Transcript - 15 May- Morning | Internet Governance Forum

IGF Open Consultations

Tuesday, 15 may 2012

Geneva, Switzerland

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The following is the output of the real-time captioning taken during the Open Consultations of the IGF, in Geneva. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the session, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

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>>CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Can we please sit down?

All right. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the second open consultations for the Baku -- IGF Baku meeting 2012. I will hand it over to Vyatcheslav Cherkasov, who will -- from UNDESA.

>>VYATCHESLAV CHERKASOV: Okay. Chengetai, thank you very much. Your Excellencies, Honorable MAG Experts, Distinguished Experts, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The theme of the IGF 2012 is "Internet Governance for Sustainable Human, Economic, and Social Development." The Internet has transformed the world we live in. This year's forum will continue capturing the Internet as a medium for the positive change in human development.

Our meeting this week will focus on the overview of the workshop proposals that we received, and open discussion of the workshops grouped by the themes.

We have a great opportunity to consider the development dimensions of the Internet governance and ICT generally. The multistakeholder process of the Internet Governance Forum continues to reflect the growing maturity in the governance process. Through this multistakeholder process, we are able to demonstrate leadership, a leadership that is based on informing and including all the stakeholders in defining our options and debating the choices on an equal footing.

As we're all aware, the Under-Secretary-General for economic and social affairs has the honor to be the Secretary-General of the forthcoming U.N. conference on sustainable development, also known as Rio+20. Our intention for the Rio+20 is to ensure a renewed political commitment to the sustainable development and that we will assess the process to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation and address new emerging opportunities and challenges.

It's into the Rio+20 process that the IGF can make a significant contribution.

We know that Internet governance and the spread of the IGF in ICTs offer both opportunities and also create challenges for development. Today this is a great expectation that the next three days will offer stimulating debate around these challenges and opportunities.

As we discuss the main theme for the IGF 2012, we'll be focused on access and diversity, emerging issues, Internet governance for development, security, openness and privacy, and critical Internet resources.

It has been proposed approximately over 100 workshops to be organized during the IGF 2012. We know that more and better information can bring public value and great transparency in public life. More information freely available enriches people's lives and contributes to better governance, but we also know that digital literacy is a key element in ensuring that better information leads to a more inclusive society and helping all in realizing the development potentials offered by the Internet.

We have been afforded the opportunity to continue our discussion over these days in which the Internet is used and the appropriate governance mechanisms for it.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the previous and current MAG members for their generosity and dedication.

Also so that you might be aware, we have 33 new members of the total 56 members of MAG who have joined the dynamic and well-balanced multistakeholder group representing governments, civil society, private sector, geographical, and gender representation.

I wish you all well in your multistakeholder discussions over the next few days, and lastly, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to the international donor community to provide the financial support to the IGF project that allowed it to fund 11 members of MAG from the developing countries to attend this MAG meeting.

I hope that the donor community will continue and increase its financial support of the IGF project to secure the implementation of the United Nations Resolution 65-141 for the future years of the IGF which puts this in line with the general IGF and WSIS review which will take place in the 2015.

In accordance with the custom of the meeting, now I have the honor to invite Mr. Valizada to assume the chairman of the meeting. Mr. Valizada, you have the floor.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Thank you, Mr. Cherkasov. Thank you.

Chengetai, secretariat, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the second round of open consultation in preparation of the IGF 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Our first round of consultation, which took place in February, was a great success, and I am sure that our discussion today will continue in that vein.

In addition to everyone who joined us at the first session in February, I would like to also welcome all delegates who join us today who are also participating in WSIS process this week here at the ILO.

Today, like always, we have remote participants -- participation and captioning.

The working language of the meeting will be English. According to my information, we have translation here into six languages and we can use this facility.

It is again a great honor for me to chair this meeting again, and I am certain that we will continue to make great progress in charting the structure of the IGF meeting in Baku, and the issues it will deal with.

Our agenda today is full, and I hope that you can visually agree to the proposed agenda. I am hoping for progressive and final discussions and will make sure that all stakeholders are actively involved in the -- in the debate.

Let us strive today to build upon the progress made in our first session in February. During that session, the main themes and the portions which will inform each main session which our base theme were decided on.

The main role of this consultation is to discuss the workshops that will take place in Baku that will inform and sometimes feed directly into the May session.

The discussions today will inform the MAG meeting that takes place over the next two days. This will be the first MAG meeting for each new membership group, and we are pleased to welcome many of these new members here today.

Without further ado, if you have some comment to our agenda, please. Please.

>>ROBERT GUERRA: This is Robert Guerra from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. One thing that I would like to either add to the agenda or to be discussed is an update on the preparations for the IGF in Baku in regards to logistics, the venue, and other issues. We all want a successful meeting, but the scarcity of details is proving to be a problem by many, and I will have some follow-up questions as well in regards to that as well.

But an update on the meeting itself would be much appreciated. Thank you.

>>CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, Robert. We are going to have an update. I'll give an update on the secretariat's point of view, and a person from the host country is going to give an update on the preparation just now, in about two minutes.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Okay. Please.

>>CONSTANCE BOMMELAER: Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. I'm Constance Bommelaer from the Internet Society, and I -- before we dive into the different issues for the preparations for Baku, I wanted to make sure everyone was aware that we're hosting a reception at the end of today's meeting, from 6:00 to 8:00, at the ILO cafeteria, and you're absolutely all welcome to join us today.

So looking forward to seeing you after a good day of discussions. Thank you.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Thank you for your invitation. Okay. Any other persons?

