Opening Session
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Note: The following is the output of the real-time captioning taken during the
The 2nd Meeting of the IGF. 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.
[ Gavel ]
>>SÉRGIO REZENDE: We call this session to order. We are already late. We
have to catch up. But I have to say a few words. I chose to say very few words
in the opening session, and chose to speak a little bit in more detail in this
section here. So I speak for about ten minutes, but then we have several
speakers, and I am asking the speakers to be short. Otherwise, I will not be
able to finish on time. The Brazilian government authorities are honored to
host the second Internet Governance Forum, the IGF. It's an honor and a
pleasure to welcome you to this beautiful and hospitable city of Rio de
Janeiro. To host people from all over the world here to discuss and exchange
experience on the issues relating to this great recent conquest of mankind, the
Internet. As you all know, ladies and gentlemen, this forum, organized by the
United Nations, is a legacy of the two phases of the World Summit on the
Information Society, held in two parts, in Geneva and in Tunis, where Brazil
was an active participant. This world summit was convened by the United Nations
general assembly, with the essential purpose of setting guidelines for
information and community technologies to be able to make a decisive
contribution to achieving the millenium development goals. The millenium
development goals seek to meet the basic needs of promoting the development,
freedom, and human dignity and to eradicate human poverty. The IGF has a
mission to discuss and find ways to ensure that Internet can be a tool for
meeting the principles and commitments of the Tunis Agenda, to build an
Information Society which is inclusive, human centered, and geared to
development. Access to effective use of Internet and information technologies
are an essential factor for societies to achieve competitiveness and to develop
their nations. These instruments provide a new paradigm for social
organization, which has been called the Information Society. And contribute
significantly to social, economic, and cultural development for all peoples.
Internet has tremendous potential for promoting a global partnership for
development as advocated in the Millenium Development Goals. However, if this
global communications environment is to be effective, Internet requires the
participation of all peoples. The basic characteristics of the Internet, the
essence, if you like, is cooperation, access for all to an agreed common
communication protocol, interconnection between regional networks, to create a
network of networks, and to share the information in these networks. Without
the spirit of sharing, of connectivity, of mutual support, Internet will lose
its strength as a way of promoting global development. We will lose an
opportunity to communicate between nations, we will lose the support for
information and communication services and technologies. Lastly, without the
participation and cooperation of all, the Internet cannot be sure nor stable.
That's why we defend Internet governance that is representative and balanced.
Balanced in terms of countries and regions, but also balanced in terms of the
different sectors of society. We stand for a type of governance which is not
the preserve of any particular country's government. Equal treatment for all
nations is a pre-condition to building global confidence in the functioning of
the Internet, and thus promoting the sustainability of Internet. Despite its
localized origin, starting with the development of ARPANET for the scientific
community in the United States, initially, subsequently a global network,
Internet is the result of many, many revolutionary contributions made by
various individuals and bodies from different countries. Some of them are
here. With the advent of effective navigators and the World Wide Web, Internet
has spread to all sectors of societies, to all countries. It has become a tool
used by all of us to exchange messages, to gain access to information through
the use of effective, efficient research engines. It is also a tool for remote
education, for e-trade, for e-government. And lastly, it is a way in which
people, entities, businesses and governments communicate with each other,
cooperate and carry out financial and commercial transactions. The Internet is
essential for the growth of the individual and for the growth of nations. It
requires a participation, cooperation of all. It is a universal good of public
interest. As such, governance needs to focus on this public goods aspect and
needs to be focused on the development of the human individual, and must be
focused on building a more just society on our planet. Education is today
largely recognized as fundamental to development for people and nations.
However -- And everyone calls for the universalization of that education. We
need to recognize that Internet is an effective tool for communication and the
information technologies also promoting universalization. The digital divide
that exists today needs to be eliminated because it is a factor which increases
disparities in levels of development among countries with the tragic
consequences we are all aware of. Digital inclusion is an essential objective
to build a more just and more harmonious world. The developing countries --
Sorry, the developed countries whose people, for the most part, do have
computers, have access to the Internet, the developed countries must contribute
to digital inclusion programs for the poor countries. And the developing
countries must intensify their efforts to expand the use of computers and to
allow people to have access to Internet. In Brazil, the government of President
Lula has made great progress to that end. The Computers for All program has
resulted to a significant drop in the cost of personal computers which has
allowed less well-off families to acquire computers and has considerably
expanded the market for computers. This year, about 10 million PCs will be made
in Brazil. We also have digital inclusion programs. These programs seek, by
2010, the end of the current government's term, to ensure that 140,000
government schools have access to Internet, most of them through a broadband
connection. This forum in Rio de Janeiro is one of the four fundamental
subjects which will be discussed here on access, diversity, openness and
security. This IGF will also discuss the vital subject of the use of Internet
resources and the administration of those critical resources. We also believe
we need to discuss here how critical resources of the Internet, including
administration of domain names and numbers, can be managed in a coherent way in
keeping with the principles of Tunis. The governance of Internet must be
structured in order to meet these needs without in any way jeopardizing the
efficiency of the Internet with a view to finding quick solutions to urgent
issues which is required in order to keep up the dynamism which is the
characteristic of the development of the Internet. In addition to these core
resources, then, there will also be discussion of other issues here for the
first time, emerging issues such as incentives and competition and content
production. Let us ensure access to knowledge as one of the objectives to be
achieved. In this sense, the Tunis Agenda seeks more recognition of the role
that can be played by open systems and alternative licensing schemes to promote
digital inclusion and the construction of a virtual environment, a
collaborative environment that promotes development. On the preservation and
promotion of cultural diversity, this is of fundamental importance for
universal acceptance of Internet. We attach great importance to the
development of a charter of Internet rights. The development agenda adopted by
the United Nations, by the World Intellectual Property Organization October
this year, is an innovative way of reorienting the discussions on intellectual
property. Security, without any doubt, is a concern and also a challenge for
all of us. This is a subject which needs to be discussed in detail. We need to
respect the fundamental rights of the individual, including freedom of
expression, while avoiding excessive controls which would restrict such rights
and which would limit the flow of information. We must support mechanisms to
combat cyber crime, particularly to protect children against sexual abuse and
exploitation. Respect for fundamental rights in the Internet must not be
assured without access to knowledge. In this respect, the Tunis Agenda
empowered and recognized the role to be developed by open standards and by free
software, especially in the construction of a virtual environment, which is
collaborative and favorable to development, as well as promoting digital
inclusion. Ladies and gentlemen, Brazil remains committed to the Tunis Agenda
and with the implementation of commitments taken on at the world summit about
the Information Society. The committee of the Internet in Brazil is a
successful national experience in the management of the national names domain,
the managing committee is made up by representatives of the government of civil
society and of the private sector as well as the academic community. This is a
participative model of Internet governance at national level, fully in
agreement with the principles of multilateralism, transparency and democracy.
The IGF here in Brazil, we have less formality, and the presence of
nongovernmental actors, and the open possibility for everyone to participate as
individuals or users of the Internet turn this forum into a very special
instance. Finally, I couldn't but once again emphasize the need for a wide
program for training society, especially in less developed countries, training
them in the useful use of the Internet and of information technology. The
exclusion of a considerable part of mankind from the society of information
would represent a tragedy that would jeopardize the political and economic
stability of the world. To conclude on behalf of the Brazilian government, I
wish you all an excellent stay in Brazil. Good Luck, and success in this
collective undertaking for all of us. Thank you very much, and have a very good
day [ Applause ]
>>SÉRGIO REZENDE: Now I would like to call to present his words, Mr. Hamadoun
Touré, secretary-general, International Telecommunication Union, ITU.
