General Assembly s overall review of the implementation of WSIS outcomes. Official Form for Written Submissions

Transcription

1 General Assembly s overall review of the implementation of WSIS outcomes Official Form for Written Submissions A. Your Information Title: Ambassador First name: David Last name: Gross Name of Organization: Internet Governance Coalition Stakeholder Type 1 : Private Sector Country: United States dgross@wileyrein.com B. Formal Input Some guiding questions for your submissions are listed below: 1. To what extent has progress been made on the vision of the people-centred, inclusive and developmentoriented Information Society in the ten years since the WSIS? 2. What are the challenges to the implementation of WSIS outcomes? 3. What should be the priorities in seeking to achieve WSIS outcomes and progress towards the Information Society, taking into account emerging trends? 4. What are general expectations from the WSIS + 10 High Level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly? 5. What shape should the outcome document take? CONTRIBUTION OF THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE COALITION The Internet Governance Coalition is pleased to submit this written contribution to the Overall Review of the Implementation of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Outcomes by the United Nations General Assembly. 1 When specifying your stakeholder type, please indicate one of the following: Government, Civil Society, Private Sector, Academia, and Technical Sector. 1

2 The Internet Governance Coalition is an industry association with broad representation from the information and communications technology industry, including 21st Century Fox, Inc., Amazon, AT&T, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Comcast NBCUniversal, Facebook, GoDaddy, Google Inc., Juniper Networks, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Telefónica, S.A., The Walt Disney Company, Time Warner Cable Inc., and Verizon Communications Inc. As a group of international companies whose businesses increasingly are based upon the Internet and have global footprints, the Internet Governance Coalition has seen first-hand the successes of the Internet s bottom-up multistakeholder model, rooted in the 2003 Geneva Declaration and Plan of Action and the 2005 Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, for improving people s lives around the world. The Internet Governance Coalition was accredited to the WSIS Forum in 2013 and The two phases of the WSIS in 2003 and 2005 and the outstanding success of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) have materially contributed to positive Internet-driven economic, social, and political developments during the past two decades. But, as always, there is much more that should be done to benefit everyone, especially for those living in the developing world and those not yet connected to the Internet. The Internet Governance Coalition appreciates this opportunity to propose positive outcomes that can be accomplished by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) through this ten-year review. The UNGA should take this historic opportunity to recognize the progress made since the WSIS; to support continuation of the policies that have been so successful to date; to strengthen efforts to use the Internet and technology to benefit sustainable economic development; to ensure that all relevant stakeholders have a meaningful opportunity to participate in the WSIS process; to endorse the successful, bottom-up, multistakeholder model of Internet governance; and to renew the IGF mandate. In preparation for the NETmundial meeting hosted last year in Brazil, the Internet Governance Coalition developed its vision of sustaining principles for Internet governance, rooted in, for example, paragraphs 55, 56, 89 and 108 of the 2005 Tunis Agenda, which we believe continue to be relevant today. The Internet Governance Coalition believes the world benefits by having the current Internet governance structure that is open, transparent, and representative of all stakeholders. The multistakeholder approach regarding the Internet s technical functions has allowed the creation of a decentralized system that has resulted in historically profound economic, social, and political benefits. This decentralization has enabled individuals to access information and services, to connect to each other, and to share ideas and knowledge globally. By offering new possibilities for entrepreneurial creativity, the Internet has become a powerful engine for technological innovation, economic growth, and the preservation and promotion of cultural diversity (including through creation of locally relevant content often in local languages), especially in the developing world. The Internet Governance Coalition believes this model, strengthened as necessary, will continue to best serve these shared goals far into the future. We all governments, the private sector, civil society and others must join together to ensure a safe, secure, open, interoperable, and global Internet as the underlying foundation for sustainable economic development. This means promoting policies that stimulate continued investment in, deployment of, and access to Internet networks and the industries and services that create demand for those networks. It also means continuing to support capacity building and assistance on implementation of network security best practices. Policies must support opening and maintaining international markets allowing the seamless flow of legal