Okay. Thank you. I think you agree with this agenda, and if you agree, I will adopt this agenda and proceed to ask IGF secretariat to give us an update on overall program and proposed (indiscernible) since February meeting.

>>CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Before I start, I --

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: You have some question?

>> (Speaking in a non-English language.)

[Scribes are not receiving English translation]

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Okay. Thank you for your questions, and our delegation, the delegation from Azerbaijan, will inform you about some logistic and preparation in Azerbaijan, and maybe in the future we can consider this question which is raised by you. Okay. Thank you.

Please, Chengetai.

>>CHENGETAI MASANGO: All right. Thank you very much.

Just a few notes. I think you've all got the -- how we ask questions. If you want to attract the attention of the chair, you just raise your hand or raise your nameplate and you'll be called in the order that you raised your name or your hand.

When you speak, of course, can you please say your name, and if you are with an organization or representing an organization, the organization's name as well.

As you know, we have interpretation in all six U.N. languages, so feel free to speak any of those. And this will be just for today and not for the next two days but just for today.

There is some questions about the power. Unfortunately, we cannot provide power for everybody because this building, as you know, was built before laptops became popular and if you have power cords around, they become a health hazard, and in case there's a fire, people are stripping over it, so security-wise and liability-wise, the United Nations cannot provide power strips across.

But as you know, most of the rooms in the IGF meeting halls are being updated with power at the desks, so if you can bear with us, that will be very good.

And -- well, the Internet is a finicky thing, so...

[ Laughter ]

>> (Speaker is off microphone.)

>>CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes. Thank you. Okay. So updates since the last meeting.

At the end of the last meeting, the MAG proposed the main theme to be "Internet Governance for Sustainable Human, Economic, and Social Development."

The MAG also decided to keep the six main themes that we've had for the last couple of years, and these are: Access and diversity; emerging issues; Internet governance for development; managing critical Internet resources; security, openness and privacy; taking stock; and the way forward.

At the end of the MAG meeting in February, the MAG formed thematic working groups, and worked online to come up with six questions -- or six or more questions to attach to each of these themes, and this is what the main themes are going to be based on. And also, it was also envisioned that workshops who want to be feeder workshops to these main themes would also arrange their topics around these questions and answer these questions.

This was done, and then at the beginning of March, it was handed over to the secretariat and the secretariat published a call for workshop proposals.

To help workshop organizers find panelists, because this is always a major problem, especially with the requirements which are stated in the program paper, and were also published on the Web site in the workshop proposal form, for multistakeholder representation and geographical representation, the IGF secretariat published also a call for resource people to register with the secretariat and state the area of expertise and stakeholder group.

To date, we've received 47 registrations on that, and if anybody here -- it's still open. The registration process is still open. If anybody here would like to offer themselves to be picked as a panelist to these workshops, please just go to our Web site and register yourself and tell us a bit about your expertise and what kind of issues you would like to deal with.

We also set the deadline of 6th of May for dynamic coalitions to ask for workshop space -- I mean, for room space, and open forums, the deadline would be -- is 30th June, so that is still open.

On a somewhat related note, the IGF secretariat is currently soliciting comments for the renewal of the IGF Web site. We plan to redesign it. And these comments can be posted on the IGF discussion space. If you just go to the IGF front page and you look on the right, there's the IGF discussion space. We would appreciate any comments that you have to further improve the service that we are giving the stakeholders.

Now, as far as the host country's preparations are going, they're going on target.

During the last meeting, the MAG and also in open consultations there was some concerns expressed concerning the venue because originally the venue was in three adjacent buildings but there was some concern about that, and the host country listened to these concerns and a new alternative venue has been selected and I think we're going to hear about that just now.

And after this, I will come back to the workshops and give an analysis of the workshops we have received and also a breakdown of -- and also ask you some questions on how we're going to deal with these workshops.

Thank you very much, Chair.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Okay. Thank you, Chengetai.

This is brief information, and now I want to invite a member of the Azerbaijan delegation to inform you about the preparation process in Baku.

This is Nariman Hajiyev. This is head of special project which established by UNDP and Azerbaijan government in Azerbaijan, and he will inform you about preparations. Please.

>>NARIMAN HAJIYEV: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving me the floor.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

I would like also to congratulate the new MAG members. Welcome on board.

Now I would like to update on organizational issues. As all of us know, the them of the IGF Baku is "Internet Governance for Sustainable Human, Economic, and Social Development," and all of us are aware that it will be November from 6 till 9, and please also be informed that on 5th of November there will be a ministerial meeting.

Now I will give you, for the new members, a little information on Baku.

Baku is the capital and largest city of the republic of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian sea of the Caucasus region. Baku is also the main industrial center in the region. It is a place for different cultures and religions.

The population is about 9 million. The capital, as I have already mentioned, is Baku. The time zone is GMT plus 4 hours. The national currency is Azerbaijan new manat, and domain is dot az.

Plug type is the standard European type, and the electricity current is voltages 2000 voltage.

As Chengetai has already mentioned, the venue is Baku Expo Center. Let me say the main sessions and all the workshops and all sessions will be at this venue.

This is the -- I will give you a little snapshot, small video, on the meeting venues later, and this is the pictures from the meeting venue.

Regarding the accommodations. We researched the -- all, let me say, star characteristics of the hotels, including the guest houses, and now as you may know, we have already launched the Web site, IGF2011.az, and you will find all informative information regarding the event, and in the section of accommodations, you will find the hotels.

There are indeed two types of hotel. All hotels with reduced event corporate rates and without 18% VAT.

