INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION
Document: WG-WSIS-7/5
COUNCIL WORKING GROUP ON THE Date: 30 November 2004
WORLD SUMMIT ON THE English only
INFORMATION SOCIETY
7th meeting, Geneva — 13-14 December, 2004
ITU Secretary-General
INTERNET GOVERNANCE
1. Discussion within the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG)
1. The topic of Internet Governance was extensively debated by governments and other stakeholders in
the final stages of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. Although there was
agreement on some basic principles, there also remained divergent opinions and different, even conflicting,
visions in this area. It was recognized that these differences could not be resolved during the first phase of
the Summit, so this gave birth to the idea of creating a multi-stakeholder Working Group on Internet
Governance (WGIG), under the aegis of the UN Secretary-General, which would report its findings during
the Tunis phase of the Summit.
2. Many of the issues that fall under the wider political concept of “Internet Governance” have already
been extensively debated during the first phase of WSIS and agreed principles and actions have been
stipulated in the final documents of the Geneva phase. There is wide agreement among governments, as
stated in the decision of PrepCom-1 of the Tunis phase (in Hammamet), that these issues should not be
reopened. Therefore, there is no need, for instance, to discuss within WGIG such issues as the free flow of
information, countering spam, network security, regional root servers, privacy protection or the misuse of
ICTs.
3. Without having a shared common understanding and, most importantly, a narrow definition of
Internet Governance, discussions in the WGIG are likely to remain unproductive. The WGIG, therefore,
should strive to interpret the term “Internet governance” in its most narrow context. WGIG should focus on
the core activity of the management of Internet resources by ICANN, in particular top-level domains, which
is where important issues remain unresolved.
2. Inputs to WGIG from ITU
4. At the seventh meeting of the ITU Council Working Group on WSIS, Councillors will have the
opportunity to discuss contributions on the topic of Internet Governance from the elected officials, the
secretariat and the membership. It is proposed that ITU should make a contribution to the WGIG at a later
date, focusing in particular on matters related to the work of ICANN.