[afrinic-discuss] Press Release - AfrISPA's Response to the current debate on Internet Governance

[Eric Osiakwan]

    AfrISPA's Response to the current debate on Internet Governance

 

1) The term "Internet Governance" is very broad and covers a vast number of issues

 

2) Coordination of Internet unique identifiers is currently being handled very well in a multi-stakeholder Public / Private Partnership known as ICANN 

 

3) As AfrISPA we support ICANN continuing to handle co-ordination of IP addresses and Internet Domain names 

 

4) As AfrISPA we are supportive of the inclusive approach that ICANN structures provide all stakeholders 

 

5) In Africa, we have an emerging RIR, AfriNIC, which handles the administration of IP addresses for Africans, by Africans. AfrISPA is supportive of AfriNIC handling this role in its current inclusive, bottom-up fashion

 

6) As AfrISPA we are concerned about issues related to cyber-crime, spam, child pornography and hate-oriented content, and the high costs of bandwidth in developing countries

 

7) We believe that these issues are a neglected area of Internet Governance and are the more urgent and focal areas for the WSIS, UN and ITU to address. These are cross-border problems that tend to span multiple jurisdictions 

 

8) It is therefore necessary for the aforementioned bodies to find ways (within existing treaties, MoUs, bilateral and multilateral agreements) to address these concerns 

 

9) In some cases model legislation may need to be drawn up. In others it may be necessary to enact new treaties on methods of dealing with offences that span multiple jurisdictions 

 

10) We strongly object to any externally imposed adjustment in the role of ICANN or of AfriNIC

 

11) ICANN is NOT the body that can deal with the issues mentioned under 6) above 

 

12) AfrISPA is in the process of preparing a comprehensive position paper in consultation with and on behalf of the African ISP community to sufficiently address this issue 

 
About AfrISPA

AfrISPA is a continental association of African Internet Service Provider Associations @ www.afrispa.org. Our mission is promoting the growth of the Internet in Africa and its use as a tool for development and integration into the global knowledge economy through the strengthening of social and technical infrastructures.





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Eric M.K Osiakwan
Executive Secretary
AfrISPA
Tel: + 233.21.258800
Fax: + 233.21.258811
Cell: + 233.244.386792
Mail: eric at afrispa.org
Web: www.afrispa.org
Handle: eosiakwan
ICQ: 164125857
Pmb 208, Accra-North
42 Ring Road Central, Accra-North, BusyInternet Facility
Blog: http://afrispa.skybuilders.com/users/Eric/blog.html
"Tomorrow Now"
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