The Potential Role of the Internet Governance Forum Presented at the APIA and ISOC-AU Open Forum by Jeremy Malcolm 28 February 2006

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?

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.

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

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

The IGF so far ➲ Preliminary meeting on 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)

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

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)

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

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

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

Questions? ➲ ➲ Other resources: ➲ ➲ ➲ ➲