Public Interest Groups Give Recommendations to ITU: Focus on Digital Divide, Avoid Internet Policy

Author: 
Coverage Type: 

Public Knowledge and other public interest organizations from around the world sent a list of eight recommendations to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and its Members meeting at the 2014 Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan, Korea.

The recommendations address issues varying from net neutrality and spectrum policy to the very role of the ITU itself in Internet Governance, where we have witnessed a disconcerting expansion of powers paired with a lack of transparency and multistakeholderism.

Carolina Rossini, Vice President for International Policy at Public Knowledge said: “In an era where a number of international organizations are opening up their processes and documents, ITU members still negotiate the future of the open internet behind closed doors where only governments and a select few can peek in. Civil society has done an excellent job reviewing both leaked and non-governmental group information to develop a comprehensive and important set of recommendations on issues that are core to creating and maintaining access to affordable, reliable ICTs infrastructure. Adopting these recommendations would help ensure that when the ITU interferes in internet policy, the organization does so in a multistakeholder fashion.”

Here's the recommendations:

  1. ITU transparency and participation. The ITU should update its own procedures, improving transparency and allowing greater scope for participation of civil society and other actors in its deliberations – including by making all documents publicly available on the ITU website, with the exception of cases in which disclosure would cause potential harm to a legitimate private or public interest.
  2. ITU role in internet governance. The ITU should work with other actors to contribute to furthering multistakeholder internet governance, rather than attempting to take on new responsibilities for the development of international internet public policy. The ITU should not seek a role in the development of policies on core Internet resources such as domain name and addresses. The ITU should continue to focus on ever more important core issues such as access, infrastructure and related capacity building.
  3. ITU and the WSIS. The ITU along with other relevant agencies such as UNESCO and stakeholders around the globe should work in a multistakeholder manner consistent with the WSIS+10 review MPP in implementing the WSIS High Level Event outcomes. The ITU should work towards ensuring that the modalities for the WSIS+10 review in 2015 are similarly open, transparent and inclusive.
  4. ICTs in the post-2015 development agenda. The Plenipotentiary should express strong support for ambitious and measurable commitments in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to build an inclusive information society. The role of ICTs in achieving the SDGs is generally recognized but reference to ICTs in the SDGs themselves is minimal and the ITU, along with other UN agencies, should address this deficiency.
  5. Capacity-building. The ITU should enhance the provision of capacity-building support to developing countries through ITU-D, ITU-T and ITU-R, in their respective roles and through collaboration, whilst also ensuring that these efforts are coordinated with those of standard-setting and other bodies that do similar or associated work.
  6. Cybersecurity. Although concerns about strengthening cybersecurity are legitimate and important, it is premature to instruct the ITU to begin discussions on developing a global cyber-security treaty, given the lack of consensus on key issues, including what constitutes the use of force in cyberspace and how to govern activity which falls short of that threshold, as well as the organisation’s currently lack of transparency and openness. Further multistakeholder discussion should be encouraged.
  7. International interconnection and net neutrality. The ITU should not attempt to address access and infrastructure issues in developing countries through policy and regulatory changes to global peering and interconnection, but encourage IXPs, infrastructure build-out, local content development and enabling environments that promote investment and competition.
  8. Spectrum. The Plenipotentiary should assign a high priority to the development and implementation of global standards for dynamic spectrum access, which should be a central outcome of the World Radio Conference in 2015;
  9. Counterfeit devices. The ITU should ensure that whilst addressing counterfeit devices, end-user connectivity should not be limited.

Public Interest Groups Give Recommendations to ITU: Focus on Digital Divide, Avoid Internet Policy