3 digital services, applications, products and information. Actions taken here should foster innovation and investment across Internet networks, services, and other sectors of the Internet ecosystem, including ensuring both the enhancement of human rights and the protection of intellectual property. These goals are best advanced through strengthened rule of law, which governments can advance greatly by establishing even-handedness and predictability in decision-making. Finally, the Internet Governance Coalition believes in increased and appropriate transparency and openness in intergovernmental organizations and multistakeholder mechanisms, to ensure that all stakeholders can participate meaningfully in key Internet policy discussions. The quality of Internet governance decisions increases when diverse stakeholders choose to actively and consistently participate. Against this backdrop, the Internet Governance Coalition submits that the final outcome document of this review process (Outcome Document) should re-affirm these basic principles. Indeed, when taking stock of the tremendous progress in the ten years since 2005 as reflected in the Commission on Science and Technology for Development s (CSTD) ten-year report on Implementing WSIS Outcomes (6 May 2015), the International Telecommunication Union s (ITU) WSIS+10 High Level Event Outcome Document (June 2014), the Report of the Secretary General of Progress made in the implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society at the regional and international levels (23 Jan. 2015), UNESCO s review of action implementing the WSIS outcomes, Building Inclusive Knowledge Societies (2014), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization s (UNESCO) Connecting the Dots: Options for Future Action (2015), the WSIS Forum 2015 Outcome Document, the WSIS-SDG Matrix, as well as elsewhere the UNGA should take pride in having helped to create a climate for remarkable global progress through these important WSIS principles. Fundamental technological and societal transformations have taken place since 2005, and most of these changes have made people s lives better. The world has been connected: via submarine cables, and continental and national networks; by the proliferation of mobile broadband; and by lower-cost satellites coming closer to the vision of people around the globe connected to each other over a seamless, interoperable Internet. This connectivity has facilitated the explosive growth of the digital economy, with the benefits increasingly being felt in the developing world, with the explosion in crossborder transactions, mobile banking, local user-generated media, and multilingual applications and content. Internet innovation has changed the way we deliver traditional human services too, with developments in E-Government, E-Education, and E-Health having a positive impact on daily lives not just in the developed world, but in the developing world as well. As we move from taking stock to looking toward the future, the Outcome Document should reaffirm policies set forth in the Tunis Agenda which will sustain and accelerate progress experienced during the last ten years and promote further growth and opportunity around the world. That means 1) continuing to promote investment and innovation in, and access to, networks and services; 2) reinforcing policies supporting the seamless flow of information; 3) protecting, promoting and respecting human rights; 4) addressing privacy and security interests, without imposing unnecessary barriers to trade; and 5) redoubling our commitment to capacity building, training, and information exchange in developing countries. Merely reaffirming the status quo, however, is not enough. This WSIS+10 review process and the resulting Output Document should recognize that more effort is needed to ensure that all individuals

4 benefit fully from the Information Society. While the digital divide in access to ICTs has been shrinking, some crucial gaps remain, notably in areas of Internet access and adoption, and ability to take advantage of the full set of services and opportunities they enable. The UNGA should use the opportunity provided by the WSIS review to strengthen efforts to use the Internet and technology to benefit development in general, and the Sustainable Development Goals in particular. Specifically, the Outcome Document should recognize that ICTs have the potential to be a key enabler of development and to be a critical component of innovative development solutions in the post Development Agenda. The WSIS review process should seek opportunities to lower artificial barriers that prevent individuals and others from participating and sharing fully in the benefits of the information society. In doing so, the WSIS review can help unlock new and innovative opportunities for the public and private sectors to work together to further bridge the digital divide. Collectively, governments, the private sector, civil society, intergovernmental organizations, and others should collaborate during this WSIS review process to discuss and formulate new opportunities to encourage the deployment and use of the Internet and new technologies for the betterment of people living everywhere. This should include the establishment of an enabling environment for increased creation of local language content available on the Internet, the encouragement of sustainable infrastructure, especially in rural and remote areas, the reduction in artificial barriers for access to the global Internet, and working to increase security regarding Internet activities. To ensure the success of the WSIS+10 review process, it is critical that it consider the views of all relevant stakeholders at all stages of the review. Indeed, much of the progress made in leveraging ICTs for development during the past decade is the result of all stakeholders working together. Moreover, WSIS+10 review events to date have reflected the viewpoints of many different stakeholders. The CSTD ten-year report, the ITU s WSIS+10 High Level Event, and the UNESCO WSIS+10 Review Event all included non-government stakeholders. The UNGA should take advantage of the knowledge and experience of the stakeholders that have been involved in advancing the WSIS Action Lines since Tunis in all of these relevant forums and elsewhere and ensure that their voices also are taken into account by governments as they negotiate the final Outcome Document. Finally, a key priority of the Internet Governance Coalition as well as many others is the renewal of the mandate of the IGF. Providing a platform for all stakeholders to interact on an equal footing, the creation of the IGF is one of the most significant, positive outcomes of WSIS, and is a tangible recognition of the value of multistakeholder cooperation. Indeed, its impressively large and growing number of participants and the increasing diversity of topics addressed illustrate the IGF's great value that is well understood by governments, industry, academics, technological innovators, and by the Internet community. The success of the IGF is confirmed by its growing scope, both in the form of the numerous day zero and concurrent side events, which are themselves informative and successful, and by the more than thirty regional and national IGFs that have emerged around the world especially in developing world countries. The IGF also has an excellent record of strong support from host countries around the world, including, most recently Turkey in 2014 and soon Brazil in November of this year. And, as the CSTD recently reiterated (Draft Resolution, Assessment of the progress made in the implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society, at 6), when the IGF s mandate is renewed without significant change, and for a ten year period (as we strongly hope that it will), Mexico has offered

5 to host the 2016 event. As an event where anyone and everyone interested in the Internet can convene to exchange ideas, information, and best practices to identify challenges and emerging issues, and to help find solutions IGF has fulfilled the mandate set forth for it in paragraph 72 of the Tunis Agenda. As the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) noted (in its report to the ITU s WSIS+10 High Level Event on the implementation of Action Line C-11), [t]he IGF has embodied the multi-stakeholder model for Internet governance, responding to the Tunis Agenda. (10-Year WSIS Action Line C11 Facilitator's Report - Executive Summary (Document: WSIS+10/4/22)). The Internet Governance Coalition appreciates this opportunity to provide its input into the UNGA s review of the implementation of the WSIS outcomes. The Coalition looks forward to working with directly UNGA, along with other stakeholders, to ensure that the WSIS Review Process, including the December High Level Meeting, is a success.