[discuss] TIME SENSITIVE Industry letter to UN General Assembly committee re: mult-stakeholder participation in WSIS+10 review process

[Nick Ashton-Hart]

Dear /1Net participants from industry:

For those of you who haven't seen this by other channels (and apologies if you've have), there's an industry letter, alongside those of civil society and the technical community, about the WSIS+10 follow-up and the need for multi-stakeholder participation in the entire WSIS+10 review process. Signatories will be taken up to and including the 17th; if your company, or association, would like to sign please so indicate to me by email and provide the logo you'd like to use plus (if you want) any contact information you'd like to have provided to the two recipients (the Ambassadors of Finland and Tunisia, with copies to various other delegations).

The following background is provided in case it is useful (possibly not necessary for this audience)

As you may be aware, the international community’s policy blueprint for technology was settled upon at the World Summit for the Information Society in 2003 and 2005. 2015 is the 10-year review of progress in implementing that review.

The Snowden revelations have made that review process more politically difficult and raised the potential for the existing agreed documents to be reopened as part of the review - a result which could be highly damaging.

The UN General Assembly is in the process of deciding what the review process will look like and what stakeholders will be able to participate in it - other than governments. After failing to reach an agreement in December, the General Assembly has delegated to a group of member-states the task of settling the remaining differences. It was recently announced that the co-facilitators of this process are Finland and Tunisia. UNGA has until the end of March to adopt a new resolution finalizing the review process.

In the same year as the WSIS review the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are also going through a 10-year review. Many stakeholders are suggesting that the next 10 years of WSIS should be more fully dedicated to the achievement of the development goals, and less concerned with political discussion of the governments of technical organisations like ICANN - and less about content regulation efforts of totalitarian states. 

We believe it is essential that the review process incorporates the views of all stakeholders in a truly multi-stakeholder way faithful to the original intentions of WSIS itself. CCIA is leading an effort for an industry letter to the co-facilitators and we are currently seeking signons from industry associations and companies, which you can find below.

Time is short - please let us know by 17th February if your organisation will be able to sign on (and please provide the logo you wish to use by attachment, as well as a contact point, if you would like, for the Ambassadors in case they would like to reach out to you directly). We intend to transmit the letter to the relevant ambassadors no later than the 19th February. Note that there are similar letters which civil society groups and the Internet technical community is sending that will make congruent points to the industry letter; CCIA’s Geneva team are liaising with these communities to ensure that the letters continue to be compatible on the main points. Feel free to reach out to other tech companies and the associations that you belong to; we are doing the same. Any questions arising, please contact me.

-- 
Regards,
 
Nick Ashton-Hart
Geneva Representative
Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA)
Tel: +41 (22) 534 99 45
Fax: : +41 (22) 594-85-44
Mobile: +41 79 595 5468
USA Tel: +1 (202) 640-5430
email/IM (Jabber/GTalk): nashton at ccianet.org
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http://www.ccianet.org

Need to schedule a meeting or call with me? Feel free to pick a time and date convenient for you at http://meetme.so/nashton

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