>>HAMADOUN TOURÉ: Good morning. Mr. Chairman, being the first speaker, I
will use one of the ITU traditions in congratulating you for all the coming
speakers so that they save time in not repeating that. So on behalf of all the
speakers, I would like to congratulate you for your brilliant election [
Applause ]
>>HAMADOUN TOURÉ: And also thank the organizers and the host country for all
the good things that have done. I hope that will save one minute of each of the
speakers' time. Thank you very much. I would like to express my gratitude of
being here, in addressing this. As Secretary-General of the International
Telecommunication Union, I have been in the office just for one year, and my
main focus has been on ICT development. And as you all know, it is very close
to my heart. The WSIS process has been a very open and transparent one, and I'm
very pleased that -- to restate that very important step that was decided in
the ITU plenipotentiary conference in 1998, and at the time the main reason for
organizing WSIS was that we were close to the deadline of not bridging the
digital divide. Actually, the deadline for the so-called missing link. And I
would just like to remind you that the monster is not only bigger but it's
faster. Therefore, we need to put real action into all the talks that we are
making here. And I hope that the Rio forum will be a very good continuation of
the Athens forum and will also come to really concrete results. I am
summarizing my speech here. It's 20 pages long. I hope you don't want me to
read it all. I will make it available for you, but I will just say a few bullet
points in here. The ITU has been cooperating with all stakeholders since the
Tunis Summit, and we are very pleased with the progress made so far in many
areas. And I want to take the opportunity to thank all the partners who have
been working with us. ITU is mainly busy in three main areas: Standardization,
development issues, capacity building in development, and we will host this
week a couple of forums on those two issues. I believe that capacity building
will be one of the most important thing for our countries, for all to really
join the Information Society. And we need to work together to build, really
and concretely, an inclusive Information Society where there will be equal
opportunity for all. One of the key roles in the standards development, our
work on DSL and cable, wire-line, broadband standards have made end users'
broadband a reality for hundreds of millions of users over the last few years.
ITU-T developed X509 as the definitive reference recommendation for electronic
authentication over public networks and public key infrastructure, PKIs. ITU is
now carrying out vital work establishing standards on new generation networks,
or NGN, based on Internet protocol technologies that will eventually replace
the current PSTN. ITU is also conducting a number of related work programs with
global scope in areas such as IPTV, cybersecurity, multi-major coding, using
ITU voice and video standards. Through the development sector, ITU is assisting
developing countries in using information and communication technologies as an
engine for accelerated development, social and economic development, national
prosperity, and global competitiveness. The Connect the World initiative is
based on building multistakeholder process to achieve bold targets in ICT
connectivity. Some of you may have been in Kigali with us just two weeks ago
where we launched the first Connect the World series in connecting Africa,
summits in Kigali, which was very successful. Finally, ITU plays an important
role in capacity building in ICTs and in providing a forum for discussion of
urgent policy issues by means of events such as the global symposium for
regulators, and world telecommunication policy forums with systematic meetings
and workshops on Internet governance, cybersecurity, and Spam, among others.
Let me also mention that the innovation that has characterized the development
of the Internet over the past 30 years will innovatively lead to a change in
the landscape, shifting of roles, of key players, and the introduction of a new
type of competition on the theme we are here to discuss. Experience shows that
the more we resist change, the higher the pressure for change. Having
witnessed the changes in the ITU landscape, I'm certainly in a very good
position to say this. In summary, what is needed is next-generation Internet
governance, the development of an enabling environment that assists governments
to foster supportive, transparent, pro-competitive policy, as well as a legal
and regulatory framework to provide appropriate incentives for investment and
community development in the information society. What is needed is the
development of an overarching and enduring architecture based on policy, legal
and regulatory initiatives with intergovernmental collaboration, and
capacity-building efforts may be made toward finding common international
technical and policy approaches to promote an enabling environment globally,
offering the maximum benefits to society. In conclusion, I would like to remind
you all of the spirit of the WSIS that is of inconclusion, cooperation, and
tolerance. Let the beautiful skies of Rio be the uniting force for this
meeting. Thank you very much. [ Applause ]
>>SÉRGIO REZENDE: Thank you, Mr. Touré. I would like now to ask Ms. Anriette
Esterhuysen, executive director, Association for Progressive Communications,
APC.
>>ANRIETTE ESTERHUYSEN: Thank you, chairman. And thank you, Mr. Touré, for
cutting some of my speech. It's -- one always prepares something beforehand.
But I think like other speakers and like the chair in his introduction
indicated, the Internet has enormous potential for contributing to all aspects
of human development. And we in my organization believe it's a public good,
and therefore it should be governed as a public good based on public interest
principles. And also, this governance should take place in the public domain.
We need all institutions and all processes that are involved in governance of
the Internet to be transparent, to facilitate participation, and participation
from all stakeholders, and participation in decision-making, to provide access
to information. And this is a very broad -- this does not apply just to ICANN;
this applies to all aspects of Internet policy and government. On the themes of
the forum, we think there are some key issues. Some of them have been
addressed already. In the security theme, as was said by the chair, unless you
link human rights and the right to privacy and other freedoms to security, you
can create a less-secure environment rather than a more-secure environment.
And we urge the IGF to maintain this link. In the theme of openness, we think
there are two primary issues to be addressed. On the one hand, freedoms,
freedom of expression, and the removal of barriers to people being able to use
the Internet in any way they want to. And on the other hand, standards.
Increasingly, there are standards being made outside of public spaces that have
social implications that limit what people can do with the Internet. And the
IGF needs to address this. This touches on issues of intellectual property,
interoperability between different applications and devices. And these are
things that impact on the cost. Why should blind people pay more for
interfaces to read text because they're blind and because someone owns a
royalty on making two applications talk to one another? This is wrong. On the
issue of access, I think as has been said, it's really vital. We heard
already, five billion people in the world do not have access. We hear
proclamations about wireless solutions, about private sector investment and
initiatives driven by governments, by intergovernmental organizations. And,
yet, there are still five billion people in the world without access. The IGF
needs to prioritize this. And then on diversity, I think what we would say
about diversity is that the key to addressing diversity is, it's almost as an
equation, if you put openness and access together, you will have diversity. If
you remove the barriers that are created by rigid, proprietary intellectual
property regimes, you will have more creation, more innovation. So let's focus
on diversity as an issue, and linguistic diversity, cultural diversity. But
let's remember that by creating more access and more openness, we will
immediately, automatically achieve more diversity. And then, finally, about
ICANN. I think that we would like to commend the IGF for putting critical
Internet resources on the agenda. It's an important issue. But there's also a
lot more to talk about other than ICANN. And I've already highlighted many of
these issues. So while not avoiding talking about controversial issues, let's
not let them dominate the space for the next few days, because there are many
other critical issues. And that is why we are here. [ Applause ]
>>SÉRGIO REZENDE: Thank you, Ms. Esterhuysen. I'd like to now call Mr. Guy
Sebban, Secretary-General for the International Chamber of Commerce, ICC.
>>GUY SEBBAN: Excellencies, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen,
good morning. I am very pleased to be here no longer Rio to participate in this
opening ceremony of the second annual Internet Governance Forum. I am very
proud to speak on behalf of the business community just after the distinguished
representative of ITU, an intergovernmental organization, and after the
representation by Anriette on behalf of civil society. It's important, in
fact, to keep in mind these three main actors, which are called stakeholders.
And this multistakeholder stakeholder approach, on an equal footing, is
certainly something that we appreciate very much in the previous session of the
IGF in Athens. As you can notice, I have applied the rule that our friend has
given us, and I have said nothing to thank everybody. But I cannot go on
without thanking not only the organizers and the participants, but also to
thank Brazil as a country and all the Brazilian representatives for hosting us
here. About the goals of this series of meetings called "IGF." In Athens, we
have set the goals and objectives. It was to exchange between specialists,
between representatives of civil society, between business people, between
representatives of governments on different issues which are directly linked
with Internet governance. In this sense, the Athens meeting was a great
success. But we have to go further. All these issues should be treated with a
lot of attention. And all the discussions that have started in Athens should
go on and be deepened and broadened. And that is paving the way also for the
next meetings that will take place in India in 2008. Maybe two words about
Brazil. Brazil is one of the four "BRIC" countries, as we call them usually.
And it's incredible to see the development of this country, and especially in
the field of information and communication technology. The reason why this
development has occurred is probably because Brazil has applied some basic
rules which are very well known to foster the development of new technologies
and to foster entrepreneurship. This big country is a democracy, respecting
the rule of law, respecting intellectual property rights, and has put in place
the right infrastructure to help the development of information and
communication technologies. We see in this country great possibility for
Internet connection, and in some cases, you can get that even for free. That's
for the aspects linked with governments. But I have said that we have also to
take into account the role and responsibility of the business community.