There will be -- there are 46 hotels that will be provided with the shuttles, and the 17 hotels will be without the shuttles, but both of them are, as I have already mentioned, with the reduced event corporate rate and without 18% of the VAT.

And this is the shuttles for the participants.

Now, we are -- these shuttles will be used during the Eurovision Sing Contest at the let me say end of May, this month, and we'll use this type of cars for the shuttles.

And this is the transportation services for the persons with limited capabilities, and if you remember, I have already noted in my previous, let me say, speech during the first MAG meeting we will highly appreciate before -- if we will beforehand receive requests for this type of transport during the registration, in order to, let me say, organize this type of the cars for the persons with limited capabilities.

And regarding the logistical issues, we are now dealing with the issues of visas.

And now flight connections. We have many flight connections, for example, from London, from Doha, from Istanbul, Dubai, Milan, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Prague and et cetera.

And regarding the shipping of the meeting materials, we have already placed the company on the Web site. The company will deal with the shipping of the materials without the customs clearance.

As I have already mentioned, the meeting venue has easy access for the persons with limited capabilities, and from the lessons learned of the previous IGF host countries, we decided to organize a meeting venue with enough space for the cybercafe and access to the printing services.

And we have already included enough number of the meeting rooms, and also taken into account technical and logistical facilities for remote participation. Now I would like to show the video on the venue.

(Video).

>>NARIMAN HAJIYEV: We are waiting for the lights.

Okay. We can go ahead, please.

(Echoing).

(Video).

>>NARIMAN HAJIYEV: Okay. I will give you information on the video. As soon as you enter the venue from the shuttles, on the right hand, there will be IGF village. And on the left hand, there will be a registration desk. And then you will go ahead from the corridor. On the left hand, there will be two big halls which divide the meeting rooms and the workshop rooms.

On the second hall, there will be a main session hall. And then both of the halls will be divided for the meeting rooms and for the workshops, at least each of the workshops will consist -- will accommodate 100 people or more. That's all.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Thank you. Thank you for your information. If you have some comment and questions, please ask. Yeah, please.

>>BERTRAND DE LA CHAPELLE: Good morning, my name is Bertrand de La Chapelle. It is just a small remark on the movie. There is an interesting Freudian slip, I would say, that says "Internet Government Forum" on the thing. It is actually not the "Internet Government Forum." Thank you.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Thank you. Thank you for your comment.

Please.

>> Thank you. Vladimir Radunovic from DiploFoundation. Remembering the venue we had in Lithuania, which was, I think -- and you can correct me -- of the same form as this one, which is basically a big space divided into small spaces, there was quite a problem with noise coming from the other rooms. So that's -- I don't know if you can work to improve that. Probably not much but we should just be aware that it might be a problem again if there is a big space divided into couple of smaller ones. Thank you.

>>NARIMAN HAJIYEV: Thank you for the question. Regarding this issue, we have already taken into account the -- let me say the IGF. And we discussed with the technical staff as well. That's why, first of all, we would like to bring you notice that every second room will be for the workshops. But as there will be no dynamic in the rooms, all translations, all the systems will go only to the headphones and that's why there will be no voice conflict between the workshops.

>> IZUMI AIZU: Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Izumi Aizu, and I am a new member of the MAG and have been the co-coordinator of the civil society and Internet Governance Caucus.

Just one point with -- one of our members of the civil society caucus really raised a point, that it is imperative that all location venues, transport, et cetera, should be accessible and usable fully for the persons with the disabilities. I hope that the local host will work together for those who have disabilities, very much easy to participate as easy as we are. Thank you very much.

>>NARIMAN HAJIYEV: Thank you, Izumi, for the question. Indeed, from the very beginning of the process, we pay big attention to this issue. And that's why from the -- starting from the transportation to the end of the mission -- I mean, until the end of the event, we will provide full assistance for the person with limited capabilities and starting from the car.

And as I mentioned in my previous, let me say, meeting, each limited capability person will be accompanied by one person for any kind of assistance. And the venue has already -- will have taken into account all steps for ease of access for persons with limited capability.

>> MERVI KULTAMAA: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. For this update. I'm also a new member of the MAG. My name is Mervi Kultamaa. (Static on the line.)

I come from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs from Finland. I would like to address the issue of ministerial events and, in that respect ask, who gets to be invited. Do you target certain ministers? And are some others allowed to participate such as head of delegations, as I believe happened last year?

Do you already have an agenda for that event? And, finally, who are the organizers? Are there some co-organizers to the host country? Thank you.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Okay. I will try answer to your question. Yeah, according to our information, mostly we invited all ministers. But we can consider the possibility for inviting maybe (indiscernible) delegations. Thank you for the questions. We will consider this issue in preparation process.

Robert, please.

>>ROBERT GUERRA: Again, thank you. It is Robert Guerra from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. I, first, would like to thank the Secretariat and the new MAG for organizing this event and for the host country for presenting some additional details of the meeting.

Let me express some concerns that have been raised both to me personally and also to members of civil society in regards to the human rights situation in Azerbaijan and the issue of people from neighboring countries and other groups that typically cannot go to Azerbaijan. So I will get into more details.

First of all, in your description of the meeting, I have a couple of questions that I would like either some answers now or during the course of the next few days. In regards to the Internet that is available at the meeting, will it be under surveillance? Will it be under U.N. control? Will there be sufficient bandwidth?

We do not have -- we have Internet issues in this room and we've had in the past. For remotion participation, that is key.

