Tunis, November
16, 2005. The north African capital is a little busier than usual, and
no wonder. In addition to its more than 700,000 inhabitants, some
19,000 travelers are pouring into the city, looking for something other
than the countless palaces, mosques, and fountains the UNESCO World
Heritage site has to offer. They are not tourists, but heads of state,
Vice Presidents, Ministers, and Deputy Ministers from 174 countries, as
well as high-level representatives from international organizations,
the private sector, and civil society - delegates and observers making
a pilgrimage to the second phase of the UN's World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS).
Rendering possible the impossible
Given
the state of negotiations at the end of the suspended Preparatory
Committee meetings (PrepComs) at the first phase of the December 2003
Summit in Geneva [for more details on the first phase of WSIS see
article in bridges vol. 6: "Internet Governance - Squaring the Circle "]
a revolutionary outcome regarding the question of Internet governance
seemed rather unlikely when the delegations arrived in Tunis. However,
during the resumed PrepCom-3 meetings, Mr. Nitin Desai, special WSIS
advisor to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, came up with a first draft. It was based on a
ten-point list of commonalities of the delegations' propositions,
itemized by the special working group under the oversight of the
Canadian delegation that Desai had entrusted with this task.
The Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) was set up to pursue the dialogue on Internet Governance after the Geneva phase of WSIS, with a view to preparing the ground for a decision in Tunis. Although their report suggested four governance models, none of these was adopted - not even the one called "no change." The EU's proposal of a new public-private governance model, brought forward in an attempt to mediate between the US and developing countries (led by Iran, Brazil, and India) was equally doomed to failure owing to strong US opposition. Only the separate WGIG recommendation of an Internet Governance Forum (IGF ), taken up by the EU in its proposal, was adopted by consensus and is already being implemented.
The outcome of the second phase of WSIS is documented in the Tunis Commitment and the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society . As vague as its wording might otherwise be, Articles 72-78 of the Agenda leave no doubt that the forum is a purely consultative body with no oversight function, and that it will not replace existing arrangements. On first sight, this is as radical as the outcome of WSIS gets: The supervision of domain names and other technical resources was left unchanged - that is in the hands of the US. However, closer inspection reveals that a process has started which in some ways breaks with the traditions of multilateral negotiations and - if successful - could in many ways serve as a role model.
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Tunis, November
16, 2005. The north African capital is a little busier than usual, and
no wonder. In addition to its more than 700,000 inhabitants, some
19,000 travelers are pouring into the city, looking for something other
than the countless palaces, mosques, and fountains the UNESCO World
Heritage site has to offer. They are not tourists, but heads of state,
Vice Presidents, Ministers, and Deputy Ministers from 174 countries, as
well as high-level representatives from international organizations,
the private sector, and civil society - delegates and observers making
a pilgrimage to the second phase of the UN's World Summit on the
Information Society (