Usually business is associated with technology. And business has invested a
lot in research and development, and also in physical investments, in order to
help different people to enjoy the benefits of Internet and all the information
and communication technologies. Not being a specialist in this area, I will
just read some new technological development that have occurred in this area.
Quantum leaps in computing memory through rapid advances in cheap technology,
powerful machines in units so small that they are undetectable by the human
eye, nano technologies, face recognition software for better security in the
airports, smart engines, social networking, thanks to Web 2.0, long-distance
medical monitoring and long-distance learning, and the list goes on. I could
spend a lot of time explaining all the new developments that are due to
technology in which the business community has invested a lot in terms of
people and money. But to be successful, it's not enough to have on one side as
governments and the intergovernmental organizations playing the role and on the
other side the businesses trying also to reach some objectives. I think the key
word in this arena is certainly "cooperation." And this cooperation between
these actors -- governments, business, civil society -- is absolutely
essential. And the business community not only investing and making research,
has also spent a lot of efforts in order to convince the governments to put in
place the right legislative framework. For us, this is absolutely key to
create what is called this enabling environment, which means that the
governments are really putting in place the right condition for attracting
business in the different countries. But all these efforts finally are done for
what reason? I think it's mainly also to satisfy the needs of individuals.
And it's a pity to see that only a small proportion of the people living on
this earth have access to these technologies. So I think all these efforts
should be made for permitting access to the many billions of people who don't
enjoy this possibility. You know that our organization, ICC, has launched an
initiative called BASIS. And I just wanted to tell you two things about our
organization. First of all, it's that we have recently published a booklet
which is called "An Inventory of Policy Position and Practical Guidance," in
which we have put all the position papers and the policy positions that we have
developed in our commission. That's one achievement of a team of many experts.
And we are very pleased to offer you this booklet, which is available here on
our store. And a last word about our organization. In Athens, we have
organized one workshop. Here, in Rio, we are organizing two workshops. That
means that we will have one which is organized with the Oxford Institute on
security, which seems to be also a very important topic these days. And we
will focus in this workshop mainly on digital identity management and on
identification. The second workshop is about multistakeholder policy
development processes, which is very important. And we are co-organizing that
with the French Foreign Ministry of Affairs and the Association for Progressive
Communication, the Swiss Off. Comm., and also Congo. So it's a true
multistakeholder participation. And we invite all of you to participate as
much as you can to these workshops. So I would conclude now my remarks. And I
would like to thank you very much for your attention and for your presence and
for your energy and your enthusiasm to participate in this forum and make it a
great success. Thank you. [ Applause ]
>>SÉRGIO REZENDE: Thank you, Mr. Sebban. I'm afraid we are lagging in time.
I have to ask the speakers again to be as brief as they can. And I'd like to
call now Ms. Lynn St. Amour, president and CEO of the Internet Society.
>>LYNN ST. AMOUR: It is a great pleasure for me to be near Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, for the Internet Governance Forum this week. And thank you to all
those who made it possible. I would like to share with you the perspective I
bring to the IGF as president and CEO of the Internet Society. And today, the
message I would like to focus on is best captured by the possibly somewhat
overexposed phrase "think globally and act locally." ISOC is an independent,
international nonprofit organization with more than 26,000 members in 180
countries and over 180 chapters spread around the world. We are proud to have
been established by two of the fathers of the Internet, Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf.
And, in fact, Vint was the first executive director of the Internet Society.
ISOC has promoted the open development and growth of the Internet since 1992.
We are the organizational home for the Internet Engineering Task Force, IETF.
We work globally and locally and for over 15 years, our activities,
particularly in developing countries, have helped expand the reach of the
Internet and worked to strengthen the local environment and increase local
capacities of all kinds. A healthy and robust Internet requires local
conditions that support an environment characterized by choice, connectivity,
and active communities, an environment in which skills development,
capacity-building, and local content development are real priorities, an
environment in which businesses are attracted by enabling public policy
environments and predictable investment climates. These characteristics are not
particular to the Internet or to the Internet's deployment. They are
fundamental to a nation's economic and social development. For the Internet to
be a powerful instrument that increases productivity, generates economic
growth, job creation, and employability and improve the quality of life for
all, it needs conditions in which it can flourish. This is no trivial matter.
It is not easy. Yet these conditions are essential to bringing the next
billion people online. And the billion after that, the billion after that, the
billion after that, the billion after that. By the time we get those billion
people online, there will be several more billion that need to come online. The
Internet Governance Forum presents all stakeholders with a unique opportunity
to catalyze local change. The IGF is not only a forum for dialogue, but it is a
medium that should encourage fundamental change at the local level to empower
communities, build capacity and skills, enable the Internet's expansion,
thereby contributing to economic and social development. The results of the IGF
must be to contribute to and support the deployment of the Internet, and
fundamentally, this must be done at the local level. So let us leverage the
IGF to bring forth the tools, skills, and knowledge to empower all
stakeholders, including governments, to effect this change. To succeed, we
must preserve and promote the spirit and intent of the IGF. We must preserve
and promote its multistakeholderism, its dynamic, open, and collaborative
nature, and its encouragement of open and frank exchanges of views, free from
the pressure of negotiations. Supporting and contributing to the evolution of
the Internet as an open, decentralized platform for innovation, creativity, and
economic opportunity is the best way for the Internet to help improve the lives
of people everywhere. We have seen that throughout its history, the Internet
has always been defined by the energy and ideas of those who use it. As new
communities come online, we are excited by the creativity and innovation they
bring, and we are constantly reminded of the duty we all share in supporting
their emergence. ISOC encourages all stakeholders to reinvigorate their
commitment to assisting new communities to come online and identifying local
solutions to the challenges that we all face in ensuring the Internet is for
everyone, as we still have a very, very long way to go. Thank you. [ Applause ]
>>SÉRGIO REZENDE: Thank you, Ms. St. Amour. I'd like to call his excellency,
Mr. José Mariano Gago, Minister of Science and Technology and Higher Education
of Portugal.
>>JOSÉ MARIANO GAGO: Minister Sérgio Rezende, Minister Gilberto Gil,
Secretary-General of the U.N., representatives of governments and international
organizations, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, as Acting President of the
Council of Ministers of the European Union, responsible for policies on the
society of information and representative of the Portuguese government, I would
like to warmly greet and in Portuguese, the Brazilian government and organizers
of this forum. Congratulations and thank you for the hospitality and for the
quality of organization of this meeting. Portugal is a justly proud for the
success and affirmation of Brazil, which has shown in an exemplary manner
tremendous capacity for progress in the conceiving and adopting of policies for
the information society in the benefit of its economic and social development.
The Brazilian initiative to organize tomorrow a seminar on free access to
knowledge in Portuguese-speaking countries deserves our full support, because
we are certain that this will stimulate similar actions in other language or
regional spaces. The European Union shares from the very first moment the major
objectives and the preparation of this IGF, as well as the meetings that
preceded it. The European Union was always in favor of the open, diverse,
multivaried nature of the forum, which is geographically balanced and made up
of organizations of different natures whose wealth is precisely in its
innovative nature as to the site of debate and concentration of the forum.
It's not just yet another political, multilateral instance, but it is an open
and innovative forum. And this seems to us to be the best way for us to work
together to defend the very social innovation the Internet has brought about.
The European Union has soon understood that we weren't dealing here with just
infrastructures, but these were social networks and movements. The notion of
policies for the Information Society in every country as well as at the union
school has proved this understanding. Also, the definition of common objectives
for the whole European Union is a consequence of this policy. The reference
framework adopted, which we call I-2010, enshrines our present goals. European
space for information, our bed in the research and the development in
information and communication technologies, and encouragement to advanced
content and services. Lines of action such as the generalization of the wide
band security and neutrality, modernization of public services as in the e-gov
and the public bed in the generalized use of the Internet and information
technologies for economic competitiveness as well as in health, education,
trade, supply, and production of multicultural and multilingual contents for
the capacity building and the very breathing of democratic societies. And in
the support to social and cultural inclusion and in the support of people with
deficiencies or special needs, and more recently, initiatives for the
development and views of the RFIT make true in the European Union the political
objectives that are the object of mutual assessment, of benchmarking,
discussion, exchange of experience between countries and regions. It is this
experience that the European Union wishes to share with the rest of the world.
