APDIP Focus on Internet Governance at the Asia-Pacific Conference for WSIS, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, 31 May - 2 June 2005

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APDIP, in collaboration with UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and Asia Pacific Network Information Centre formulated Internet Governance priorities and recommendations for the Tehran Declaration on Building the Information Society in Asia and the Pacific and the Regional Action Plan towards Information Society for Asia and the Pacific.

Both the declaration and action plan are expected to be adopted by members at the High Level Asia-Pacific Conference for the World Summit on the Information Society in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran from 31 May to 2 June 2005.

A paper entitled: “Voices from Asia-Pacific: Internet Governance Priorities and Recommendations,” has been developed for the Tehran Conference. This paper captures the results of the Open Regional Dialogue on Internet Governance (ORDIG) – an initiative created to understand governance priorities in the Asia-Pacific region, and provide Asia-Pacific perspectives to the United Nations Working Group on Internet Governance (UNWGIG) and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). This paper documents findings from an extensive regional survey, an online discussion forum and a wide range of research activities. It also contains an extensive discussion of Asian views and opinions on Internet Governance.

As a supplement to this paper, a policy brief and executive summary has been developed. They provide a list of:

six working principles, which provide a working definition of Internet governance and establish some baseline concepts
six key recommendations, each of which is derived from ORDIG research and consultations
policy recommendations organized by topics

The Action Plan incorporates these principles and recommendations in seven lines of actions for Internet Governance in Asia and the Pacific region:

promote regional policy and technical harmonization to ensure inter-network security, efficiency, and to foster end-user trust, consumer protection and privacy
work towards resolving immediate Internet governance issues such as spam and virus attacks
encourage inter-governmental cooperation and harmonization for the adoption of legal frameworks for the promotion of e-commerce
ensure interoperability by promoting the adoption of open standards throughout the region
foster stakeholder dialogue and discussion on Internet governance issues at the national, sub-regional and regional levels
increase the awareness of technical, social, political, and economic dimensions to the management of the Internet
build capacities at the national and regional level for greater participation of sovereign states in global fora and decision-making processes