The Stakeholder Consultation on Public Participation in Internet Governance discussed the results of the exploratory research into a “Code of good practice on public participation, access to information and transparency in Internet governance”, undertaken through a trilateral initiative of the Council of Europe, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), initiated at the second Internet Governance Forum (November 2007).
The aim of the proposed “Code of good practice on public participation, access to information and transparency in Internet governance” would be to enable all the institutions which play a role in some aspect of governing the Internet to commit to ensuring transparency, public participation (of all stakeholders) and access to information in Internet Governance.
The objective of the consultation was to consider the purpose and scope of the proposed instrument and to discuss with panellists and participants its possible opportunities, limitations and risks. Related initiatives in the field of Internet governance, such as UN Working Group on Internet Governance and International Telecommunication Union consultation on public participation in ITU processes, were discussed and analysed in respect of their compatibility or complementarity with the proposed instrument.
The consultation also aimed to identify other interested stakeholders from different stakeholder groups with a view to associating them with the initiative. A representative from the UN Economic Commission for Africa announced that the initiative would be considered at the African Regional Meeting on follow up to WSIS in November 2008.
The consultation laid the groundwork for a proposed workshop to be held at the third Internet Governance Forum, in Hyderabad, India, from 3-6 December 2008.
Read the Report of the conference “Towards a code of good practice building on the principles of WSIS and the Aarhus Convention”.
Click here for a list of speakers and discussants.
Participants attending the session were invited to intervene during the discussion, which following the presentations and discussants' interventions took the form of an open dialogue.
For background to the initiative, see the Council of Europe press release of 13 November 2007, report of the Council of Europe/UNECE/APC Best Practice Forum to the Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro, publication “Encouraging Implementation of the WSIS Principles” by William J. Drake and “Exploratory Report on...a Code of Good Practice” by David Souter.
Stakeholder consultation and background documents
Report of the consultation “Towards a code of good practice building on the principles of WSIS and the Aarhus Convention”
List of participants
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Information note on Stakeholder consultation on public participation in Internet governance (23 May 2008, Geneva)
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Council of Europe press release (dated 22 May 2008) announcing the stakeholder consultation
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Exploratory Report on the Concept and Possible Scope of a Code of Good Practice on Participation, Access to Information and Transparency in Internet Governance - Discussion paper for the Skakeholder Consultation on Internet Governance, 23 May 2008, Geneva
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Report of the IGF-2 Best Practice Forum (13 November 2007, Rio de Janeiro)
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Council of Europe/APC press release (13 November 2007)
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"Encouraging Implementation of the WSIS Principles" by William J. Drake, from The Power of Ideas: Internet Governance in a Global Multi-stakeholder Environment, Wolfgang Kleinwächter (Ed.), with a foreward by Nitin Desai, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Internet Governance, (Berlin, Marketing für Deutschland GmbH, pp. 271-280).
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