The investment of the union in the creation and operation of networks for
science and education, not just within its own territory, but also in
connection, as happens, with Latin America, with Africa, all the Mediterranean
basin, are concrete examples of the wish for cooperation and support to
development at global scale. The European Union wishes, of course, its efforts
favoring development and knowledge at global scale to find increasing response
and partnerships in other spaces, organizations, and countries. And this is
what we invite you to. It is not by chance that the World Wide Web model was
developed in one of the most important international research laboratories, the
Cern, as an open tool of free use. The new forms of development and open
organization of the Internet and the role developed by the various
organizations intervening in the present open model for governance, especially
the ICANN, have shown so far an unprecedented response capacity. The present
model is flexible, dynamic. It can be and has been improved, and should
continue. Governments should guarantee independence of organizations that
participate, especially the ICANN, and guarantee a balance and international
openness. It would be going backwards, and this would be unacceptable in our
opinion to go back to old forms of multilateralism applied to the Internet. In
the last decades, the Internet revolutionizes and expands our expectations for
freedom and democratic participation of access to information and knowledge, of
plurality of languages and cultures, and the variety and wealth in the action
of millions of social actors at planet scale. The Internet has fulfilled a
hundred, a thousand times its initial promise, and has opened up new
challenges, against free access to the Internet, against the formation of
social networks for global information, and against the freedom of expression
and access to knowledge, stand all fanaticisms and all enemies of democracy in
vain. The World Summit on the Information Society stated what we defend
heartily, not just for us in Europe but throughout the world, is the following.
And the Geneva declaration says, Information Society and that's outlines in the
universal declaration of human rights that everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression. That this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference, and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers. Communication is a fundamental
social process. A basic human need, and the foundation of all social
organization. It is central to the Information Society. Everyone, everywhere,
should have the opportunity to participate and no one should be excluded from
the benefits the information society offers. Thank you very much. [ Applause ]
>>SÉRGIO REZENDE: Thank you, Minister Mariano Gago. I would like to now call
Mr. Paul Twomey, president, CEO of ICANN.
>>PAUL TWOMEY: Minister Rezende, Minister Gil, ladies and gentlemen, I would
like to begin by congratulating the government of Brazil and the Brazilian
Internet community and the United Nations, in particular the IGF Secretariat,
for arranging this second meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in this
remarkable city of Rio de Janeiro. The Internet Governance Forum brings
together a diverse group of individuals in the aim of sharing knowledge and
experience over and about this one global interoperable Internet. We should all
be proud of our achievements so far. Over one billion individuals online.
Trillions of dollars of business being conducted over a network which comprises
hundreds of millions of computers and devices all communicating with one
another across the globe. It has given the individual in our societies an
ability to communicate and interact with others unprecedented in human history.
It has reformed industries, and caused us to rethink how we view ourselves and
our planet. But with this extraordinary change also comes challenges. And that
is what this forum is about: Bringing together people to talk, review,
discuss, and hopefully envision solutions to some of the issues that are before
us. The agenda of this meeting captures them. Most important, of course, as
others have said, is access. Our discussions here will mean nothing to someone
not able to get onto the network in the first place. And the challenge now is
to ensure that we bring the next billion people online. Diversity, openness,
security, access, critical internet resources, are all topics for this IGF.
All these topics will be discussed over the course of these next few days, and
I hope at the end of it we end up one step further down the line in solving
some of the issues they represent. ICANN, like other Internet organizations, is
committed to the multistakeholder and open way of doing business where anyone,
anyone, from governments, the technical community, business and civil society
can participate freely, either in person or virtually. We are pleased that the
IGF is also following this model. ICANN has a participative community of up to
20,000 people around the world involved within its very narrow mandate of
technical coordination for the DNS and I.P. addressing. I would like to issue a
personal invitation to all people here to join that community, to participate
as you wish and desire, and to help with their work and its evolution. Before
finishing, I would also like to thank ITU secretary-general Hamadoun Touré, and
the UNESCO leadership for their support and assistance in helping to produce a
joint workshop with ICANN this week that will review how international
cooperation can be used to establish standards for a multilingual, global, and
interoperable Internet, the inevitable next step for this extraordinary medium.
I wish you all a fruitful week, and I look forward to continuing discussions
again next year in Delhi. Thank you [ Applause ]
>>SÉRGIO REZENDE: Thank you, Mr. Twomey. I would like now to call Mr. Naoyuki
Akikusa, chairman Fujitsu limited, Chairman of Global Information
Infrastructure Commission. And I am going to ask Minister Gilberto Gil to
chair the remainder of this session.
>>NAOYUKI AKIKUSA: Mr. Chairman and all the distinguished participants, thank
you for the opportunity to visit Rio de Janeiro. I appreciate the warm welcome
from our Brazilian host. I have been working with various business
organizations on policy development. Currently, I am serving as the chairman of
the Global Information Infrastructure Commission, GIIC. The GIIC's mission is to
provide private sector leadership to foster investment in the ICT and Internet
capability. The GIIC has actively participated in many meetings of the World
Summit on the Information Society, the WSIS, and also the -- in the discussion
at the IGF. And holding workshop on access tomorrow morning. At GIIC annual
meeting in Tokyo next April, and we hope to discuss further the issue of
Internet governance and related issues. Today I want to talk about two topics.
One is environment and Internet -- and ICT. Second one is corporate management
and the Internet. Speaking of the environment and ICT, considering the
sustainability of economic development, empowered by the Internet. The Internet
is becoming a more important factor. However, we have most -- we have not
sufficiently discussed environmental impact of the use of such technology. The
Internet and ICT can reduce the burden of the environment. For example,
digitalization of mechanical components greatly improve their efficiencies. For
example, automotive controls and medical equipment like CT, and also
teleconference reduces physical movement of persons and goods. Energy
management system improves power efficiency in businesses and homes in the
public sector. However, the energy consumption in the world ICT use -- sorry,
in the world IC uses is not so small. We need to think about more efficient use
of our resources. The ICT uses account for 2% of CO2 consumption worldwide.
Some studies show that data centers consume 23% of that amount. Half of -- the
air conditioning for cooling consumes half of the power in the datacenter. I
would like to show some example. Replacing ten racks of servers by one blade
server can annually reduce CO2 emissions by the equivalent amount of planting
200 trees. The ISP in our company, Fujitsu Group, is now using 25% of its mail
servers to combat Spam. And 90% of e-mail coming to Fujitsu are Spam. I think
probably the communication carrier use a huge amount of energy and cost for
Spam. We are facing many environmental matters to be solved and to discuss in
the future. For the healthy development of the global Internet, I think we
should pay more attention to assessing this wasted energy and cost. Secondly,
I would like to touch upon the corporate management and the Internet. The
Internet is a crucial part of the business infrastructure because it circulates
everywhere like the air. Companies like Fujitsu heavily depend on the Internet
application systems, from R&D, office work, training and education. If Internet
doesn't work, it means we cannot continue our business operation. However, many
in top management site does not notice this, and think of the Internet as a
given infrastructure to utilize. Only a few recognize Internet safety as a
critical management issue. To keep secure and stable Internet operation is
essential part of to corporate management. And a company executive should
recognize the Internet as one of the most important management issues and
coincidentally add something like a subset of worldwide Internet governance.
Finally, the private sector represented only 13% of all at the IGF in Athens. The
important thing for the private sector should be to participate more in the IGF
and contribute to its processes. Thank you very much [ Applause ]
>>GILBERTO GIL: Next speaker Ms. Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, Minister of
Communications of South Africa. Please.
