Submitted Proposals


Organization: Council of Europe
Title :
26. Towards a code of good practice on public participation in Internet governance - Building on the principles of WSIS and the Aarhus Convention
Agenda of the Meeting


Discussing the proposal for a “Code of good practice on public participation, access to information and transparency in Internet governance”. 

Discussion document for the workshop:

http://www.coe.int/t/e/integrated_projects/democracy/02_Activities/04_W.S.I.S/Hyderabad%20PPIG%20discussion%20paper%20PDF-%20final%2027%2011%2008.pdf

 At the second IGF in Rio, the Good Practice Forum on “Public Participation in Internet Governance” issue attracted about 100 participants. In the meantime, exploratory research has been carried out which was presented and discussed at a stakeholder consultation meeting organised in Geneva on 23 May during the cluster of WSIS-related events 2008. The aim of the workshop is to present a concrete proposal for the envisaged Code of Good Practice, taking into account the principles of WSIS and of existing international instruments on governance such as the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention). The theme is deemed to be relevant for the IGF, in particular with regard to the sub-theme on ‘Internet Governance Arrangements’, one of the main sessions’ themes of IGF 3 in December 2008. As to the relevance of the initiative to the mandate of IGF, cf. question 6 below.

Panelists


Opening by Ms Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Deputy Secretary General, Council of Europe
(video message)

Chair: Ms Anriette Esterhuysen, APC

Introduction
1. Mr William Drake, Centre for International Governance, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Geneva
2. Prof. David Souter, UK (Consultant expert)

Interactive discussion 
1. Mr Bill Graham, ISOC
2. Mr Thomas Schneider, OFCOM, Switzerland
3. Ms Theresa Swinehart, ICANN
4. Mr Paul Wilson, Number Resource Organisation (NRO)
Closing remaks by Mr Hans Hansell, UNECE 
Co-Organizers

Intergovernmental Organisations: Council of Europe, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Civil Society: Association for Progressive Communications (APC). The three above-mentioned organisations organised a stakeholder consultation meeting on 23 May 2008 at Geneva, at which the result of the exploratory research into the initiative was presented. Another key objective of that meeting was to identify other interested stakeholders from different stakeholder groups with a view to associating them with the initiative in general and the proposed workshop in particular. Speakers at the proposed workshop will include representatives of business, civil society, academia and international organisations, seeking to take into account geographical diversity and gender balance.