One of the challenges and one of the issues that have been expressed to me from Internet users in Azerbaijan, given the intimidation tactics of the Azeri government, are fearful to come to the meeting and to be registered. So could the host country and the U.N. please make assurances that people who wish to attend the meeting from Azerbaijan and from abroad are not victims of repression for what they say at the meeting proper. Thank you.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Thank you for your question, Robert. I am the Deputy Minister of Communication. I will try to answer your question. And, firstly, about registration, according to my information, registration will be happening on the IGF forum, the Web site. This is not on our Web site, our national Web site. Therefore, any persons possibly are registrated in this Web site. After, this information will be provided to our to our Web site for visa and others.

About control and others, in Azerbaijan, there is possibility for free usage of Internet through technologies, wireless, mobile and other. And I think we have some restrictions and all persons that live and work in Azerbaijan and if you come to Azerbaijan, can be use these technologies in Azerbaijan. And such possibilities will be provided during IGF in Baku.

Peter Major.

>> PETER MAJOR: Thank you. I'm also a new member to the MAG and what I would like to say was already said mostly about accessibility.

(Audio too quiet.) (Indiscernible.)

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Thank you, Peter.

Judy, please.

>> JUDY OKITE: Thank you. Adding to the accessibility, my name is Judy Okite, new MAG member from Kenya.

Adding to the accessibility, if it would be possible for the host country to check out the hotel, the listed hotel and probably add whether this hotel is accessible for person with disability or not, so that when they are making their booking, then they are aware. Thank you.

>>NARIMAN HAJIYEV: Thank you for the question. Indeed, before putting on the Web site the hotels, our staff checked all the hotels. But, unfortunately, we didn't put the information -- this information on the Web site, but as soon as we will return back to the country, we'll update the hotels list with this issue as well. Okay. Thank you.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Thank you. Felix, please.

>> FELIX SAMAKANDE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Felix Samakande. I'm (indiscernible) with the Nation of Zimbabwe to the United Nations in New York. I'm one of the proud new members of the MAG.

My brief reaction to the video we just observed, we share broad recollections with the (indiscernible) experience ahead. In the plenary session, we had a bit of a dilemma where there is a clock counting down from 30 seconds. And at the same time, we are required to speak slowly for the benefit of the interpreters. I don't know if there is any way around this kind of problem. This is open for comment from the Baku delegation or the Secretariat. Thank you.

I also prepared a statement, but it is not for this forum. Maybe later. Thank you.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Thank you for your question. According to our information, translation will be provided only in the main session. In workshop, we will discuss in English and, therefore, we have possibility to provide some comment on other work without translation. And main session, the time of the main session will be appointed. I think we are having some problems with this issue. Thank you. Thank you for your question.

Please, yeah.

>> CONSTANCE BOMMELAER: Thank you, Chair. I would like to add to Mervi's question and ask if the ministerial on the 5th November will be open to CEOs from organizations from the civil society, business and the Internet technical and academic communities. Thank you.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Yeah. We're planning to invite the senior officers of big companies, according to my information. And when I participate in Kenya in this ministerial meeting, some senior officers from Ikon and others, Microsoft, and other companies, I think we will keep this tradition and we will invite. Thank you.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Ayesha Hassan, please.

>>AYESHA HASSAN: Thank you, Chair. Ayesha Hassan from the Internet Chamber of Commerce and its BASIS initiative. I just would like to follow up on the comments regarding the ministerial events. We were pleased to participate in the ministerial event held by the host country of Kenya last year before the IGF began. And we found that it was important -- an important opportunity for engaging and discussing among not only governments of ministers but governments and business and civil society and the technical community.

So as you consider how to shape the ministerial event, we would certainly emphasize that the exchange across stakeholder groups at that level was productive.

Just wanted to make one other comment and possibly it is a question. You've mentioned that you're working on the visa issues, and we greatly appreciate the exchanges we've had in the past month on that matter. We are reaching the summer months very quickly. So I just wanted to highlight that it would be really helpful for stakeholders to understand when you think you will have that visa process clarified and posted.

I know for many of us, the moment you hit September, the passport needs several different stamps in it and you can't keep your passport very long to have those things done, especially our colleagues from certain countries face more challenges than others.

So if you could give us a time frame, that would be very helpful. Thank you.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Okay. Thank you. I want to introduce our delegation from Azerbaijan. Today we have participating very big delegation. We are represented our Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies. This minister is responsible for the organization, this process.

And here, participate member from our (indiscernible), Presidential administration. And here participate member of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And we have representative from UNDP, which is involved in this process.

And now I will ask Ministry of Foreign Affairs to answer your question. Please.

>> AZERBAIJAN: Thank you, Chair. I have three points to make, one on the visa issues. I'm pleased to say that we are working within the government to facilitate the visa issuance and, first, giving the number of delegations that are expected to come and the importance of the event. We're trying to do our best to give the best treatment to our guests, and then especially on the issue of -- we are considering how to arrange visa issuance upon arrival to Baku.

And, again, it is forecasted it will take another month for us to finalize and to give clear details how we can arrange those issues. And this information will be communicated to all delegations in due course.

I would also like to bring some clarity to the issues raised by Robert, I guess. One is on the issue of participation of countries. I would like particularly to, please, highlight the government of Azerbaijan takes very seriously its responsibility of the host country. And we treat every single delegation in a non-discriminatory manner prior, during or after the event.

Participation of sovereign -- representatives of sovereign states or organizations, it's their decision. Respect the decision. And, as I said, please welcome every single guest (indiscernible).

If there is a choice of neighboring countries not to participate, that's, again, their sovereign choice. We do not restrict participation, nor do we prevent them.

Another issue that I would like also to bring some clarity is on the issue -- is the linkage between the event and allegations of freedom of expression and media.

