<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="MS Exchange Server version 6.5.7638.1">
<TITLE>[Mmwg] Adminstrativa</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV id=idOWAReplyText58373 dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Hello all,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>Here are some rough ideas for a forum
governance mechanism that I humbly submit for discussion. They are designed to
be used by any forum where global and binding decisions must be
made:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>1. Representation</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>A forum is composed of 2 main groups:
governement and civil society, each made up of parties.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>The governement group is made up of
governements, i.e. UN-recognized governements. Each government is one
party.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>The civil society group is made up of all
the other parties who wish to be represented, whether they are from the private
sector, "classic" civil society, academia, ONGs, etc. A party within the
civil society group is an organization having at least 1000 members.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>2. Voting</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>Each party nominates one voting delegate.
Each party has one vote.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>Votes are tallied by group. A group's position
is ratified when that position has </FONT>a 2/3 majority
within the group.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>All forum decisions are made either unanimously in plenary, or when
both groups vote the same way if the decision requires a vote because agreement
cannot be reached on the issue. The steering committee decides when a vote is
necessary. </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>An on-line voting system must be used when a vote is
conducted.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>3. Talking time and seating</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>All parties can speak as much as they wish during plenary meetings,
subject to logistical constraints imposed by the chair.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>In plenaries, the number of delegates allowed per party
will vary according to the total number of parties and the available seats.
Plenary seating must be sufficient to accommodate at least one delegate from each
party.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>4. Steering committee</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>A steering committee must be created before any other forum
business is conducted. The steering committee is composed of 10 members : one
representative of each UN geographic region (Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe,
GRULAC, WEOG) per group. Each member is elected by the parties in his region. [I
need help here. When this votes happens, civil society parties are theoretically
not yet accredited (see point 7). How can parties vote for steering committee
members if they are not yet accredited? We need a bootstrap loader here.]</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>All steering committee decisions must be ratified by at least 7 of
its members.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>5. Forum creation</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>A forum is created when any existing forum decides to create one,
or [I need help here. What rules can be used to initiate a forum from
something else than another forum?]</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>6. Chair</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>The chair is nominated by the steering committee.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>7. Accreditation</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>New parties from the civil society group must be pre-accredited by
the steering committee. Final accreditation of newly registered parties is
ratified by a vote of the forum parties before any new forum meeting (physical
or virtual). Party accreditation can be revoked by the forum.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>NOTES</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>Inidividual representation</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>No individuals representing themselves are allowed in the forum. The forum is
a place for communities of interest to negociate and decide on issues. Individuals wishing
to be heard will have to either lobby a party or create their own
organization and seek accreditation. The requirement of 1000 members is intended to prevent
fly-by-nighters and puts an emphasis on the need to organize in order to
participate in fora.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>
</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>2/3 majority</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>I think the UN way to seek consensus is
counter-productive. Granted, all negociations have intrinsic
inefficiencies, but trying to reach consensus on everything too often
dilutes final agreements to gibberish.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>Division of votes in groups</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>The idea behind the tallying of votes by group is to prevent a
large number of civil society parties to overtake governments in absolute voting
power.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>Civil society</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>The idea of putting all non-governmental
associations in one group is to simplify things and make the mechanism scalable
to other types of fora than IGF. Power within civil
society is thus reached by having as many parties as possible, since each party
has one vote. This could have the pervese side effect of encouraging
organization fractioning to increase representation within the civil society group.</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>Binding decisions</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>I realize that IGF will not make binding
decisions, but I wanted to try and put together a mechanism for fora that would
also eventually have to make binding decisions.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>- Luc Faubert</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>ISOC Québec</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV></DIV>
</BODY>
</HTML>