Remarks of Assistant Secretary Strickling at Internet Governance Forum | NTIA

Remarks of Assistant Secretary Strickling at Internet Governance Forum: Topics/Subtopics:

A treaty conference in which only member states have a vote is most definitely not the right venue for such discussions. No one should mistake such a conference for an open, multistakeholder process. Certainly, much could be done to improve the transparency of a treaty conference such as the upcoming World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). A number of important suggestions to that end were made yesterday by civil society groups attending the IGF here in Baku. But even if the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) takes seriously the suggestions of civil society and improves the transparency of the Dubai deliberations, at the end of the day, only the member states will have a vote. In addition to being slow and bureaucratic, a treaty conference can never be a true multistakeholder process where all interests are fairly represented. Issues that affe...

Full article: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/speechtestimony/2012/remarks-assi...