Since the inception of the Internet Governance Forum, the Council of Europe, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) have been working on a joint initiative on public participation in internet governance. The three entities have held joint workshops around this theme at both the Rio de Janeiro (2007 and Hyderabad (2008) meetings of the Internet Governance (IGF), and a first discussion paper was presented.

The aim of the CoE/UNECE/APC project is to consider whether there is scope for developing a code of good practice on information, participation and transparency in Internet governance. Such a code, if developed, could build on existing internet governance experience and the principles concerning Internet governance which were adopted at the World Summit on the Information Society.

On 13 May 2009, at a discussion meeting held in the context of the Open Consultations for the IGF 2009, the initiative presented a second paper, containing a mapping of existing information and participation arrangements of major internet governance entities.

At the 2009 IGF (Sharm el-Sheikh, 15-18 November), a draft code of good practice on information, participation and transparency in internet governance will be discussed at a workshop.

More information: Council of Europe’s page

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