The following are the outputs of the real-time captioning taken during the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Jalisco, Mexico, from 5 to 9 December 2016. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the event, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
***
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: This year's session, it is divided into two. The first part will be devoted to gather back feedback from the community Retreat feedback proceedings which we had the Retreat in July in New York and we posted findings and proceedings on the website, the IGF website, and we had a commentary review period. The document, it is still open, but it lasted from August until now. This is an opportunity for the community to give us verbal feedback on in I issues on the Retreat, any ideas or suggestions. This part will last for about 40 minutes.
The second part, it is the traditional open microphone taking stock of what's happened here at this meeting, and also suggestions for improvement for the future and what you want to keep for the future. Another thing is, we have the microphones there, if you can see, there is four microphones and if you would like to make an intervention you can please lineup in front of any one of those microphones and we'll take them in turns. There will be a limit of 2 minutes for each intervention and there is going to be a countdown clock on the screen up there so you can see the time that's remaining for your intervention.
To start it off, let me please introduce our panel: We have Lynn St. Amour, the MAG Chair; we have Mr. Juwang Zhu, Director of the Sustainable Development Division, which is what IGF was under and they're in charge of overseeing the IGF; we have Yolanda Martinez from the Host Country Organizing Committee.
Thank you very much.
I'll now give it to the MAG Chair to start off.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
So as Chengetai Masango said, we'll do this in two parts. The next 40 minutes or so we'll concentrate mainly on the Retreat. It is an open mic, that's not forced, if somebody can't be here for the second part we would take comments, they won't be, you know, rejected, if you will. If we could consolidate this discussion around the Retreat, that would help us to have a discussion and take that input back.
To introduce this, Mr. Zhu has kindly offered to say a few words to put this in context and we'll go directly to the open mic and people will lineup at their leisure and it is quickly determined by how quickly the lines fill up.
Thank you.
>> JUWANG ZHU: Thank you.
As Chengetai Masango mentioned earlier, last year we led a team in supporting the General Assembly 10‑year review of the WSIS+10 outcome. As an important part of the decision taken by the General Assembly, the Member States renewed for another 10 years the mandate of the IGF. That was a decision universally welcomed by all stakeholders.
As a follow‑up action to the WSIS+10 review, there was a request in the outcome document that in renewing the 10‑year mandate of the IGF the stakeholders should also look into how to show progress on working modalities and the participation of relevant stakeholders from developing countries and the accelerated implementation of the recommendations in the report of the Working Group on the improvements of the IGF developed by the Commission of Science and Technology of Development.
The Retreat of this past July was a concrete first step in following up on that mandate. That follow‑up is an ongoing process and the Retreat, it is the first step. As Lynn mentioned, and also mentioned by Chengetai Masango and the outcome, the result of the document of the Retreat, it is still open for comments and we would be very eager to hear from you because your comments, your views, they're crucial for us to work together in fulfilling this objective of improving the working modalities of the IGF.
I would also like to put us in the perspective of a 10‑year mandate. We had by and large a successful 10 years of IGF. Looking ahead for the next 10 years, what is your vision of the IGF? What do you want the next 10 years of IGF to look like? What in your view is really productive, successful IGF for everyone? An IGF for all? How do you define a successful IGF? What would you like at the end of the 10‑year mandate of the IGF, the future IGF to look like?
We are very eager to hear from you on these questions.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you, Mr. Zhu.
The open mic has just begun. I have to say I'm quite surprised to see that there is nobody in the queue. There are no comments, reflections. People are starting to move now.
What we'll do is rotate around the mics depending on partly how many individuals are behind each one of the mics.
Are there numbers? I know it takes time to turn, you're 4, you're up top there? What number mic? 2, 4 and why don't we start up there. What number are you? I'm trying to speed it up if we identify by mic.
We'll start with mic 3.
>> ANDREA SAKS: I'm Andrea Saks.
First of all, a lot of it was very good, we got great help, we still have an awareness problem. There were fabulous kids that did really well on the dynamics of what we need. No one is reading the accessible meetings document, and we need to do more on that. What we decided to put forth to the group ‑‑ and I met Lynn St. Amour in our usual office in the ladies room and told her ‑‑ we had decided we wanted to write a training, a training for everybody in the staff that is in the Host Country on how we should be accessible on the different areas. There is no point in going through the difficulties. People like Diego, Clara who are helping us in the technical stuff, that was great. Also other people who were absolutely wonderful, who helped me roam around and find out where I needed to go, they took care of the physical aspects, they were great. There are so many of them. I can't name them all. But a training authorized by the IGF that we have agreed to try to produce so that accessible training is part of the IGF program.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you, Andrea. I said it was an excellent idea, and we'll put that forward in the events going forward.
I want to make the comment we're not intending to respond to each of them. Certainly the Secretary of The MAG will look at the suggestions made here and incorporate them as appropriate going forward. The only reason for doing that is to ensure we get as many questions from all of you in here in this session.
Let me go to mic 4 now.
