[Kictanet] WTO MC6: The Final Countdown
constance georgina
constancegeorgina at yahoo.co.uk
Sat Dec 17 13:19:19 EAT 2005
The Final Countdown
There seems to be no compromise on either side, deadlock..... The draft ministerial text has just been released. Like everyone else in here I am anxiously scrutinizing the text, wondering if once more the WTO will fail us. For too long the WTO has undermined developing countries sovereign rights to pursue development according to their terms and according to what in their judgment is to the greatest benefit of their citizens. The exploitation must stop! In a few short hours we will know the fate of millions of our brothers and sisters plagued by poverty and dying of HIV/AIDS. In a few short hours we will know if there is any future for the WTO
in solidarity
Connie
Constance Georgina Khaendi Walyaro
Citron Wood
President
Oxfam International Youth Parliament (OIYP)
Action Partner
UNOY Peacebuilders
Affiliate
Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS
East Africa Focal Point
XVI International AIDS Conference
Scientific Programme Committee Member: Track A
National WSIS Subcommittee
Youth Representative
WSIS Youth Caucus RYNICs (Kenya)
National Campaign Coordinator
'youth building a peaceful, equitable and sustainable world' OIYP.
14th December constance georgina <constancegeorgina at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
WTO MC6: Whose Trade Organization?
When WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy addressed us yesterday at the Inaugural Session of the WTO Sixth Ministerial Conference, he said he was impressed with the outstanding work Hong Kong had done to prepare for the conference. "The facilities, the logistics and most importantly, the hospitality have been quite extraordinary," he said.
He noted reaching agreement in the WTO is difficult because it is a bottom-up process. "It takes more time, it is more burdensome and cumbersome, but I am convinced it remains the best way to take decisions that impact directly the lives of billions of people."
Difficult as this process may be, he said, "even immensely difficult decisions can be taken in the WTO. What is needed are negotiators that are bold, open-minded and prepared to take some risks."
Hong Kong offered to host this conference because the Government recognized that it would become a key staging post to the successful conclusion of the multilateral trade negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda - and it wanted to play its part in the collective effort to realize the round's ambitions.
This week we are at a historic juncture, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to alleviate the suffering and pain of poverty and HIV/AIDS for millions of people across the globe. Our actions here; our responses to the challenges confronting our societies will have strong bearing on the very survival and sustainability of mankind. Make Trade Fair!
See the Video
www.maketradefair.com http://www.wto.org/
Live webcasting: View live and archived webcasting (Internet broadcasting) of the public sessions of the WTO Ministerial Conference from 13 to 18 December 2005. This includes statements from Ministers in the plenary sessions, as well as selected press briefings.
In solidarity
Connie
Constance Georgina Khaendi Walyaro
Citron Wood
President
Oxfam International Youth Parliament (OIYP)
Action Partner
UNOY Peacebuilders
Affiliate
Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS
East Africa Focal Point
XVI International AIDS Conference
Scientific Programme Committee Member: Track A
National WSIS Subcommittee
Youth Representative
WSIS Youth Caucus RYNICs (Kenya)
National Campaign Coordinator
'youth building a peaceful, equitable and sustainable world' OIYP.
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James Nguo <james at alin.or.ke> wrote: Does anyone have the e-mail address, telephone number for Consumer
Information Network, Mr. Ochieng??
James Nguo
Regional Director
Arid Lands Information Network-Eastern Africa (ALIN-EA),
P.O. Box 10098, 00100 G.P.O. Nairobi, Kenya,
AAYMCA Building, Along State House Crescent, Off State House Avenue.
Tel +254 20 2731557
Telefax +254 20 2737813
Cell Phone +254 -722-561006
Email: james at alin.or.ke
Website: www.alin.or.ke
-------------------------------------------------------------
Enriched livelihoods of the people in arid areas of Eastern Africa through
targeted information support and facilitation of information exchange
-----Original Message-----
From: alice at apc.org [mailto:alice at apc.org]
Sent: 24 November 2005 10:21
To: KIPlist; Kenya ICT Policy - kictanet
Subject: [Kictanet] Fw: [governance] Assessment of WSIS Outcomes for
Internet Governance
This analysis is currently available at www.IP3.gatech.edu .
It should soon be available at www.InternetGovernance.org
November 23, 2005
An Assessment of the WSIS-2/Tunis '05 Outcomes
The outcomes of the Tunis World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
are significant -- and rather surprising. ICANN emerges from the summit
both unchanged and significantly different. After WSIS it has a stronger
claim to legitimacy.
ICANN emerged unchanged, in that its institutional structures - most
notably its mechanisms for political oversight - were not amended. ICANN
continues to operate under the formal authority of a single government, the
US. Such a unilateral globalization model is a novel arrangement, quite
unlike what is used in other global sectors (e.g. telephony or
communication satellites.) The US continues to exercise a kind of
unipolar authority it does not have in physical space.
But ICANN also emerges from WSIS radically different: it is now endowed
with a greater degree of legitimacy. Over a period of four years the UN
family of nations intensely scrutinized ICANN, Internet governance, and
unilateral US oversight, and they came to a decision: they declined to
change ICANN's structures. Whereas US control was previously the product
of a unilateral assertion, it is now the outcome of a lengthy process of
scrutiny by all nations.
Thus ICANN's greatest weakeness - its lack of legitimacy and its related
lack of support from governments around the world - is less after
WSIS. From now on, governments that criticize ICANN are criticizing an
arrangement that they themselves reviewed and left unchanged.
The WSIS decision cannot really be called an endorsement of ICANN. The
text nowhere mentions ICANN by name, and there is no real declaration of
support. Still, the UN has decided not to act against the organization,
and this collective inaction is the final word after years of debate.
