Abu-Ghazaleh: UN Holds Meeting on Ways to Improve Internet Governance

AMMAN - Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, the Vice Chair of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force (UN ICT TF), said that last week's meeting held at the UN headquarters will research the topic of sound internet management, a subject of controversy within  various international organizations, governments, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the international business community.
 
In a special interview with Al-Dustour, Abu-Ghazaleh revealed that the subject of internet management occupied a major part of the discussions that took place during the first phase of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) held last December in Geneva. The result was a decision issued by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to establish teams that can put forth recommendations on the subject before the next summit meet to be held in Tunisia in 2005.
 
He added that the team, which met at the UN headquarters, and whose meeting was inaugurated by UN Secretary General Annan, includes representatives from all parties concerned with internet management and governance, to offer different points of views on these subjects. The meeting was attended by UN officials and will last for three days, the result of which will be a report on internet governance to be presented to the UN Secretary General.   
 
Abu-Ghazaleh confirmed that the third day will involve a meeting of the UN ICT TF to follow up on the results of the meeting and come up with a plan for the next round. Moreover, the UN ICT TF will discuss several other topics, most importantly the set up of a system to follow-up on the decisions adopted at the WSIS in Geneva as well as a system to measure the performance in the execution of the 2000 New York summit decisions. Abu-Ghazaleh said that these supervisions aim to place responsibility on the world as a whole for to implement the issued decisions by the WSIS.   
 
Abu-Ghazaleh will attend the meetings to be held at the UN headquarters as part of the UN Global Compact committee to be issued by the Global Forum on Internet Governance on May 24.
 
Abu-Ghazaleh said that the meeting, where major international firms will be participating in, aims to establish programs and principles related to the social obligations of those companies, noting that fortune and economic development are two important issues that are incomplete without taking into consideration the social benefits to be gained from their creation.
 
He added that the meeting will discuss methods on how major companies can take into consideration this social dimension as well as the benefit returns for individuals working in local societies, a matter which will inevitably lead to a more active private sector firms role in cooperation with the government to improve the standard of social services on offer for citizens.
Abu-Ghazaleh added that the companies that signed the UN Global Compact are committed to certain specific standards concerning their performance and are obliged to present annual reports that prove their adherence to those standards.