Working Group on Internet Governance: Difference between revisions

'''WGIG''' ('''Working Group on Internet Governance''') was a multi-stakeholder working group established by the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan who was mandated by the '''Declaration of Principles and Action Plan''' as a result of the first phase of the [[WSIS|World Summit on the Information Society]] (WSIS) on Internet Governance, which was held in Geneva from December 10th through 12th, 2003. WGIG had 40 members from different governments, private sector and civil society. Nitin Desai, Special Advisor to the Secretary General served as Chairman of WGIG.<ref>[http://www.wgig.org/WGIG-Report.html www.wgig.org]</ref>

===Internet Community Response to  WGIG Report===

The [[WSIS Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus]] expressed that some of the WGIG's proposals on the issue of Internet governance are not workable; particularly Model 1, which calls for the creation of a Global Internet Council to take over the functions performed by the [[DOC|United States Department of Commerce]] and [[ICANN]]. On the other hand, the Caucus emphasized that it supports the recommendation of WGIG to enhance ICANN's [GAC|Governmental Advisory Committee]] (GAC) to be able to address the concerns of governments regarding specific issues and the the creation of a forum with full and equal participation of all Internet stakeholders.<ref>[http://wsispapers.choike.org/wsis_igcaucus_wgig_final.pdf WSIS Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus Response to the WGIG Report]</ref>

The [[CDT|Center for Democracy and Technology]] (CDT) commented that the recommendations of the WGIG Report regarding Internet governance that call for a drastic change in Internet governance structure are troubling. According to the CDT, the three models recommended by WGIG to create a UN based intergovernmental body to replace ICANN or to assume an oversight control over ICANN will lead to negative results. CDT explained that a United Nations Agency that will assume the responsibilities currently held by ICANN may not be able to make timely decisions to address important issues such as introducing competitiveness or creating  new domain names. Instead of months, a UN Agency may decide after years or even decades. According to the CDT, the creation of Internet governance forum to provide the global internet community an avenue to voice their concerns regarding Internet governance-related issues and to provide analyses and recommendations to ICANN is more feasible.<ref>[http://cdt.org/dns/icann/20050801wgig-wsis.pdf CDT Response to the WGIG Report]</ref>

Meanwhile,the [[Internet Society|ISOC]], which has more than 20,000 members, expressed its strong opposition to the four proposals of the WGIG Report regarding increased global public policy and oversight. Instead, the organizations' members recommended that ISOC and the UN should work together to reduce government influence over the Internet.<ref>[http://www.isoc.org/isoc/conferences/wsis/wgigcomments.shtml ISOC Response on WGIG Report]</ref>

[[Category:Temporary ICANN Bodies]]