Thank you co-facilitators, briefers, colleagues,
Internet governance is a whole-of-society issue, not a technology issue. Because the internet and emerging technologies affect everyone, and are used by everyone, they are the concern of everyone, and to ensure a long term human rights-based + sustainable approach we need as many different voices and perspectives as possible
We need to acknowledge that internet governance is much larger than the current internet, and that technology issues are too important to be left only to technologists and technocrats to decide.
Therefore we suggest that in order to actually broaden and create a truly whole of society approach, all the groups need to be brought together – at an existing forum or elsewhere – most notably including different international organizations such as, OHCHR, WHO, ILO, UNCTAD, CERN, UNEP etc which represent global constituencies; along with Member States; with Civil Society – both activists and the private sector – seated together with equal and institutionalized places and votes at the governance table. This larger pluridisciplinary plurilateral table would be constructed so that debates and decisions not only include representatives from a whole of society but that the whole of society can actively participate and influence the decisions that affect every global citizen.
The proposal is that organizations that focus on human rights, health, work, trade, migration, climate, as well as tech, would form the core of the steering, on a rolling basis until larger governance issues are resolved, in order to allow the crucial debate to take place NOW with a genuine variety of multi-stakeholders with intersectional as well as regional targets mandated for membership. Governance structure must include not only representation, but incentivize active participation and enable genuine influence for those with different, disciplinary backgrounds, and different and intersectional lived experience, in addition to technology experts, member states and corporations.
This participation can set the stage for a rich plurality of perspectives that affirm shared values as the core of policy, and would privilege human rights to health, to work, to education, non-discrimination, clean water and air, privacy, assembly, etc., as the fundamental center of the technology discussion going forward.
Last modified: April 21, 2024