>>IVY MATSEPE-CASABURRI: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, as well as the secretary to
the forum. I'd like to thank Brazil in particular for having hosted this, but I
will do away with all the other thank you's, but I would like to say a special
thank you to the secretary-general of the United Nations for fulfilling the
mandate of the World Summit on the Information Society by convening the
Internet Governance Forum to enable the multilateral, multistakeholder,
democratic and transparent dialogue to take place. And I'd like to thank the
secretary-general of the ITU in particular for carrying -- for doing a great
deal of work to carry this mandate forward. It is now two years since we
decided at the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society that
we should establish this multistakeholder forum, this Internet Governance
Forum, in order to bring together these representatives that we have here
today. Few in the world could have predicted that the Internet would grow in
the global phenomena it is today. We must thank the dedicated individuals who
have committed so much to its growth and to its management. The benefits of
increased efficiency and the services that can be delivered through Internet
technology have been closely followed by policy challenges, and many of us face
those challenges. And we must all rise to those challenges. One of the such
challenges is that one that is the most urgent of challenges facing humankind
and it is the eradication of poverty and of underdevelopment. This will remain
a critical challenge for some years yet. I therefore appeal to this forum to
continue to focus on the collective view that was expressed by the declaration
of principles in Tunis or in Geneva to build a people-centered, inclusive, and
development-oriented Information Society, enabling the individuals,
communities, and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting
sustainable development and improving their quality of life. But as we heard
today, you can't use it unless you have access to it. And in my country we have
a favorite phrase: If you don't use it, you lose it. But we have neither that
which we can lose. And it's important to bring that and make sure that we can
actually also use it. In east and southern Africa there has already been
collaborative effort under the network program of the A.U., the African Union,
to build cables, undersea cables, to improve access and to reduce the cost of
Internet connectivity as part of what the secretary-general of the ITU spoke
about this morning, the connect Africa concept. Another one of the key
challenges we face as a people but also as a whole world, and Africa in
particular, are the challenges that we must ensure the participation of
representative stakeholders on a consistent basis, especially from developing
countries and their unconnected people. We therefore need to consider how we
can use this tool, the Internet, to address exclusion and underdevelopment. We
therefore can ask ourselves what can the IGF do for the billions who do not yet
have access, billions who can benefit from the improved way of doing things
from accessing government services to e-health, e-education services, et
cetera, and a whole range of other services which are offered through the
Internet. We need practical solutions to support development. And this
development is crucial and crucial now. And as we have endorsed at the WSIS,
such things as local content, capacity building, the right of countries to
manage their own Internet resources whilst maintaining global coordination are
all subject matters of this conference and we hope that as we end the
conference we will have moved forward in attending to some of these things. We
must take a collective -- make a collective commitment to the next generation
Internet and the technologies that will foster the next generation, but we must
make sure that the stability and security of the Internet is a global facility
and ensuring its requisite legitimacy and governance based on full
participation of all stakeholders is maintained. I, therefore, would like to
report and echo the call of my own president when he was in Tunis by appealing
to everyone that we should ourselves take action to translate the shared vision
of an inclusive, development-oriented Information Society into practical
reality. We hope that this forum will propel us forward in this mission for
benefit of the world, but especially for one of the most marginalized areas of
the world, Africa, and I thank you. [ Applause ]
>> Thank you, Ms. Casaburri. Next speaker, Mr. Adama Samassékou, executive
secretary, African academy of languages.
>>ADAMA SAMASSEKOU: Excellencies, Mr. Chairperson, ministers, secretary of
the ITU, honorable guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Let me first of
all to begin by saying to you what a great honor it is for me to address this
great family of the Information Society, this family of shared knowledge and
know-how that I am pleased to meet once again here in Rio. It is a pleasure
also for me to thank the Brazilian government for the welcome they have
extended to us and the executive secretary of the forum for the convening of
this second session. My dear friends, I am delighted by the passion I have seen
at this Internet Governance Forum, and no one can be unaware of the great
importance of this forum. That is why I should like to share with you a few
thoughts regarding the process we began more than five years ago. First of all,
allow me to recall some of the achievements of the World Summit on the
Information Society process. First of all, what I recall the spirit of the
summit, which is typified by the multistakeholder approach which led to an
innovative mechanism with the establishment and institutionalization of the
civil society office and the representation of the private sector which has led
to the development of a dynamic inclusive partnership bringing together all of
the stakeholders, governments, civil society, the private sector, and
intergovernmental organizations. Secondly, two major African initiatives, the
digital solidarity fund in Geneva and MAAYA, the world network for linguistic
diversity in Tunis. Thirdly, the development of a follow-up mechanism for the
implementation of the guidelines that emerged from the Geneva phase into the
global coordination of the ITU, UNESCO, and UNDP. And also I would hail the
initiative of the ITU. Fourth, the creation of the Internet Governance Forum
which was made formal in Tunis. But my dear friends, we are today, if I can put
it that way, at a crossroads, a crossroads given the challenges facing the
Internet Governance Forum. The IGF is the only formal arrangement that emerged
from the WSIS, bringing together all of our great international family. Is it
not necessary that in order to keep up this beautiful enthusiasm and to promote
within the forum a mechanism for making recommendations for specific action
addressing all of the issues of the mandate of the IGF? Of the 12 points of the
mandate of the IGF, I'd like in particular to highlight the following:
Practices, and in this regard, make full use of expertise of academic,
scientific, and technical communities. Five, advise all stakeholders in
proposing ways and means to accelerate the availability and affordability of
Internet in the developing world. Seven, identify emerging issues, bring them
to the attention of relevant bodies and the general public, and, where
appropriate, make recommendations. Eight, point eight, contribute to
capacity-building for Internet governance in developing countries, drawing
fully on local sources of knowledge and expertise. Point 11, help to find
solutions to the issues arising from the use and misuse of the Internet of
particular concern to everyday users. For that point of view, then, the
discussion on the democratization of the Internet should also include, first,
the need for each citizen of our planet to have access to this tool in their
language. And also the urgent need to work together in order to tackle the
serious abuses of Internet use. We can do this through a major program of
training and awareness promotion, in particular, through libraries and other
appropriate common spaces, making them at the core of the new society we are
building, and, in particular, for up and coming generations. In this context,
then, we must take the fortunate opportunity of next year being the
international year for languages, to lay greater stress on the points I have
just made at the third session of the IGF in India. As executive secretary of
the African academy of languages and as president of the global network for
linguistic diversity, I should like to assure you of our willingness to work
with the bodies of the forum to that end. It is already a great pleasure for me
to invite you to consult the UNESCO Web site, which is the lead organization
for next year, the international year of languages, I would like to draw
attention to the excellent statement by the director general, Mr. Matsuura,
saying, languages are important. Lastly, in conclusion, I should like to make
an appeal here to this august body to encourage us all to think -- in the
Internet Governance Forum, to think about ways and means of building regional
dynamism so that societies can take on board the new ICTs, taking into account
the specifics of each region of world to ensure greater participation by all in
the benefits of this global common good that is the Internet. May the almighty
be with us in carrying out our undertaking to build humanness in the world, a
new humanity which is the only way of dehumanizing states between people.
Thank you. [ Applause ]
>>GILBERTO GIL: Thank you, Mr. Samassékou. Next speaker, Mr. Luigi Vimercati,
Under Secretary of Communication, Italy.
>>LUIGI VIMERCATI: Distinguished representatives of governments, of
international organizations, and of the civil society, ladies and gentlemen,
first of all, I would like to express my appreciation to the government of
Brazil for hosting this important event and to the IGF secretariat for having
made possible this second crucial meeting on Internet governance. The Athens
conference last year opened the way for a global and multistakeholder
discussion on the development of the most powerful instrument that humanity has
ever had, able to generate and circulate knowledge and to shift power. From
then on, Italy has clearly expressed the opinion that a set of principles is
necessary to allow a democratic and inclusive development of the Internet,
agreed and shared on a global scale. In this view, the Italian government,
together with the United Nations, has organized last September in Rome a
dialogue forum on Internet rights that saw the participation of more than 700
delegates from governments, civil society, the private sector, academia, coming
from 70 different countries. The forum confirmed the necessity to define at an
international and multistakeholder level common rules for Internet governance,
which, in our opinion, should take on the form of an "Internet Bill of Rights."
