Internet Governance Forum in November to address access, security issues, UN official says

The next meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in November will focus on access, openness, security and diversity, a top United Nations official said today at a press conference in Geneva.

Speaking after today’s preparatory consultations for the Forum’s second meeting, which will take place in Rio de Janeiro from 12 to 15 November, Markus Kummer, Executive Coordinator of the Forum’s secretariat, told reporters that the Rio meeting would advance the discussion that had taken place at the first Forum meeting in Athens last November.

At today’s consultations, participants felt “the next meeting in Rio should not merely be a repetition of the Athens meeting, but should rather be an ‘Athens plus,’” Mr. Kummer said, adding that the speakers from Germany, on behalf of the European Union, and the United States had emphasized the importance of a format involving all players and of a private sector-driven process.

It had also been proposed that in Rio all Internet governance-related organizations should present their activities and engage in a dialogue with all concerned, Mr. Kummer said.

“The idea for today’s meeting was for participants to discuss what the Rio meeting should focus on,” said Nitin Desai, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Internet Governance, who chaired the meeting, adding that some 200 representatives from civil society, the private sector and the Internet community attended the consultations.

Some participants felt that the Forum should focus more on Internet resources, Mr. Kummer said, including the internationalized domain names. Participants had proposed to include agenda items dealing with emerging and topical issues, under which the question of Internet resources could be raised. Many wanted to see this issue discussed more openly, Mr. Desai said, although the Rio agenda had not been finalized yet.

The Forum had a very broad mandate, Mr. Kummer said, and could discuss virtually any subject related to the Internet, Internet governance and the use or abuse of the Internet. After the Athens meeting, many differences had been voiced on its outcome. While governments, in particular, were accustomed to diplomatic processes resulting in negotiated documents, the Athens meeting had simply provided a forum for discussion.

But although the Forum had no decision-making power, its mandate did allow it to make recommendations “if appropriate,” Mr. Kummer said.

The Forum’s next steps after Rio were still to be determined, Mr. Desai said, as the Forum itself was an evolving process. “We are experimenting with a multi-stakeholder open-ended process without a fixed membership,” he said, adding that the Forum would meet in India in 2008 and in Egypt in 2009. The Forum’s mandate provided for a review within five years of its inception, which would result in a recommendation by the Secretary-General on the future of the body.