Why there has been some cases -- we do not refuse them -- there are different cases with different circumstances. Freedom of expression and freedom of media are institutional norms in Azerbaijan. Government ensures the freedom and will continue to do so.

Every -- an incident taken out of context cannot be (indiscernible) represented or considered as a pressure on freedom of expression or media or confrontation between the government or media, as it is being presented or misrepresented by some media outlet. And it is very unfortunate that we are taking this time to address or furthermore to exaggerate the situation of freedom of media in Azerbaijan.

Individual cases should not be used to assess the overall situation with regard to the freedom of media in the country. I guess it is clear that emotional accents do not add credit to the authority of the organizations or representatives. Thank you very much, Chair.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Thank you. Ana Neves, please.

>> ANA NEVES: Thank you very much. Good morning. I have some questions about the ministerial meeting because I'm a bit confused. My first question is: What is the main objective of this ministerial? Because I'm not really understanding the main objective of the ministerial. My second question is: Which countries are going to be invited and which ministers?

Because in your country, you are the minister responsible for information society policy. But, for instance, in my country, it's not the Ministry of Telecom. We don't even have a Ministry of Telecom. It is the Minister for Economics that is the office of telecommunications but is not in charge of information society policy. So you have to check or double-check with the countries which is the right ministers to invite.

My third point is that we are in a multistakeholder environment. And even if this is a invite event, I think multistakeholderism cannot be put apart. And even if -- it was already mentioned that companies like Microsoft, et cetera, will be invited, well, I think that multistakeholderism is not only about big companies, it is about civil society, technical community, small companies.

And I think that we should think about it together. So in a nutshell, I just would like to better understand what is the purpose of the ministerial. Thank you.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Okay. Thank you. According to my information, first time, first time this ministerial meeting held in Kenya, Nairobi. And before this forum it did not happen at such event. And in Kenya, where I participate, we can discuss general issues related to IGF theme. The ministers had discussions on these topics and to this process. And I, too, involved in this process.

And Mr. Hamadoun Touré participated in this process, and representatives from UNESCO and other international organizations participated in this event.

And, personally, the aim of this meeting is to provide possibility to discuss the main topics of IGF between ministers and other persons which participate even.

And if we will involve all participants to this event, we have the same situation when we discuss these IGF issues. Therefore, ministerial, this is an event which discussed around -- between ministries, these issues -- issues of IGF. I think we will keep this tradition of Nairobi and try to organize such even in Baku.

If Chengetai had some comment, more he can provide.

And after, I will ask Azerbaijan delegation about invitation.

>>CHENGETAI MASANGO: As far as the ministerial is concerned, it is not an IGF event. So I won't comment on it. But I can ask the chair of last year's meeting to comment on her views of the value and use of the ministerial meeting.

>> ALICE MUNYUA: Thank you, Chengetai. I'm Alice Munyua from Kenya, the Kenyan representative. When we came up with the idea of having a high-level ministerial meeting, the objective was to engage as many high-level, you know, players, especially policymakers, as possible and to ensure that there was a multistakeholder dialogue around issues -- Internet governance issues that were local, Kenyan at that moment. Most of them actually ended up being the same issues at the global level.

The process itself -- the meeting itself was chaired by Kenya. It was our choice to invite the ITU to co-organize it and to chair it with us.

We had maybe, I think, about 30 ministers from all over the world and, you know, representatives from the private -- from industry -- the technical community and civil society.

Very valuable because the same ministers stayed on for the IGF meeting, and that was the original intention, to attract ministers -- yeah, to attract as many ministers as possible to attend the IGF. So the value-add was for the IGF, although it wasn't part of the IGF agenda.

In terms of the agenda, again, as I mentioned, it was also a bottom-up process with the Kenya IGF identifying the issues and then having those discussed at the regional level through the East African IGF and then the global level.

But if you would want more information in terms of how we organized it, I think we can do that bilaterally later. Thank you.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Thank you. Please, Azerbaijan delegation, about your experience on the invitation.

>>AZERBAIJAN: Thank you, Chair. And thank you, MAG members for gathering the questions. That's a specially important event to start with a good starting point before the IGF meeting will start discussing other topics.

There have been discussions how to model the ministerial meeting. We have some experience before starting with -- back with our exhibition with international conferences.

But we want to hear from the MAG members which model could (indiscernible) our plans.

But as you all know, all the countries of U.N. participated at the ITU, members. And the ITU has the least of ministries who is -- who are responsible for telecommunication, ICT, information society and development issues.

So we are in the negotiation with ITU to take at least from ITU databases and send invitation letters directly to those countries who participated in IGF process. To every country, we will send that letter of invitation.

According to -- involving private sector as well as civil society, that's a kind of new method. And, of course, we could invite giant ICT companies like Microsoft, Cisco, some others. But I heard there should not be differences between big companies and the small companies.

We couldn't reach small companies, and the level could be interesting. We could set a basket of invited companies, then we can submit invitation to that company who is interested in IGF process.

As well as civil society could be interesting. So we want to modernize and find best figure which could be useful from that point which topic could be discussed during this ministerial summit. But previously, during the discussions, we said might be Internet Governance Forum could give us the chance to discuss social, economic development aspects of the Internet development in the region, I mean in the EurAsian continent. I guess the ministers, companies will discuss Internet development issues, I mean, perspectives of that process. And it is government representatives including companies as well as civil society model could basically fit our desire to synchronize with IGF. And the Baku exhibition also will be dedictated to the Internet development issues as well as problems.