It is quite evident that the Internet is introducing nowadays radical changes
in every dimension of human behavior, from economy to communication, to social
and political relationships. Its hasty growth affects directly human rights and
shows shortcomings of the measures adopted so far to protect them, but at the
same time, it reveals an extraordinary potential as a new bottom-up form of
expression, able to strengthen democracy in the knowledge-based society. Today
we are witnessing the birth of a new generation of rights pertaining to global
digital citizenship, which represents an extension, with its specific
peculiarities, of fundamental human rights. Consequently, a bill of rights is
needed, a jointly agreed definition of these rights, consistent rules to ensure
freedom and access to Internet, together with forms of self-regulation, all of
these to guarantee the rights of single individuals and social groups,
particularly the most vulnerable ones. Absence of rules doesn't necessarily
mean a freer Internet. We must not forget that freedom of expression and the
free flow of information and ideas has to go alongside with the safety and the
integrity of the Internet to make it achieve its full potential and to avoid
the supremacy of the strong over the weak. We must ensure that everyone in the
world can benefit from these opportunities offered by the Internet by removing
all the barriers that hinder full access to the Net and trying to bridge the
digital divide. For all of these reasons, we are particularly pleased to be
here today. The Internet Governance Forum is the ideal place to gather shared
views on the four areas of discussion -- access, diversity, openness, security
-- all of them relating to the Internet Bill of Rights. In fact, we firmly
believe that it is our responsibility as policymakers to reaffirm our
commitment to make the Internet a means of social cohesion and inclusion and to
build a people-centered, knowledge-based, and progress-oriented information
society. Nevertheless, defining principles and common rules for the Internet,
especially in consideration of its intrinsic characteristics, also entails the
definition of a new working method. Internet is, by definition, a place of
extended discussion, of initiatives involving a large number of people.
Therefore, it becomes evident that an Internet Bill of Rights cannot be
achieved through traditional procedures typical of international conventions,
that is, through top-down cooperation between governments or through classical
forms of multilateral diplomacy. The Internet Bill of Rights can and must be
the starting point of a unique process involving a multiplicity of actors at
different levels. The dynamic coalitions, set up with the IGF, are the best
example of this new approach that we intend to adopt. My country participants
at different levels to the Internet Bill of Rights dynamic coalition which
tomorrow will convene to share the progress made so far and to jointly identify
the most appropriate way to define the bill of rights. We expect through your
participation to bring together a number of actors who will concretely lay
down, together with us, with our friends of the Brazilian government, and all
the others, the basis of an Internet Bill of Rights. We know that it will be a
long and difficult process, and it is not only a question of establishing
governance principles of the largest existing space in the world, but also to
identify the instruments able to guarantee afterwards that they become a
reference system for the international community. In this view, we also look
with expectation to the possibility of reaching an agreement in order to define
a kind of "high commissioner" of Internet rights. In conclusion, I am certain
that the well-known competence of Minister Gilberto Gil, of Professor Stefano
Rodotà, and of all of the participants, will make tomorrow's workshop a
fundamental step forward towards the creation of an Internet Bill of Rights. I
am looking forward to meet you all tomorrow. Thank you very much for your
attention. [ Applause ]
>>GILBERTO GIL: Thank you, Mr. Vimercati. Next speaker, I recommend the
speakers to obey to the five minutes, six minutes extension. Next speaker, Mr.
Kiyoshi Mori, vice minister for policy coordination, minister of
communications, Japan.
>>KIYOSHI MORI: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, thank you, Brazilian government. It
is my great honor to have this opportunity of making a speech at the opening
ceremony which is held here in the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro. As we all
know, the Internet has developed rapidly since its commercialization in 1994,
and the number of its users is going to exceed one billion worldwide. There are
many advantages of using the Internet. The Net can provide access to
diversified choices in goods and services, activate communication between
people, and improve productivity of various industries. Toward this goal, all
stakeholders, including the participants of this IGF meeting, must cooperate
with each other in order to deploy the Internet further and share its fruits
among all peoples around the world. Achieving such a good goal will not be
easy. There are many issues to be tackled. And active challenges are needed
to resolve those issues. I strongly believe that one of the important purposes
of IGF meetings is to learn and share the experiences of the challenges with
each other in order to make it easier to accomplish the ultimate goal of
Internet deployment throughout society. According to ITU report in 2006, Japan
has achieved the most inexpensive and fastest Internet access in the world. I
think there are two main reasons behind this. Firstly, we established a
national strategy for the ICT development. In the year 2001, we launched the
e-Japan strategy, which promoted nationwide spread of broadband networks. In
addition, in 2004, we set a ubiquitous Japan policy, which was aiming at
enabling ICT connection to anyone at any time anywhere and with anything.
Secondly, we promoted competition policy in the telecommunications market. In
particular, the unbundling of the dominant carrier's facilities and the
formulation of collocation rules allowed new entrants to the market. Thanks to
this, innovations and new services had been developed which allowed charges to
be dramatically lowered and increased consumer benefits. Although having
achieved a significant development in the ICT field, we still have many things
to cope with. As conventional telecommunications network is rapidly replaced
by I.P.-based network, we are facing various new issues. I will point out
three main issues. First, there is the issue of network neutrality. With more
I.P. networks and broadband connections, more variety of services are being
provided. As a result, the volume of packet traffic has increased and resulted
in network congestion. Fair use and equal cost-bearing of the network
infrastructure is becoming serious issues. Second is the competition policy
issue that arises from the next-generation network. The next-generation
network is expected to improve efficiency of network operation and reliability.
Consequently, we have to establish the new competition rule to secure the
mutual connection as well as the openness of service platform of the network.
Third, it is necessary to promote information security. We have to improve the
reliability of the network and applications, in addition to ensuring the
essential communications in disasters and other emergency situations. In
conclusion, I have shared with you our country's experiences and achievements,
as well as our awareness of the issues, considering that our life can be
improved through proper use of the Internet as a vital tool and that this IGF
meeting is significant as the place for information-sharing towards that
purpose. With advanced use of the Internet, new issues that we have not
experienced before could emerge in the future. It is important to put our
heads together to continue our efforts to tackle the issues and to find the
exercise the best way forward. We believe that the IGF meetings can contribute
to creating a path from the missing link to the collaboration link through open
and free discussions. And Japan is ready to support positively such a movement
with all of you. Thank you for your kind attention. [ Applause ]
>>GILBERTO GIL: Thank you, Mr. Mori. Next speaker, Mr. John Klensin,
consultant.
>>JOHN KLENSIN: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I seem to
be the odd person in this session's agenda, since I do not have the privilege
of speaking for a government or a large and important organization. I do,
however, have some experience with the development of the Internet itself, and
I hope I can share some perspective from the standpoint of the technical
development of the Internet and how we got to where we are today within with a
network which is serving billions of users and looking forward to serving
billions more. Contrary to what one might infer from some of the conversations
and discussions and publications one has seen in recent years, the Internet was
not developed and invented in 1962 -- in 1992. Some of us have been involved in
work on what has become the Internet in its concepts since the late '60s, for
nearly four decades. And many of us have understood since then that this would
ultimately become a global network if it was successful at all. It isn't
perfect. In general, we preferred to get something working and implemented and
deployed rather than getting it perfect, spending endless years of exploration
and discussions about how every possible need could be accommodated. Had we
chosen the course of discussion and accommodation of all needs, there probably
would not be a working Internet today. The possibility of substituting
discussion for deployment and access remains a risk today. One of the things I
think we all need to understand and remember as these discussions in IGF and
elsewhere go forward is, whatever you like about the present nature of the
Internet and its reach, it is important to remember that the design,
independent of funding and other initiatives, is not a consequence of any
action by governments or intergovernmental associations. Among the many myths
about the Internet is one that assumes the technological design and development
community, especially the applications-level development community, has
historically not cared about the rest of you or the rest of the world's
populations. Or has simply been naive about the social and political
implications of a network like this. We've been concerned about making the
Internet available to more people in more countries for a rather long time.
There were serious discussions about multiscript naming and connectivity and
content by 1972, including the first of many proposals as to how to do that.
