Good morning Chair, co-facilitators, all
I am speaking on behalf of a group of aligned members of the Internet technical community with a long history of involvement in multistakeholder Internet governance (named below).
We appreciate this opportunity to participate in this stakeholder consultation and reiterate our thanks to the co-facilitators and other drafters of the Global Digital Compact (GDC) First Revision (Rev. 1) as shared in our intervention to the stakeholder consultation on May 21.
We reiterate our support for several aspects of Rev. 1, including:
- Stronger references to the WSIS architecture as a primary focus for follow up and implementation.
- Reduction of earlier proposed duplication of forums and initiatives.
- Text in the Internet Governance section such as the commitment to uphold and support the Internet Governance Forum, including the need to increase resources for the forum and diversify participation.
On follow up and review, we suggest further reducing duplication of forums and initiatives. The GDC should leverage existing multistakeholder processes and forums.
In particular, we suggest further strengthening the role of the IGF—as a core process arising from WSIS, the IGF and its diverse community can do much more than “amplify” the GDC’s work. The WSIS+20 review next year allows this role to be developed.
We reiterate that member states are a crucial but insufficient group to achieve the Compact’s shared goals. Success requires all the stakeholders involved in internet governance, on an equal footing, to fulfill their roles and responsibilities together.
As advocated in the NETmundial+10 Multistakeholder Statement, we also ask for stakeholder consultations to be scheduled in a way that enables non-governmental stakeholders adequate time to consider newly revised drafts of the GDC.
It would also be helpful for the co-facilitators—and wider UN-system—to consider how to enable stakeholders from diverse geographical regions and timezones to meaningfully engage beyond the stakeholder consultations (for example, by allowing comment submissions by video and text, and by publishing recorded sessions and input).
Thank you for your attention.
List of organizations signing on:
- Africa Top Level Domains Organization
- Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC)
- au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA)
- Blacknight
- Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA)
- DENIC eG
- DotAsia Organisation
- GoDaddy
- Identity Digital
- IE Domain Registry CLG, trading as .ie
- InternetNZ
- Japan Network Information Center (JPNIC)
- Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd. (JPRS)
- Network Information Center Costa Rica
- Nominet UK
- Portuguese registry .PT
- Public Interest Registry (PIR)
- Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC)
- Tucows, Inc