		Internet Society India Chennai	India	Oct 13, 2014
43		Network Neutrality User Forum of Korea	South Korea	Oct 13, 2014
42		Public Interest Registry	USA	Oct 10, 2014
41		ISOC-YEMEN	Yemen	Oct 10, 2014
40		Open Net Korea	Korea	Oct 10, 2014
39		PROTESTE - Consumer Association	Brazil	Oct 10, 2014
38		IP Justice		Oct 09, 2014
37		Intervozes - Coletivo Brasil de Comunicação Social	Brazil	Oct 09, 2014
36		Instituto Bem Estar Brasil	Brasil	Oct 09, 2014
35		Instituto de Tecnologia e Sociedade - ITS	Brazil	Oct 09, 2014
34		Brazilian Institute for Consumer Defense (Idec)	Brazil	Oct 09, 2014
33		Foundation for Media Alternatives	Philippines	Oct 09, 2014
32		HackAgenda	Brazil	Oct 09, 2014
31		Movimento Mega	Brazil	Oct 09, 2014
30		CELE -Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, Palermo University	Argentina	Oct 09, 2014
29		Center for Technology and Society of FGV Law School	Brazil	Oct 09, 2014
28		Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication	Bangladesh	Oct 09, 2014
27		Media Foundation for West Africa	Ghana	Oct 09, 2014
26		Just Net Coalition	international	Oct 09, 2014
25		Instituto Nupef	Brazil	Oct 09, 2014
24		ICT Watch - Indonesia	Indonesia	Oct 09, 2014
23		Media Rights Agenda	Nigeria	Oct 09, 2014
22		Bytes for All, Pakistan	Pakistan	Oct 09, 2014
21		Internet & Digital Ecosystem Alliance (IDEA)	Switzerland	Oct 09, 2014
20		ONG Derechos Digitales	Chile	Oct 09, 2014
19		ISOC Paraguay	Paraguay	Oct 09, 2014
18		ONG TEDIC	Paraguay	Oct 09, 2014
17		OpenMedia.org	Canada	Oct 09, 2014
16		Public Knowledge	United States	Oct 08, 2014
15		Access	Global	Oct 08, 2014
14		Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet	Korea	Oct 08, 2014
13		IT for Change	India	Oct 08, 2014
12		Association for Proper Internet Governance	Switzerland	Oct 08, 2014
11		Software Freedom Law Centre, India	India	Oct 08, 2014
10		Asociaci�n Colombiana de Usuarios de Internet, ACUI	Colombia	Oct 08, 2014
9		Association for Progressive Communications (APC)	Global	Oct 08, 2014
8		Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet)	Kenya	Oct 08, 2014
7		World Wide Web Foundation	Global	Oct 08, 2014
6		Center for Democracy & Technology	USA	Oct 08, 2014
5		Internet Democracy Project	India	Oct 08, 2014
4		The Open Technology Institute	USA	Oct 08, 2014
3		Public Knowledge	USA	Oct 08, 2014
2		Article19	Global	Oct 08, 2014
1		Global Partners Digital	Global	Oct 08, 2014

Individual endorsements

17		Roshan Mohammed	India	Oct 08, 2016
16		Alan Sears	United States	Nov 11, 2014
15		Aliakbar Mousavi	United States	Oct 25, 2014
14		Nasir Arafat	India	Oct 15, 2014
13		Sivasubramanian Muthusamy	India	Oct 13, 2014
12		Anthony Sporano	United States	Oct 13, 2014
11		John Poole	United States	Oct 13, 2014
10		rafik dammak	Tunisia	Oct 11, 2014
9		Silvia Albuquerque	Brazil	Oct 11, 2014
8		Renata Ribeiro	Brazil	Oct 10, 2014
7		Flavio Wagner	Brazil	Oct 10, 2014
6		William Drake	Switzerland	Oct 09, 2014
5		Nahema Nascimento	Brazil	Oct 09, 2014
4		Jorge Vargas		Oct 09, 2014
3		Mwendwa Kivuva	Kenya	Oct 09, 2014
2		Adam Peake	japan	Oct 09, 2014
1		Izumi Aizu	Japan	Oct 09, 2014