There’s no consensus to open up Internet-related public policy discussions...

There’s no consensus to open up Internet-related public policy discussions to all stakeholders at the ITU. After presentation of a proposal from the Swedish delegation at this week’s ITU Council meeting in Geneva, an ad hoc group had to be established to try to forge consensus before the end of the meeting July 13. Sweden’s proposal recommends the inclusion of all stakeholders as observers to the meetings of the ITU Council Working Group on international Internet-related public policy issues, particularly open and face-to-face consultations with all the stakeholders and open access to all related documents. While the Swedish proposal is supported by the U.S., European countries, Brazil, Japan and other ITU member states, the Arab states, China, Russia and some African countries favor online consultations with stakeholders only. ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Touré had asked member nations during their first half week of deliberations to work against a growing perception that ITU’s membership was becoming somewhat “polarized on a number of key issues.” He was very keen, he said, “to see us avoid entering into some kind of new cold war, which would be absolutely unnecessary.” A proposal by Indonesia (CD June 28 p11) on a potential new convention on cybersecurity was noted at the meeting, with many countries asking for clarification before concrete steps could be taken.