Internet Governance

Internet Governance " is the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, procedures for decision making and programs that influence the development and use of the Internet. " (Report of the working Group on Internet Governance, July 2005 )

Regulations and mechanisms for Internet governance are the subjects of a sometimes heated international debate between many different stakeholders of the Internet. To date, there is no common understanding of how Internet governance should be handled internationally in the future. While the U.S. representative of the status quo, calling for many countries, including the EU, but also many developing countries, further co-determination and participation opportunities.

Background

But since there was no agreement within the existing decision-making bodies, it was decided to present the policy-makers of all countries of the world the problem on a World Summit of the United Nations on the Information Society.

Positions

Position of the U.S.

In a speech to the Wireless Communications Association (WCA ) on 30 June 2005 presented Michael Gallagher, State Secretary in the U.S. Department of Commerce, the following basic items:

  • The Government of the United States want to ensure the safety and stability of the domain name and addressing system ( DNS). Because the Internet is important for the world economy, the U.S. undertake to refrain from actions that would have an adverse effect on the Internet. The U.S. government will therefore maintain its historic role in authorizing changes to the root zone file.
  • The U.S. recognizes the legitimate interests of other governments in relation to the management of their country domain names ( ccTLDs ). Therefore, the United States undertake to cooperate with the international community to address these concerns, always taking into account the fundamental need to ensure the safety and stability of the DNS.
  • ICANN is the appropriate technical manager of the DNS on the Internet. The U.S. continues to support the ongoing work of ICANN and recognizes the progress that has already been reached. The U.S. will continue its oversight role over ICANN exercise so that ICANN can keep its focus and exercise its technical core task.
  • The Dialogue on Internet Governance to be held in several relevant forums. Due to the variety of subjects that belong to Internet governance, there can be no single event that can address the entire subject area in an appropriate manner. While the United States recognizes that the existing Internet system works, a sustained dialogue with all stakeholders is encouraged in the various forums around the world. The U.S. will support in these forums market-based approaches and the leadership role of the private sector in the development of the Internet.

Position of the European Union

These statements by the United States, were difficult to understand for the countries of the European Union, as well as for some developing and emerging countries, as it disagreed with certain agreements with ICANN. In the PrepCom III for WSIS end of September 2005 in Geneva, therefore, the European Union under the leadership of the British Presidency, a discussion paper on the table, which seemed to provide an international oversight of essential resources of the Internet. While some of the developing countries were initially that they could regain their positions in the text vaguely held, saw the United States attacked their position by the proposal. At the end of negotiations at the PrepCom III negotiators were about 12 different proposals and it was agreed that negotiations in the three days before the start of the WSIS in Tunis, from 13 - 15th November 2005 to continue.

Political development

World Summit in Geneva (2003)

In the first World Summit on the Information Society ( WSIS) in Geneva in 2003, therefore, this issue was discussed under the heading "Internet Governance " for the first time as part of a United Nations World Summit. However, existed at the time not even a consensus with which definition of " Internet Governance " you wanted to work in order to have an approach to solve the problem. In order not to bring the summit to fail on this question, the participants in Geneva agreed to transfer the theme of a group of experts.

Working Group on Internet Governance ( WGIG )

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, was asked a Working Group on Internet Governance ( WGIG ), through the tasks, ( 1) to develop a definition of the term, (2) to clarify the issues and ( 3) a report on create are including recommendations for policy makers of the second part of the world Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in 2005.

After the WGIG has created its report in June 2005 and the recommendations listed in which various models have been proposed, which suggested an international oversight of ICANN instead of the current American supervision, the U.S. has stated its position on Internet Governance.

World Summit in Tunis ( 2005)

In the negotiations in the three days before the second part of the World Summit no real agreement on the future design of Internet governance could be found. As before, there were the advocates of the status quo on the one hand and those countries that demanded more say and participation rights under a UN organization. As in Geneva, they avoided a failure of the summit by the fact that it was agreed at the last minute on a compromise.

Internet Governance Forum

In addition to the institutions, rules and mechanisms already existing there recently, another body: by a decision of a so-called WSIS Internet Governance Forum ( IGF ) was created, which was convened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations formally in June 2006. Discuss in this forum - as part of a multi-stakeholder approach - interest representatives of states, international organizations, private sector and civil society on a variety of problem areas of the Internet and its potential Verregelungen. The IGF accordance with its mandate, however, only the function of a forum and does not have a decision-making power.

First Consultations on Internet Governance Forum took place from 16th - 17th February and from 15th to 19th May be held at the UN in Geneva under the leadership of Nitin Desai ( Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General for Internet Governance ) and the Swiss Markus Kummer, 2006.

After the first meeting in Athens from 30 October to 2 November 2006, the Brazilian government has agreed to host the second IGF from 12 to 15 November in Rio de Janeiro. The other IGFs found in India (2008 ), Egypt (2009 ) and Lithuania ( 2010) instead.

The preparations of the Forum monitors an international advisory board ( Advisory Group ), consisting of representatives of the various stakeholders; the co-chairmanship have Nitin Desai and the Brazilian diplomat Hadil da Rocha Vianna. The actual organization of forums done a secretariat in Geneva, headed by Markus Kummer.

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