UNO debates Internet governance

UNO stresses the need for dialogue in forming a Global Internet Governance System.
The two-day Global Forum on Internet Governance finished last week in New York with a general agreement that capacity needs to be built in Less Developed Countries (LDCs) and a call by these to be more involved. The findings of the Forum will enable Kofi Annan to set up a Working Group on Internet Governance.

More than 200 participants were involved in the Forum, which is a first phase towards the creation of the second World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in 2005. The main areas under debate were Internet infrastructure, network security, transaction and content, e-commerce, e-contracting, consumer protection, intellectual property, privacy, information security, spam, cultural and linguistic diversity, taxation,
jurisdiction, choice of law and universal access.

The UNO is concerned that LDCs should not fall behind the more developed nations, victims of  a Digital Divide. Therefore part of its initiative is the Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative, launched in December at the World Summit on the Information Society, connecting thousands of schools in LDCs through IT.

Kofi Annan has called this Initiative a means "to empower people, strengthen governance, open up new markets and galvanise our efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals". This Initiative will form part of other schemes, for example the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) e-Schools Initiative, to bring more and more African children on-line.

This is the organization derided by George Bush as a "League of Nations" before he totally disregarded his obligations under international law, flouted the UN Charter and disrespected the institution as a whole.

There is a worldwide forum on internet governance, at www.wsis-online.net/igov-forum