By APC

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, 13 November 2005

APC has participated extensively in the Source: Tunis Agenda for the Information Society">internet governance

process at the World Summit on Information Society. Out of this participation and in collaboration with other partners, including members of the Source: APC ICT Policy Handbook and APC Annual Report 2005.">WSIS

civil society Source: TechSoup Glossary and GenderIT.org">internet

governance caucus, APC has crystallized a set of recommendations with regard to internet governance ahead of the final Summit in Tunis in November 2005.

APC proposes specific actions in each of the following five areas:

1. The establishment of an Internet Governance Forum;

2. The transformation of ICANN into a global body with full authority over DNS management, and an appropriate form of accountability to its stakeholders in "state" in this glossary). As a general rule, "government" should not be capitalised.

Source: Wikipedia">government

, private sector and civil society;

3. The initiation of a Style information: APC uses multi-stakeholder with a hyphen between "multi" and "stakeholder".

Source: Frequently Asked Questions about Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships in ICTs for Development: A guide for national ICT policy animators">multi-stakeholder

convention on internet governance and universal human rights that will codify the basic rights applicable to the internet, which will be legally binding in international law with particular emphasis on clauses in the universal declaration of human rights specifically relevant to the internet, such as rights to GenderIT.org and APC Internet Rights Charter">freedom of expression

, freedom of association and "African journalists trained in how to communicate securely online" (APCNews and Toni Eliasz, 30 September 2004), Take Back the Tech! and APC Internet Rights Charter">privacy

.

4. Ensuring APC Internet Rights Charter">internet access

is universal and affordable. The internet is a global public space that should be open and accessible to all on a non-discriminatory basis. The internet, therefore, must be seen as a global public infrastructure. In this regard we recognize the internet to be a global public good and access to it is in the public interest, and must be provided as a public provision.

5. Measures to promote capacity building in developing countries with regard to increasing developing country participation in global public policy forums on internet governance.

(END/2005)