So the model is to take the lead from ITU. Together with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, we will reach all the countries' ministers. Might be in your country there is no direct ministry who is responsible for ICT. I do believe there is -- there should be Ministry of Economic Development or whatever who would be dealing with that issue.

So your country will be responsible and delegate your officials to that meeting. So I guess within two months or so we will take that information and we might be in the next time in September we will share with you. We don't have right now, but we will reach all the countries.

So within the government channel, we will reach all the countries who are the members of ITU and I guess ITU will be in a good location, a platform to help us in that process. Thank you very much.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Thank you. Wolfgang.

>>WOLFGANG KLEINWACHTER: Thank you very much. My name is Wolfgang Kleinwachter. I'm with the University of Aarhus and I was an advisor to the chair of the MAG for five years, but I'm not in the new MAG anymore.

My question goes to UNDESA. You know, when Nitin Desai and Markus Kummer stepped down more than one year ago, the expectation was that the two positions will be filled rather soon. Now we have already May 2012 and the two positions are not filled.

Can we expect that the two positions will be filled until the IGF in Baku or what is the latest developments in this respect?

Thank you very much.

>>VYATCHESLAV CHERKASOV: Thank you very much again for this question and I would like to verify so that the situation with the executive coordinator and the special advisor.

As you know, so that the post of the executive coordinator is going to be funded and it was funded originally from the IGF trust fund, which is based on the voluntary contribution from the donor community, and regrettably, due to the various -- I believe mainly due to this economic situation, so that the current status of the voluntary contribution cannot allow to proceed the recruitment of the executive coordinator.

As you might be aware, so that we actually initiate because DESA and the whole U.N. system is really eager and so that we're very much concerned about this uncertainty regarding the recruitment of the executive coordinator and the position and the whole process was initiated a year ago, immediately, once the new project document was approved. It was exactly a year ago. And we just received permission from the controller of the United Nations to initiate this process.

And we did and actually saw that we received roughly around like 90 applicants who just applied for the post of the executive coordinator.

On the other hand, so this trust fund project is governed by the rules and regulations approved by the member states. Neither by the governments or the -- who just put the rules and regulations for the United Nations to initiate the recruitment process of the personnel under the trust fund project.

So that we initiated the process of getting the applications. However, so that due to the financial balance of the project -- and unfortunately up till now -- so that we still have a strong negative balance in terms of the moving forward for the recruitment of the executive coordinator.

And actually, so that right now we also have a very transparent information about the financial status, and if you go to the IGF Web site so that you can see the balance between the project document, which is also open to anyone to see in terms of the required budget, and then contribution from the donor community.

So therefore, unfortunately as again we follow the rules and regulations of the system that has been introduced and was required for us to follow, we just cancelled the announcement and we just informed all respective candidates that due to the uncertainties and technical problems that they saw, that we're not able to continue the process of the recruitment at this stage.

With respect to the special advisor, again, so that I mentioned before so that this is the prerogative of the Secretary-General and so that we have no influence on the Secretary-General from the DESA perspective to force him to make this decision on the -- whatever the basis that he has.

So therefore, we just believe so that after he was reelected so the Secretary-General will have time, you know, to consider and to come back to this question and to start working on the process of the appointment of the successor of Mr. Desai. Thank you very much.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Thank you, Vyatcheslav. George, please.

>>GEORGE PAPADATOS: Thank you. George Papadatos, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, Geneva Mission, old MAG member.

Chair, there are a lot of interesting issues that have been discussed so far, and I think at the end of our meeting, there should be an effort to put all this new information relating to the meeting in Baku together, either on the Web site or somewhere, but there have been, as I said, issues that have come up that are of importance, there have been statements made, and what is emerging so far is a kind of a fragmented picture of -- of what is to transpire there regarding one thing or another.

So I would just put this request through you, probably, to the secretariat, and to your delegation to update this information in a coherent manner and present it. Thank you very much.

>>VYATCHESLAV CHERKASOV: Thank you. We will take into consideration your suggestion.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: UNESCO, please.

>>UNESCO: (saying name) from UNESCO. Thank you very much, Chairman. I just wanted -- I have a question regarding ministerial on 5 November. I just wanted to make sure that the U.N. agency will be also be invited to that meeting. Thank you.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Okay. Thank you. Al-Shatti, I invite you, please. No? Thank you. Anriette, please. Yeah.

>>ANRIETTE ESTERHUYSEN: Thank you, Chairperson. Anriette Esterhuysen from Association for Progressive Communication. I also would like to comment on the ministerial. I think it was a very useful mechanism, and I appreciated being able to participate in the ministerial in Nairobi.

At the same time, I think that I think we should keep in mind that the IGF is different from the ITU and in a sense it can complement the work that takes place in the ITU and I think one of the strengths of the IGF is that while the ITU mainly includes the participation of regulators and technical people in national governments, the IGF is able to draw a broader selection of governmental participants and other stakeholders that are more involved in social policy and that overlap between technical policy and social policy.

So I would also urge you to not just rely on the database of the ITU, but I think as Portugal proposed, to be a little bit more creative about which ministers to invite, and I think this also does relate to the thematic focus of the ministerial, and I think if there is a fairly clear thematic focus, that will also make it easier to identify which civil society groups to include and which business entities to include.

And then just a comment on the remarks that have been made around concerns on human rights and freedoms.

