The Potential Role of the Internet Governance Forum

1. Presented at the APIA and ISOC-AU Open Forum by Jeremy Malcolm28 February 2006 The Potential Role of the Internet Governance Forum

2. Outline • The process that led to the IGF • Challenges facing it • A non-duplicative work programme • Balancing participation of governments, private sector, civil society and IGOs • Making decisions – by consensus? • How is its output received into International law?

3. Internet Governance • What is it? • Internet governance is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.

4. WGIG Report • Definition from WGIG that reported to WSIS that established the IGF • Identified 13 public policy issues IP addressing Intellectual property Freedom of speech Privacy Consumer rights Multilingualism Root servers Interconnection Security/cybercrime Spam Policy participation Capacity building Top-level domains

5. WGIG Recommendations • Review root zones • Equity in IPv6 allocation • Review intercon-nection costs • National law enforcers to link • Joint statement on spam • Ensure no violation of human rights • Ensure multistakeholderism • Privacy to be upheld • Consumer rights to be monitored • More effort towards multilingualism

6. The IGF so far • Preliminary meeting on 16-17 February produced consensus on: • IGF to include a developmental focus • Some use of online fora • Lack of consensus on: • Mandate/structure of steering body • Priority themes for first meeting (spam, I8N, capacity building)

7. Multi-stakeholder issues • IGOs derive authority from states but: • Suffer from democratic deficits • Do not have sovereignty over the net • Multi-stakeholder structure helps but: • Digital divide must be overcome • Inequality of power and resources of stakeholder groups

8. Decision-making issues • IETF, W3C, ICANN (theoretically) already act by (rough) consensus • But so do the ISO and WTO • Other models: • Digital democracy (horizontal communication, collective memory) • Deliberative democracy (values opinion formation not just decision making)

9. International law • Governs legal relations between international actors • Traditionally made by states • Degrees from hard to soft • Multilateral/bilateral agreements • UN General Assembly resolutions • Memoranda of Understanding between executive agencies, other stakeholders

10. Non-governmental actors • Can a non-governmental group make International law? • Non-state actors act internationally • Red Cross, Vatican, Microsoft • Arguably, already make law: • Customary law: authority + control • ICANN's DNS root management

11. Conclusion • We need to manage Internet-related legal issues globally • The IGF is ready to take this on • In developing a collaborative, inclusive process it should note: • The Internet's technical governance • Actively bridging the digital divide • Literature on deliberative democracy

12. Questions? • Email: Jeremy@Malcolm.id.au • Other resources: • http://www.malcolm.id.au/thesis/ • http://www.itu.int/wsis/ • http://www.wgog.org/ • http://www.intgovforum.org/