The notion that we didn't start thinking about these issues until people
started talking about making the Internet multilingual the last few years just
has no basis. Our Japanese colleagues had Kanji content on the Internet by 1987
and were actively using it in e-mail. Standards were in place for
interoperable multilingual content by 1992, and were deployed rapidly after
that, including being carried over into the Web. The original host naming rules
that ultimately became the domain name rules were built on a foundation that
considered national use characters and national character sets. The decision
to exclude those characters wasn't based on an ignorant preference for English
or Roman-based characters, but on the fact that the technology at that stage
just had not matured enough for more international use and the observation that
the use of multiple characters and multiple options has a tendency to make
things less interoperable if these become choices. It is programs useful to
note that the ITU and ISO made very similar decisions about identifiers for the
network protocols associated with X25, and with key ISO identifiers for
approximately the same reasons. Especially in less-developed countries, far
more of the early connections that were sustainable and that had developed into
today's Internet environment were the result of largely private sector,
bottom-up efforts rather than major top-down initiatives. Mutual assistance
networks for identifying e-mail connectivity paths came into existence in the
early 1980s. Private efforts to get developing countries connected at least by
e-mail and then with full Internet connections came about five years later, in
the mid-1980s. Many of the Internet governance problems which we see today and
see discussed are neither new nor Internet-specific, but are generalizations of
more traditional problems, sometimes in rather thin disguises. For the subset
of those issues that are appearing as generalizations, most of the reasons for
casting them as new topics seem to involve more to do with topics and
objectives other than getting the Internet spread and deployed and usable.
Throughout history, at least modern history, we've noticed that criminals and
pornographers have often been more efficient about adopting and adapting to new
technologies, especially communications technologies, to their needs than most
of us have been capable of adopting those technologies. We need to accept that
and move forward with better technology, but, more important, better rules and
better social structures and better societal constraints, rather than attacking
the technology itself and risking damaging what in many respects a conference
like this is here to celebrate. Unacceptable behaviors, including stalking,
extortion, fraud, deliberate deception, are not really different, whether done
face to face or over an electronic communications technology such as the
Internet. The Internet may call for better intergovernmental arrangements and
agreements about prosecuting these crimes across borders and better technology
for identifying the perpetrators. But we have precedence for those kinds of
agreements which do not require new structures. Each proposed action that
treats an unacceptable behavior differently depending on whether it's performed
over the Internet or in some other context should be examined very carefully,
and I believe with some suspicion. Finally, almost every decision which has
been made about the Internet, from the beginnings to the recent times, both
technological and policy, has had advantages and disadvantages. In the last
decade or so, and as a community, I believe we have been very poor at looking
at both those advantages and disadvantages and understanding that we're making
tradeoffs. At least in retrospect, creation of a market in domain name --
domain names has caused not only cybersquatting, but also phishing. Without
the market, those problems would probably not exist in their present form.
Creation of an e-mail regime that permits anyone to communicate with anyone
else without having to be registered with and going through
government-authorized providers, on models similar to the old PTTs, has turned
e-mail and now instant messaging into important worldwide communications tools.
But it also helps facilitate the work of the spammer and virus-spreaders. Even
the decision to build useful and productive meetings like this and hold them
involves implicit decisions to not invest the resources in, for example, clean
water or alleviating hunger. In each case, I'd like to believe that we, as a
community, have made the right decisions. But we need to remember, I believe,
that there are alternatives and, conversely, selecting those alternatives would
have changed some of the things that we appreciate today. Thank you again, and
best wishes for a successful meeting. [ Applause ]
>>GILBERTO GIL: Thank you, Mr. Klensin. Next speaker, Ms. Maud de
Boer-Bucquicchio, deputy secretary general of the Council of Europe.
>>MAUD DE BOER-BUCQUICCHIO: Mr. Chairman, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
the Council of Europe, which I represent, is an organization which brings
together 47 of the 48 European countries on our continent to promote human
rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Our primary task is to enforce, through
the European court of human rights, the European convention on human rights.
The bill of rights of the whole European continent, which applies both off and
on-line. Our message, Europe's main message, is clear. We want to secure
people's enjoyment of a maximum of rights and services, with minimum
restrictions, while at the same time seeking to ensure the level of security
that users are entitled to expect. This is why our organization adopted, just
five days ago, a policy recommendation for our governments on promoting the
public service value of the Internet. We in Europe, we want an affordable,
unrestricted, safe and diverse access to the Internet. My time is short, so I
will limit myself to a few brief points. First, the Internet is our business.
It belongs to all of us, and must not become a virtual jungle in which its
inherent freedom and anonymity are abused by criminals. These people may be
operating in a virtual world, but the harm they cause is very real. Our
response has been the Council of Europe convention on cybercrime and its
protocol, the only existing international treaty dealing in a comprehensive
manner and in full respect of human rights with crimes committed through the
use of the Internet. It has been signed so far by 43 countries around the
world. I encourage other countries to seek accession to the convention as soon
as possible. The broader the membership, the fewer the hiding places. My second
point is about children who represent one of the biggest categories of Internet
users. The Internet empowers them, but it also creates new threats to their
safety. Sexual exploitation of children is of course one of such threats. And
this is why the Council of Europe convention for the protection of children
against sexual exploitation and abuse outlaws groomers and pedo-pornographers
and reinforces considerably international cooperation. This treaty too is open
to non-European countries and I encourage all states to sign up to it. Let me
also take the occasion to announce the birth this week in Strasbourg of a new
city, an e-city, made for and with children. It will be hosted on our Web
site, and its aim is very simple: Empower children so that they can contribute
to a better world nearer to their hopes and dreams. To conclude, ladies and
gentlemen, we in Europe, adults and children alike, we have a dream and an
ambition. The dream is to make democratic citizenship a reality for all on the
World Wide Web. Our ambition is to show the world the way to achieve this.
Thank you for your attention [ Applause ]
>>GILBERTO GIL: Thank you, Ms. Boer-Bucquicchio. Next speaker, Ms. Catherine
Trautmann, member of European parliament.
>>CATHERINE TRAUTMANN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Excellencies, ladies and
gentlemen. As another European voice, I wish to affirm the strong engagement of
all the YAWU (phonetic) institutions in the process of the IGF which is, for
us, a special and unique space for discussion between all who are involved in
Internet governance. This platform gives us a common context of ideas,
experiences, and propositions in which we can find inspiration for decision and
action. The main topics brings the framework and continuity we need to bring
our points of view closer. The adjunction of new items like critical resources,
semantic web, protection of children, bill of rights and others shows that the
method is open so that the responsibility of the results belongs to the
stakeholders. I want to mention now the key points which we hope will be taken
in consideration by the participants. Two words express basically the goal of
Internet governance: Security and privacy. That means that the respect of
fundamental rights and especially of freedom of expression a must be considered
as a truly unquestioned principle of information society. There is no free
economy, free information if the freedom of individuals, NGOs and journalists
has no sufficient guarantee. It's vital to counter attempts of censorship and
ensure that Internet's capability to be a means of free expression is
maintained. We must also ensure that technological convergence and economical
concentration don't constitute impediments to freedom and diversity. That's why
the respect of structural qualities on the Internet, openness and
interoperability, is needed favoring complimentarity of a superiority of
platforms to reinforce its successful ability to boost innovation and
creativity in our global knowledge economy as in the resumption of social
injustice and the risky consequences of climate change. Security and stability
of Internet are amongst our priorities because we think without them the
citizens will not enjoy the benefits which the Internet offers and prohibited
business will increase as will the violence against people like harassment or
threats. Children must be especially secure online. It's very important that
this topic can be discussed at the IGF. We know that practical solutions are
expected to bridge the digital divide. This is not only about access and
connectivity linked to energetic issues as well but also about access to excess
which encompasses education and long life learning. It is also important to
talk about I.P. address allocation, organizations dealing with this issue are
encouraged to continue their work towards shaping allocation policies of I.P.
addresses, in a way respecting the justified needs of the developing countries.