I think that it was good to hear the reassurances and perhaps what we should have is just to ask the host country to document those, those reassurances that we were given, and to ask UNDESA to make sure that they are reflected in the host country agreement. Thank you.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Okay. Thank you for your comment. I want -- according to the procedure of such an event, the host country must sign some agreement with UNDESA and all issues which were discussed now in here is indicated in this agreement, and host country is given some responsibility for implementation this moment which indicated in this agreement, and issues related to the transportation, visa, and equipment, computers, and others is fully included to this agreement, and now this is agreement, project of this agreement now considered by UNDESA and by our side, and we very soonly sign this document. And after, we can -- moment of this regarding arrangement and others, we can publish on our site.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your comment.

Ana. Ana Neves.

>>ANA NEVES: Thank you. And I'm really sorry to come back because I could state this bilaterally, but I think that I should do it in this plenary.

Well, it's up to the host country to invite, of course, the ministers that you want, of course. My point is that if you are going to do an ITU event -- okay? -- so you invite ministers responsible for telecommunication, if you are going to do an IGF event you cannot invite the telecom ministers only.

For instance, in Portugal, we have a minister responsible for the coordination of Information Society. It's not a person in charge of telecommunications. And -- but if you want only to rely on the database from ITU, so please don't call it an IGF ministerial event because it will not be. It will be an ITU event that will be hosted by Azerbaijan and Mr. Toure.

On the executive coordinator, please let me tell you that I'm a bit puzzled because as far as I know, there are voluntary contributions available and UNDESA was not able to capture them.

So maybe there was a technicality problem. Maybe it was not. But I find it really strange. Thank you.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Okay. Thank you for your comment again.

I think we can consider all your proposal, and during this event, you had possibility receive contact details by our delegation and you can provide some information about your ministry which responsible for these issues related to IGF. Please inform us and we will invite specialized ministers and not ministries responsible for maybe some special moment -- special regulation issues related to ICT, yeah.

And please. Please provide. And we ask all members, all representatives of countries, provide to our secretariat and our members this information about your official delegations.

Okay. Bertrand, please.

>>BERTRAND DE LA CHAPELLE: Thank you. My name is Bertrand de la Chapelle. I'm speaking on my personal behalf.

Two questions. One to follow up on the comment -- or the answer that was provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan regarding visas.

Your answer was very interesting and useful regarding official delegations.

I think one of the underlying questions that was raised before is related to citizens of countries that may have political tensions with Azerbaijan and who may have difficulties getting visas.

Can you ensure that there will be no restriction whatsoever in that regard? That's the first question.

Unfortunately, on the second comment, I regret that the representative of UNDESA is not there anymore. He may probably come back.

I would like to follow up on Wolfgang Kleinwachter's question, and Ana Neves' as well.

The situation regarding the executive coordinator and the special advisor or the chair of the MAG is extremely troublesome, to say the least. It is extremely painful to see the inefficiency of the United Nations in handling this very important issue.

And if I were less cautious, I would tend to understand those who believe that it might be intentional. I don't believe it is. But the problem is that we are faced with a choice of either willful wrong intentions or inefficiency, and in both cases it is bad. Because the attachment to the U.N., in a light manner, has been one of the strengths of the IGF. The current situation is actually weakening the IGF, which is extremely important for the U.N. in general.

So my question is -- so I'm glad you're coming back. I was elaborating on the question of the executive secretariat and the -- and the special advisor or the chair of the MAG.

The situation is extremely harmful for the -- for the IGF as a general rule, and so my question is twofold.

One, the chicken and egg problem that you're describing related to the "We cannot hire the executive secretariat because we don't have the funding" and the funding doesn't come because there is uncertainty about the process. My question is very simple.

What are the steps that you are taking at the moment to solve this problem? What are the meetings you're setting up with funders? What are the information -- what is the information that is being provided on the potential candidates?

Because cancelling the process means that relaunching it will take months and months.

So a simple suggestion.

Is there a possibility for UNDESA to inform people who have applied for this position to tell them that there might be a separate process set up by the participants of the IGF to discuss whether there are candidates that are appropriate and that the funding could come?

This is a situation that cannot go on.

And the second situation is, with all due respect to the responsibilities of the U.N. Secretary-General, there is no reason why we shouldn't begin to consider the option that the MAG itself could, in due time, designate its own chair.

This is something that was explicitly envisaged by the former special advisor, not as a certainty but as an option. In the situation of blocking that we are in, unless there is a significant move to show that there is a voluntary desire to solve this problem, there will be a need to find another way. Thank you.

>>VYATCHESLAV CHERKASOV: Okay. Thank you very much for these questions, and indeed, so that we would like to address these issues which you just mentioned.

With regard of the -- let's say go to the funding arrangement. So what we are doing from our side, so that we just have -- every MAG meeting, we have a special meeting, including the IGF forum as well, with the donor community and as well with the business community, with all communities who would like to meet and who would like to discuss the issue how this issue of the funding arrangements can be addressed.

So that we just prepared -- and I myself right now am preparing the very detailed analysis of the financial situation, and we share this information openly and transparently to the donor community.

So I believe so that we have the representative of the donor community here so that they may confirm that we just communicated with them and informed them about the situation with regard of the funding and as well as to see how this issue can be addressed.

Indeed, so that we have the intention of the number of the donor community to provide the funds.

But unfortunately so that is beyond our control, because so that this is an issue -- they have the -- I mean, they just said, "Okay, we have the money" but this is an issue so that how soon they can get it, so that then it's requirements not from us, so that we're not blocking them or we're not limiting them. We just encourage them to do it. And even more, so that we try to find the best solution to do it.

Let's say -- let me give you a recent situation with Google. So that the two institutions, so -- that tried to support each other, but on the other hand, the one institution has one legal aspect, the other has another legal aspect.

