[At-Large] Fwd: ITU Council Decision on WCIT Open Access to ITR Documents

Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond ocl at gih.com
Thu Jul 12 07:37:34 UTC 2012


Dear all,

I know that several of you are following the World Congress on
Information Technology (WCIT) issues closely -- and you are right to do
so since the outcome of the WCIT discussions will directly affect our
communities. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) member
states will meet in Dubai in December 2012 to update the International
Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs), last updated in the late eighties.
The big difference with the eighties is that it is proposed that the
regulations would include the Internet.

The ALAC has a WIKI page of relevant links for all of you to learn about
the WCIT issues. There are links to further information under several
sub-headings:

- Internet Governance
- Domain Name
- IPv6
- Other

Please be so kind to inform staff if you know of a good resource to list
on that WIKI page. Also, if anyone knows of a good short, easy to
understand introduction to the subject of ITU, WCIT & ITRs, please be so
kind to suggest it for inclusion on that page. It is really important
that we have resources to help our local Internet users understand what
is about to happen and why we all need to be concerned about this.

The message attached below, forwarded from ISOC, points to at least a
partial opening of the ITU's document database and I hereby ask staff to
add the link to the WIKI.

The Internet Society has asked its chapters around the world to find out
way to liaise with government officials in their own country and thus
bring the input of individual internet users to the discussion. I
believe that the At-Large community, which has a wide footprint by also
having a local presence in so many countries around the world, has an
important part to play in informing their governments that we actually
take part in ICANN's multi-stakeholder policy making model and that we
support the current multi-stakeholder Internet Ecosystem as being one
which promotes innovation and development better than any other top-down
system.

You will find a list of the government officials of ITU member states
listed here:
http://www.itu.int/cgi-bin/htsh/mm/scripts/mm.list?_search=ITUstates&_languageid=1

Please be so kind to find out who your government officials and local
organisation observers are and discuss locally within your organization
what you could do at local level to engage a dialogue with your local
officials and ministers for them to make sure they are aware of the
issues and not make the mistake of supporting recommendations that will
cripple their local economy by crippling the Internet's potential for
innovation.

Also -- please email suggestions as to what we, the At-Large Community
of ICANN, could do to continue promoting the multi-stakeholder model 
that we are engaged in.

Warmest regards,

Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond
ALAC Chair


-------- Message original --------
Sujet: 	[Itu2012chapters] ITU Council Decision on WCIT Open Access to
ITR Documents
Date : 	Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:29:17 -0400
De : 	Sally Wentworth <wentworth at isoc.org>
Pour : 	itu2012chapters at elists.isoc.org



Hello, 


Today, the ITU Council took up the issue of transparency of ITU WCIT
documents and Member State proposals.   Karen Mulberry has, again,
offered a summary of the discussion and the decision below.  In
short, the Council?s final decision is to post only CWG-WCIT TD-64 (the
draft ITRs) for public access on the WCIT-12 website
(http://www.itu.int/en/wcit-12) and that the ITU will have a publicly
available space on this site for all stakeholders to post opinions and
comments.  There will be no consultation process as was originally
proposed by the SecGen and no other WCIT documents will be made publicly
available.   The responsibility is really now with the Member States to
have an open and participatory national process to allow for a full and
transparent discussion about the WCIT. 

*============================*

*ITU Council Decision on WCIT Open Access to ITR Documents*

11 July 2012 the ITU Council discussed a process regarding open and
unrestricted access to WCIT and ITR proposals and documents. 

The Sec Gen presented a plan to make the CWG-WCIT document TD-64 openly
accessible to the public to address the public request for access,
openness and transparency.  The SecGen also proposed that any CWG-WCIT
proposals that are made openly accessible should be posted without any
reference to their source contributor.  There was also a proposal by
Japan to make CWG-WCIT TD-62 (the compilation of proposals) openly
accessible as this would assist in national consultations.  However,
there were other countries that wanted all ITR proposals to be withheld
from the public and not accessible without a TIES password.  In
addition, it was noted that changes to the procedures to enable the
publication of proposals to ITU conferences will need ITU
Plenipotentiary Conference consideration in 2014 before any open process
can be adopted.  In the meantime, it is up to Member States to conduct
open consultations to prepare for WCIT where the Member State can freely
share its proposals and information. 

Secretary General Toure also presented a proposal for a public online
consultation to be moderated by his office where all stakeholders would
have the opportunity to submit proposals and comments on the ITRs. The
Secretary General thought that  this would allow the ITU to strengthen
its credibility and reputation as well as the credibility of the WCIT
process, which have both been victim to a series of inaccurate media
reports.  The SecGen also noted that proceeding with an open
consultation will continue to foster an image of the ITU as an open,
transparent and listening organization; and will provide a transparent
platform for all stakeholders to engage, participate and air their
views.  Submissions to the ?Public Consultation? would be posted on the
WCIT-12 web site and MAY be considered by Member States when preparing
their proposals for the ITRs.

After much discussion, the Council?s final decision is to post only
CWG-WCIT TD-64 (the draft ITRs) for public access on the WCIT-12 website
(http://www.itu.int/en/wcit-12) and that the ITU will have a publicly
available space on this site for all stakeholders to post opinions and
comments.  There will be no consultation process as was originally
proposed by the SecGen and no other WCIT documents will be made publicly
available.





Sally Wentworth
Internet Society 
+1 703 439 2146
wentworth at isoc.org <mailto:wentworth at isoc.org>
www.isoc.org




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