The Internet Governance Forum
Another important WSIS outcome is the launch of the Internet Governance
Forum (IGF). Two features characterize the IGF. First, it is a
multi-stakeholder forum. Although a creation of the UN, the forum
membership will include more than just UN member states; participating
equally will be entities from the private sector and from civil
society. Second, the forum has no concrete power. It is an advisory
body. Its member will discuss and formulate collective recommendations,
but those recommendations will not carry the weight of policy.
Still, the forum could become powerful. A forum is a prerequisite for
collective action at the global level, making possible communication,
interest aggregation, bargaining, and decision. WSIS was itself a forum,
and it made possible certain collective decisions of great political
import. (For more on the functionality of forums see the article
"Understanding WSIS" in the journal Information Technology and
International Development.) If the new forum makes continued collective
decision-making possible, it could be a powerful entity. Its
recommendations could be formalized by national governments.
Still one might ask, what is new about this forum? ICANN already has
advisory committees for governments and for civil society members, and the
private sector controls its board outright. Why create another mechanism
for formulating advice? The answer is that this new forum will primarily
have a policy focus. Whereas ICANN's bodies ostensibly focus on technical
coordination, the IGF will focus on all issues of Internet governance.
This dual arrangement formalizes the questionable division of Internet
governance into two domains: ICANN's domain of technical coordination and
the IGF's domain of public policy. It risks validating the inaccurate
claim that ICANN is a purely technical body without policy-making content.
Implications: ICANN and IGF
In an earlier analysis entitled "ICANN Reform: Establishing the Rule of
Law" I argued that ICANN needed a legislative mandate. It now has some of
that. The Tunis documents are a major step in that direction.
The locus of policy making will now shift. Fundamental disputes about
ICANN's structures of policy-making have been settled (at least for
now.) The next step is to work within those structures.
WSIS defined two forums for policy making: ICANN, for matters of technical
coordination, and the IGF, for everything else. In the short term, most
Internet governance activity will switch to ICANN, where debates will occur
within the ICANN structures. They will focus more on substantive issues
relating to technical coordination.
Of particular note is ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). The
GAC is the forum where governments have the opportunity to look in on ICANN
decision-making and offer their advice. It will likely become a much more
important body - perhaps the most important body - in ICANN. At WSIS
governments made it clear that they want a greater voice in ICANN
decisions, and the GAC will be the vehicle for that. Thanks to WSIS
governments now know a lot more about ICANN issues, so their participation
should be more informed and effective.
Civil society does not have a strong base within ICANN. The Non-Commercial
Users Constituency (NCUC) operates at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the multiple
commercial constituencies. Even weaker is ICANN's At Large Advisory
Committee (ALAC), which is a pale shadow of the earlier user representation
on the board. Ever since business and technical interests eliminated
elections, civil society participation has been constrained. Outside of
ICANN, the Internet Society (ISOC) is not a reliable home for civil
society. Since 2002 business interests control ISOC by virtue of having
rewritten its bylaws in a manner similar to ICANN. ISOC, however, still
claims to be a civil society organization. What user organizations are in
ALAC are mostly sub-units of ISOC. In summary, the situation for civil
society in the post-WSIS ICANN is a major source of concern.
A top priority for civil society should be reforming ALAC. With ICANN
confirmed as the one operational institution for global Internet
governance, civil society should develop a more effective voice
there. Investing in ALAC and NCUC is one way to achieve that.
The second forum emerging from WSIS is the Internet Governance Forum. The
IGF can be thought of as a continuation of the WSIS, since it provides a
place for multistakeholder discussion of a very large number of
issues. The key question here is whether governments embrace it. With GAC
already established and offering a rich agenda, some governments may
question the utility of a second advisory forum. Industry interests are
likely to be cool to the IGF, since they have so much more influence in
ICANN. Civil society, with its weak base in ICANN, may have the most at
stake in the IGF, but they may not be able to make it succeed without the
commitment of those other stakeholders.
Conclusion
Before WSIS ICANN was a sort of Frankenstein organization created in the
basement of the US Department of Commerce. No formal delegation of
authority from the US Congress authorized its exercise of public
powers. Nor did its global elections give it legitimacy, since they were
canceled before full implementation.
Now ICANN can claim some degree of public authority. Many people may
regret the UN's implicit endorsement of ICANN, but no one can easily
dismiss the validity of the process. ICANN is the same but different. The
next step in the policy process will be to work within its structures.
There is one additional possibility, not mentioned above, that looms over
Internet governance: technology re-design. With WSIS leaving ICANN in
place, those dissatisfied with ICANN are likely to move away from a
political strategy. Instead, they may see more promise in trying to
eliminate the single root. One example in this trend is the Open Root
Server Network (orsn.org), which is creating a parallel network of servers
that are autonomous of ICANN. With such innovations in place, the power in
controlling the authoritative root server is reduced. In the near future,
it will be interesting to see how many groups propose technical innovations
that effectively decentralize the root.
References
WSIS Decision: "Tunis Agenda for the Information Society," 15 November
2005, WSIS-05/TUNIS/DOC/6(Rev.1)-E
"Understanding WSIS: An Institutional Analysis of the World Summit on the
Information Society," Information Technology and International Development,
published by MIT Press, 2005.
"ICANN Reform: Establishing the Rule of Law," web published analysis.
Articles can be found at www.InternetGovernance.org and www.IP3.gatech.edu.
Author is Hans Klein, Associate Professor of Public Policy at Georgia
Institute of Technology and Partner in the Internet Governance
Project. The paper benefited from comments by Milton Mueller.
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