Finally, I managed to find lawyers from both sides and they are working right now. But again, this is beyond our control. You know lawyers.

This is the answer on that question. But I hope that sooner or later, so that this issue we're pushing them to find a solution as quick as possible, so that then we will be able to conclude in order to list the status of getting some additional funding.

With respect of this recruitment process of the executive coordinator, so that I would like to reiterate, so that we have only one rule and we stay with the one rule which has been approved by the member states. It's open and transparent announcement and the process of the selection of the candidates through this -- you know, the recruitment process that United Nations has.

And it was no other way around and this is no way so that this process can be omitted or deviated.

So that if this process is going to be initiated, it is going to be done, it is the same pattern. So that is going to be worldwide information, is going to be using all potential and direct sources of the information to share about this announcement, so that then it is going to be completely open to anyone who would like to provide and who would like to apply for this position.

So that, again, I mentioned before in my remarks so that that -- please, you know, you have to understand that the UNDESA and the whole U.N. secretariat, we are working under rules and regulations established by the member states, so that we cannot deviate or we cannot move away or we cannot invent our rules and regulations. So that we are extremely responsible to be followed these rules and regulations and we cannot change it.

So therefore, that this process is -- you know, as the member states mentioned, so it has to be transparent and has to be open for the -- anyone who would like to do it.

On the other hand, I don't see this -- you know, this chicken-and-egg situation because so that you also know this, the worldwide economic situation. I'm not showing that we have this restriction or some, I will say, concerns from the donor community. It's just only the matter of the availability of the funds, so that then -- you know, we met with a big number of the donor community who just provided support in the past and the explanation is, "Fine, we are working on this one, but, you know, this is the current situation."

And, you know, that across the international and the technical support preparation assistance from the developing -- for the developing countries from the developed countries, there is a cross-cutting, almost like 80 to 90%, and unfortunately the IGF is also the victim of this current situation.

So I believe so that I address this issue, and again, so that it's going to be a very, you know, open discussion with the donor community and we're going to have the meeting tomorrow where all this issue is going to be addressed, and information to be shared. Thank you.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Thank you. And I ask Chengetai to comment to your question.

>>CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. I just wanted to comment about Bertrand's question about the HCA and registration and people's visas.

From the secretariat's point of view, the HCA is a very solid document. It guarantees the privileges and freedoms of participants for the meeting. The grounds are treated as U.N. grounds, so it's just the same as coming in here, going over there.

And registration is done by the secretariat. People register with the secretariat on the secretariat Web site. The secretariat approves the registrations and we submit the names -- just the names -- to the host country and the hosts, and in the HCA it says that whoever has been approved, the host country has to give visas to. So I don't think there should be that much, as far as giving the visas, because it is stated in the HCA, and we do follow that.

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Okay. Thank you. We have about seven minutes before our lunch, and in here, signed up about five person, and if you want, we can continue our discussions after lunch.

Now I want to give floor to Al-Shatti, please.

>>QUSAI AL-SHATTI: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just regarding the ministerial meeting, this is a side event or a back-to-back event to the IGF, it's not an IGF event, right? If it's a side event or a back-to-back event, then I think the Azerbaijani government is at liberty in how to organize it and how to set it up and how to set agenda and to invite who. And maybe they are just listening to some comments and advice from the participants on how to manage.

So if it's an IGF event, then maybe it is a subject to the floor here to discuss it, but my understanding it's a side or a back-to-back event that the Azerbaijani government would like to organize. Right?

>>ELMIR VALIZADA: Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Al-Shatti.

It is fully clarified situation, and according to the practice in Kenya, and as mentioned by Alice, this is a possibility for involving top level decision-makers to IGF and first, before -- before our IGF held out this ministerial meeting, and we consider possibility where these ministers can be -- will participate in IGF. And this is some moment for the -- attracting these ministries to the IGF, and therefore -- and as mentioned by secretariat, this is meeting, ministerial meeting, will be organized by Azerbaijan side. This will be event not correlated to the -- not part of IGF. This is meeting before IGF, will be organized by Azerbaijan, and therefore, we will invite. Invitation will be sent by Azerbaijan side, and to many ministries, and we will involve to this process all persons -- all ministers who is interested in this process.

If this person will be interested to participate in IGF, it is a privilege for us.

Okay.

>> (Speaking in non-english language.)

(Scribes not receiving translation.)

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Thank you for your question. I will ask Secretariat to comment about this question. Please, Chengetai.

>>CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you for your statement. I just have some general comments. As far as civil society participation is concerned, we make all the efforts possible to involve civil society. As my colleague Saba (phonetic) has said, of course, the financial situation for the Secretariat itself is not that healthy. But there are other organizations like ISOC and ICANN who do provide funding for people to go to IGF meetings.

As well, we have extensive remote participation efforts. We spend a lot of money with remote participation. People can participate remotely. They can make interjections remotely, have the floor and they can even be remote panelists.

As far as registration is concerned, I think I will just reiterate what I said, is that registration is done by the Secretariat and we make sure that everybody who meets the requirements is registered and they are approved in a timely manner. And we do try our best to include everybody who has an interest of attending an IGF event, no matter who they are or where they are.

>>CHAIR VALIZADA: Okay. Thank you. Now I invite you to stop now discussions and after lunch we can continue these discussions. Your names are indicated in here. And after two hours, at 3:00 p.m., we will continue our meeting. Okay. Thank you. Go and enjoy.

>>CHENGETAI MASANGO: Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, there is going to be a regional and national IGF meeting here at 1:30, if anybody can hear me. 1:30. Here.

(Lunch break.)