Internet is in constant evolution in its technical aspects as well as in its
services. For example, the Internet of things is the subject of more and more
deliberations and sometimes (inaudible). As a concept, Internet of things
needs concretization and it would be good to take and discuss this topic which
is an emerging issue in public policy perspective in the agenda of the next
2008 IGF meeting. Let me finish in expressing the hope that a successful
meeting of the IGF will motivate institutional partners of the enhanced
cooperation to join the movement, and with some efforts participate to this
mutual benefit. States must elaborate their discussion, strategy, and method as
IGF build its own. Transparency, flexibility, and reciprocity. It's not only
a hope. I think it's a necessity, because we want a free, safe, and democratic
Internet. Thank you [ Applause ]
>>GILBERTO GIL: Thank you, Ms. Trautmann. Next speaker, Mr. Jainder Singh,
permanent secretary, department of information technology, India.
>>JAINDER SINGH: Mr. Chairman, participants from across the world, it is
indeed a pleasure to speak at this IGF in Rio de Janeiro. ICTs are a
fundamental all element of all emerging global knowledge societies. They may
lead to greater opportunities for those who can partake of them, but they may
also lead to greater exclusion for those who cannot. While India is a leading
country in the I.T. sector globally the benefits of the Internet revolution
have not fully percolated to the everyday life of the common man. This is
particularly true for those in the rural areas. Inclusive development is an
imperative. We are of the view that the IGF needs to maintain the overall
development orientation across all the themes. There are several challenges
that must be addressed in order to make the vision of a truly inclusive
knowledge society a reality. Perhaps the first challenge towards enabling a
solution on such a large scale is to review the issues relating to access.
Broadband access, access to technology, access to content. This is no easy
matter, especially in India which is demographically and linguistically so
diverse. I propose to give an example from India. The government has launched
an ambitious process to establish 100,000 village Internet kiosks a national
broadband network is being rolled out to give connectivity to these centers.
This would provide access to 600,000 villages. These centers are being
established through a public/private partnership model. The centers would
provide access to education, telemedicine, public services, remote banking, and
entertainment to hitherto unreached sections of society. These 100,000 centers
are expected to be operational by December 2008. Capacity building is a private
area to enable meaningful participation of a larger number of people in the use
of the Internet. This is critical because of the challenges posed not only by
illiteracy but also by information illiteracy. Diversity is particularly
important. In India, which is a truly multilingual society, only a relatively
small percentage of Indians can read and write English. We believe that
Indians should be able to use the Internet in they're own languages. We have as
many as 22 official languages, and 11 scripts. In this context,
Internationalized Domain Names assume importance. We are an open society, and
as a democratic nation we support the principles of openness in the Internet
domain. We need to focus on security aspects as well. The stakeholders in the
Internet need to do more to promote Internet security. There is a greater need
to exchange and make available data pertaining to incidents as well as to
technological solutions to resolve and prevent such incidents. We already have
more than 200 million mobile users. We are now adding 7 million users every
month. This makes us the fastest growing mobile market in the world. We hope
that India would also be able to achieve similar growth in the Internet arena.
The third IGF will be held in New Delhi from December 8th to 11th 2008. The IGF
is an evolving process of continuity. We are sure that the fruitful discussion
of this second IGF will set the tone for the evolving dialogue in the third
IGF. Discussions on the five themes of this IGF would be continued in the New
Delhi IGF meeting. This IGF, and in particular the way forward working session,
will indicate the issues which are to be considered important. It is in the
keeping of the spirit of the IGF philosophy of inclusiveness, the deliberations
in New Delhi could perhaps also cover the universalization of the Internet and
implications for governance. Development could also be treated alongside the
other themes so that attention could be paid to this dimension. We anticipate
that the issues such as access challenges in rural areas and capacity building
would be discussed in the third IGF. The security of Internet resources and the
need for cooperation among stakeholders and nations could be part of this
agenda. The broad multistakeholder format would be followed. The discussion in
the IGF would no doubt reflect the principles of multilateralism, democracy and
transparency of Internet governance. It is an honor and privilege for us to
welcome all the delegates and the participants to take part in the IGF 2008 in
New Delhi. The weather will be lovely at that time of the year and I hope you
will all be able to come to New Delhi in December next year. I take this
opportunity to thank Brazil for hosting this meeting of the Internet Governance
Forum. Thank you [ Applause ]
>>GILBERTO GIL: Thank you, Mr. Singh. I am the next and the last speaker. [
Applause ]
>>GILBERTO GIL: I am certain that politics are being re-invented here. We
all know about the huge challenges our imagination and our intelligence
received with the existence of the Internet. All of that means today a new
proposal for political spheres in contemporary societies. We are reviewing the
ideas that oriented the social spaces and values, spaces that were called
cities or republics before. The names that were given to this public,
Republic, which would be the space for the co-existence of people no matter how
different their cultures and economic conditions. The Internet is the new
example of this immaterial society. It is symbolic and creates a space to
exist fully for all differences. It is the concrete example of this fabric of
cities and spaces in contemporary life. We find in the word "governance" a way
to exemplify what political processes require for us to come to minimal
agreement and consultations. We are practicing here in this ritual of
approximation and mutual knowledge. We are now approaching this novelty in new
policies. However, there are conflicts that go beyond lack of knowledge. It's
different points of view that need to be taken into account. We have to pay
lots of attention to that. Just our active and critical collaboration will be
capable of absorbing the different needs that are at stake in the new era of
communications and exchange. Our imagination must invent new frameworks
allowing us to regulate these conflicts for the benefit of all and for the
establishment of a common environment of cooperation. We need to state that our
cooperation to create public policies in this world summit which takes place in
the City of Rio de Janeiro has for purpose to invert the picture of asymmetries
that we see today. I can see that our discussion will progress during these
days, taking yet another step along the past that will lead us to a global
public policy. I think, and I am persuaded, that the new technologies are the
infinite possibilities that our civilization has built for the exercise of its
own freedom, new relationships and freedoms. Now this language that follows
standards different from traditional ones must be accessible to all, because
until all of us are free, then each one of us is less free than he or she could
be. The treaty established by UNESCO is a very important framework showing the
path towards a good relationship between states and societies. We are in an era
when access for all to the knowledge generated by mankind is the only condition
for us to have justice and safety. We are becoming aware of the fact that the
intensity of conflicts increases as systems of deprivation increases for
populations and territories. The Internet must be a territory for all, an area
of public coexistence for the exercise of this new citizenship. There is a
promise which needs to be fulfilled and carried forward by each one of us
present here today. We have to help prevail the spirit which is behind each
word. And we must not allow our speeches to empty or meaning. We need to have
a live economy supporting symbolic values and densities. A true economics. We
have to be able to navigate on this ocean along its flows in order to weave the
networks and links that dynamize our contemporary society. And these words
just need to remind us all that our speeches and our languages should be
focused on this greater aspiration that brings us all here and which is our
reason to be, our possible worlds are built and spread by our voices. The
Internet is transnational. It cannot be under the control of a country or even
of some country. We need an ecology for the network like we need an ecology for
the planet. And to deal with these issues, we need perhaps to think about
extending the mandate of the United Nations on the subject. We need to
establish a post-multistakeholder system, a new multistakeholderism. Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>>GILBERTO GIL: The secretary will make some observations, some informations,
and then we close the session.
>>MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you, Chairman. Please note that the written program
that you have received does not present the latest version, and please check on
our Web site for the latest versions. There are some changes. This afternoon's
session on critical internet resources begins at 3:00 and not 3:30, as was
originally planned. 3:00, critical internet resources in this room. The
panelists are kindly requested to go now to the room (saying name) immediately
after this meeting to prepare for the session. I would also like to draw your
attention, there's a meeting for parliamentarians from all countries who are
present here for an interactive in the room imperial at 1:30. And lastly, at
4:00 there is a meeting with representatives of Portuguese-speaking countries
in the room (saying name). Thank you.
>>GILBERTO GIL: Thank you very much. We warmly welcome all of you in the
city of Rio for this interesting and very important meeting. We are concluding
our first session of speakers, and lots of ideas about how Internet will deal
with the rights, the classical rights, and the new rights that we have faced.
Diversity, openness, access, security, all of those items, all of those themes
have been discussed here, and continue to be discussed during the new sessions.
Thank you very much. Have a good break, and profit the day in Rio and the next
days for this very important meeting of the Internet. Thank you very much. [
Applause ]
