overview

This note considers United Nations involvement with the governance of cyberspace, debate about a New World Information & Communication Order (NWICO) and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). 

     contents of this profile

The following pages cover -

• the United Nations and the net - key statements, international agreements, major initiatives and the activities of agencies such as the ITU, UNESCO and UNCITRAL
• the NWICO - debate about NWICO and the New World Information Order, illustrating the nature of policymaking, globalisation and spin in the digital environment
• the WSIS - an examination of global summit rhetoric and reality

They supplement the discussion of the Governance and Networks & Global Information Infrastructure guides on this site.

There is a profile regarding the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency with global telecommunications standards and policy coordination responsibilities that is sometimes suggested as a replacement for ICANN. 

     at a glance

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a global intergovernmental body under the umbrella of the United Nations, with a status equivalent to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (discussed in the Intellectual Property Guide on this site).

Its charter states that the organisation is concerned with

any transmission, emission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems.

The ITU traces its origins to international agreements under French auspices in the 1860s that sought to harmonise telegraph traffic across the borders of nations in Europe. Those agreements were modelled on the October 1849 technical standards protocol regarding telecommunications between Prussia and Austria and the 1850 Austro-German Telegraph Union.

It evolved from a somewhat informal body concerned with international telegraph pricing and standards to one with a permanent secretariat (now located in Geneva) concerned with telecommunications per se, including satellite and radio broadcasting, transborder cable television distribution and other questions.

Most recently it has had a leading role in discussions about technical standards and regulatory mechanisms for initiatives such as ENUM.

     as a replacement for ICANN?

The ITU is recurrently proposed as a body to replace ICANN and has shown some interest in questions about ccTLD regulation, arguable representing the interests of some country code managers in jockeying for position against gTLD managers within ICANN.

Such suggestions for example resurfaced in the December 2003 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva.

That gathering resulted in a Digital Solidarity Agenda and Declaration of Principles featuring the statement that

The Internet has evolved into a global facility available to the public and its governance should constitute a core issue of the Information Society agenda. The international management of the Internet should be multilateral, transparent and democratic, with the full involvement of governments, the private sector, civil society and international organizations. It should ensure an equitable distribution of resources, facilitate access for all and ensure a stable and secure functioning of the Internet, taking into account multilingualism.

The management of the Internet encompasses both technical and public policy issues and should involve all stakeholders and relevant intergovernmental and international organizations. In this respect it is recognized that:

a) policy authority for Internet-related public policy issues is the sovereign right of States. They have rights and responsibilities for international Internet-related public policy issues;

b) the private sector has had and should continue to have an important role in the development of the Internet, both in the technical and economic fields;

c) civil society has also played an important role on Internet matters, especially at community level, and should continue to play such a role;

d) intergovernmental organizations have had and should continue to have a facilitating role in the coordination of Internet-related public policy issues;

e) international organizations have also had and should continue to have an important role in the development of Internet-related technical standards and relevant policies.

International Internet governance issues should be addressed in a coordinated manner. We ask the Secretary-General of the United Nations to set up a working group on Internet governance, in an open and inclusive process that ensures a mechanism for the full and active participation of governments, the private sector and civil society from both developing and developed countries, involving relevant intergovernmental and international organizations and forums, to investigate and make proposals for action, as appropriate, on the governance of Internet by 2005.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the Economist somewhat tartly responded that

America is wary of a completely intergovernmental approach, since it might jeopardise the internet's capacity for free speech and technical innovation. Some of the countries that want more of a say - China and several Middle East and African nations - have dubious records on transparency, human rights and press freedoms. They seek more power not to preserve the internet's character as an open medium, but to control it better within their borders. So although ICANN has many flaws, America is reluctant to change things too quickly. The business delegation also expressed its support for the status quo.

Some of the calls for replacement reflect perceptions that ICANN has been dominated by commercial interests (in particular interests from corporations in the OECD states), lacks legitimacy and is unrepresentative of either the 'internet community' or the broader population.

The ITU, dominated by governments (and peopled by a narrow cadre of telecoms bureaucrats with tenure beyond the life of most elected governments), is perceived to have greater legitimacy and more responsive to civil society concerns. It is questionable, however, whether the organisation would be more transparent or effective. It faces four key questions -

• how representative is the ITU
• how accessible is it
• how responsive is it
• how restrictive is it?

   next page  (the UN, the GII and cyberspace)