AMMAN - The first meeting of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) will take place in Geneva November 23-25, whereas on November 24, the meeting will be held in an open format, allowing all governments and other stakeholders to interact with the Working Group.
Charles Sha’ban, Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) Regional Office executive director has been selected to the Working Group which has recently been established and announced by UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.
The Secretary-General was requested to establish a working group on Internet governance by the first phase of the WSIS held in Geneva in December 2003.
Sha’ban expressed his deep satisfaction over this selection saying “it’s a worldwide recognition of our constant contributions to the global Internet developments.”
Sha’ban is an active member of the ICANN’s Business, Registrar and Intellectual Property Constituencies, in addition to his Board membership at the Multilingual Internet Names Consortium (MINC), a member of the Digital Office Committee of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAGO).
The WGIG includes 40 members from governments, private sector and civil society, representing all regions. Sha’ban is among the six candidates who are chosen to represent the Business sector.
The task of this Working Group is to organize an open dialogue on Internet Governance, among all stakeholders, and to bring recommendations on this subject to the second phase of the Summit.
The Working Group will prepare the ground for a decision on this issue by the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be held in Tunis in November 2005.
“The Working Group is not a negotiating forum. Its purpose is to facilitate the negotiations that will take place in Tunis. We come into this process as facilitators, and will strive to establish a dialogue of good faith among all participants,” Special Adviser to the Secretary-General for the WSIS, Chair of the WGIG, Nitin Desai said.
The report of the Working Group is expected to be submitted to the Secretary-General in July 2005 and will be made available to the WSIS second phase in Tunis.
The full list of WGIG members is as follows: Chairman is Nitin Desai, Members are: Abdullah Al-Darrab, deputy governor of Technical Affairs, ICT Commission of Saudi Arabia; Carlos Alfonso, technical director, RIT, Rio de Janeiro; Peng Hwa Ang, dean, School of Communication, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Karen Banks, director, GreenNet, Association for Progressive Communications, London; Faryel Beji, president and CEO, Tunisian Internet Agency; Vittorio Bertola, ICANN at-large Advisory Committee, Turin; Jose Alexandre Bicalho, member, Brazilian Internet Steering Committee; advisor, Board of Directors, National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel); Kangsik Cheon, chief operating officer, International Business Development, Netpia, Seoul; Trevor Clarke, permanent representative of Barbados to the United Nations in Geneva; Avri Doria, technical consultant, Providence, Rhode Island; William Drake, senior associate, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, Geneva; chairman, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility; Raul Echeberria, executive director, LACNIC, Montevideo; Dev Erriah, chairman, ICT Authority of Mauritius; Baher Esmat, telecom planning manager, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt; Mark Esseboom, director, Strategy and International Affairs, Directorate General for Telecom and Post, Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Netherlands; Juan Fernandez, coordinator, Commission of Electronic Commerce, Cuba; Ayesha Hassan, senior policy manager for E-Business, IT and Telecoms, International Chamber of Commerce, Paris; Qiheng Hu, adviser, Science and Technology Commission, Ministry of Information Industry, China; former Vice-President, ChineseAcademy of Sciences; Willy Jensen, director, Norwegian Post and Telecom Authority; Wolfgang Kleinwachter, professor, International Communication Policy and Regulation, University of Aarhus; Jovan Kurbalija, director, DiploFoundation, Geneva; Iosif Charles Legrand, researcher, California Institute of Technology and CERN, Geneva; Donald MacLean, director, MacLean Consulting, Ottawa; Allen Miller, executive director, World Information Technology and Services Alliance, Arlington, Virginia; Juan Carlos Moreno Solines, executive director, Gobierno Digital, Quito; Jacqueline A. Morris, consultant, Port of Spain; Olivier Nana Nzepa, coordinator, Africa Civil Society, Yaounde; Alejandro Pisanty, director, Computing Academic Services, Universidad Autonoma de Mexico; Khalilullah Qazi, Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations in Geneva; Rajashekar Ramaraj, managing director, Sify Limited, Chennai; Masaaki Sakamaki, director, Computer Communications Division, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan; Joseph Sarr, president, NTIC Commission, Dakar Regional Council; Peimann Seadat, Permanent Mission of Iran to the United Nations in Geneva; Charles Sha’ban; Lyndall Shope-Mafole, chairperson, Presidential National Commission on Information Society and Development, South Africa; Waudo Siganga, chairman, Computer Society of Kenya; Mikhail Vladimirovich Yakushev, director, Legal Support Department, Ministry of Information Technology and Communications, Russian Federation; Peter Zangl, deputy director-general, Information Society Directorate General, European Commission, Brussels; and Jean-Paul Zens, director, Media and Telecom Department, Ministry of State, Luxembourg.