========== Brazilian Statement On Internet Governance to the WSIS Prepcom III Geneva, September 20th, 2005 Thank you Mr. Chairman, On Internet Governance three words tend to come to our mind: “Lack of Legitimacy”. Despite the success in ensuring high availability and great stability to the operation of the network, the current structure for global governance of the Internet presents significant limitations and a clear lack of legitimacy. In what concerns Internet Governance, in our digital world, only one nation decides on behalf of us all. How those in favor of this power concentration explain this awkward situation? The most common one is the well known 1984 George Orwell type of mantra, which says: “If it is not broken, do not fix it”. Even if we agree that there is nothing to be fixed – which is not the case for Brazil – this indoctrination argument makes no sense. It makes no sense for a simple reason: we are not debating industrial mass production through assembly lines; we are trying to build a democratic, transparent and multilateral decision making process in our digital world. In order to see things from another perspective, Brazil proposes a new mantra based on an often quoted Stein's Law, a principle enunciated by the late Herbert Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Nixon administration: "Things that can't go on forever, don't." Mr. Chairman, the WGIG Report calls our attention to a number of issues related to Internet Governance that cannot go on forever. Allow me to quote a few of them: a) On administration of the root zone files and system, the unilateral control by one Government, as well as the lack of formal relationship with root server operators. b) On Interconnection costs, an uneven distribution of cost and an absence of an appropriate and effective global Internet governance mechanism to resolve the issue. c) On Internet security, a lack of multilateral mechanisms to ensure network stability and security of Internet infrastructure services and applications and a lack of efficient tools and mechanisms to be used by countries to prevent and prosecute crimes committed in other jurisdictions using technological means that might be located within or outside the territory where the crime caused the negative effect. d) On Spam, no unified, coordinated approach. e) In what concerns participation in global policy development, there are significant barriers to multi-stakeholder participation in governance mechanisms. There is often a lack of transparency, openness and participatory processes. f) On Allocation of domain names, there is a need for further development of policies and procedures for generic top-level domain names (gTLDs). g) On IP addressing, concerns over allocation policies for IP addresses. h) In what concerns Freedom of expression, restrictions on freedom of expression. i) In relation to Consumer rights, there is a lack of global standards for consumer rights over the Internet. The recent case of triple X domain name is a good example of lack of accountability. Mr. Chairman, we cannot ignore reality; neither should we expect magic solutions. The WGIG Report proposes a number of ways out of this dilemma. The first one is the creation of a Global Forum – a place of dialog and decision, with all stakeholders. Let me stress the world “decision” – otherwise it will be seen as nothing but a kindergarten. The second proposal is the creation of a Global Public Policy Oversight Function System. Three of the four models proposed by the WGIG report are worth being implemented. In this regard, Brazil is of the opinion that the WGIG’s report shall be a base for our work here at Prepcom III. It’s a good and sound step forward. In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, Brazil supports a new organization model for Internet Governance. One that is democratic, transparent and multilateral, as we all have already agreed upon in the Declaration of Principles, at the Geneva Summit, two years ago. Current policies on Internet Governance are unsustainable. We can't go on like this indefinitely. And things that can't go on forever, don't. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. _______________________________________________ incom-l mailing list incom-l@incommunicado.info http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/incom-l