>> FERNANDO PARMA: Hello. I'm Fernando Parma, a representative from the company Niko Tech. I speak in Spanish because it is an important consideration given the fact that we are in Latin America to do so. It is important to come with the attitude of learning as well.
Secondly, it is important to open up a technical area, even invite the best engineers to ask them or consult with them given the fact that, for example, I am an engineer. I come here and I'm looking at different matters and I try to solve, trying to solve problems with my customers.
Here is something specific, but it is only questions, questions, questions, but we need ‑‑ a person, a specialist there to answer the questions here, something concrete.
Okay.
I think so.
Thank you very much.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
Let me go to WebEx queue.
>> REMOTE PARTICIPANT: What I think would be a great way forward is that there are so many major questions facing the Internet and everything around the Internet there is ‑‑ we bring together each year some of the brightest minds about and on that Internet. Still, I find that most people are just speaking to us from a panel, doing what they're hobby, between brackets, is, that's the end of the exchange but for a few questions. People are here from different communities, why not address a few topics? Put them in a room, maybe for two days, see if they can come up with an answer or Best Practice or a way forward that ‑‑ the challenges that face us, so they can be looked at in some way. We have that opportunity I think among us. I think that ‑‑ just try to revolutionize the settings that we have within the IGF and see if that could actually bring some changes.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you. An interesting comment.
Mic 2.
>> GARLAND McCOY: Thank you.
This is Garland McCoy with the technology institute. This is my 10th IGF participation doing workshops, et cetera.
I would like to see in the next 10 years more non‑ICT‑based companies come in, electric utilities, Caterpillar, Boeing ‑‑ not just American countries clearly, but other companies that clearly understand the value of the Internet in their business for their supply chain but could help us be disciples, if you will, to help understand the value of the Internet in ‑‑ whether it be travel, in resorts, in conferences, in financial areas, in all of the different supply chain issues that many of the companies have and subcontractors, et cetera, in the countries.
If we had more of these people helping us, again, send the message forward in the non‑traditional areas with government officials in these developing countries we might make a little bit more headway.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: We'll go to mic 3.
>> AUDIENCE: I'm wearing the hat of coordinator of IPv6 Best Practices. I want to echo what the comment from the first speaker about sharing of the output of IGF more proactively.
I think last year we posted the result of the Best Practices on the IGF website, perhaps it was shared on the mailing list where the U.N. secretary has connections. People don't usually read these things proactively or read emails. If there are face‑to‑face opportunities where we are able to share these outputs, it would raise much more awareness.
I think for this year Chengetai Masango shared that this WSIS+ Forum, a really good opportunity for us to be aware, hey, there is an opportunity, should we send a speaker there, if there are other related events that U.N. are aware of that we can actually share the output and face‑to‑face meetings, it could be maybe regional, national IGF meetings, any other meetings, that would be really, really helpful.
I want to comment about the selection of the MAG process. I think quite a number of people ask me, hey, how can I ‑‑ I'm interested to be on the MAG, how can I be selected? I'm not able to quite share apart from my ‑‑ the process that I went through as a Technical Community. If there are more clarifications on, you know, what other stakeholder groups go through the process, that would really help new people who are interested in the MAG to actually apply and go through the process.
Last point: I appreciate the U.N. Secretariat for opening opportunities for stakeholders to provide nominations for the MAG, or for this year, for the IGF Retreat. I think because each stakeholders group has to go through the process of selecting candidates within their constituencies. If we could have a bit more buffer in the process, in the deadline, that would be helpful and each group could have an effective selection process.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you for your comments.
I think that was a mixture of both some kind of operational, if you will and feedback on the Retreat. I really do appreciate that if we can move forward.
We'll go around in a circle here until we exhaust a queue.
The next, the WebEx queue.
>> NIGEL HICKSON: Thank you. Nigel Hickson from ICANN.
This is an excellent question. Thank you for posing it and for allowing us to answer it. Thank you for hosting this Retreat which has come out with a number of ideas which I think we need to follow‑up.
What do we do in 10 years' time? What do we want to see? We want to see a full room. We want to see every seat full. We want to see more ministers. We want to see more government officials. We want to see more business, non‑U.S. business. We want to see more people. We want to see active people. We want to see the Youth we're seeing today here 10 years older, some will still be Youth but they'll be 10 years older! We want people like me to retire!
[Applause]
We want the Youth that we have here today to be replaced by new Youth.
Ten years is a long time in the life of the Internet. Ten years is transformational. We'll be in a different place. The Internet Governance Forum will still have a mandate, will still have a purpose. As long as it attracts people, as long as it has a purpose, it will be a real place for people to come. We want to see a MAG being more than a program Committee. With all that talent on the MAG, we want to see it actually put down strategy year‑by‑year for the future evolution of the IGF.
Thank you very much indeed.
[Applause]
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you very much, Nigel. Clearly had a strong resonance with everyone here.
>> AUDIENCE: Good afternoon. I'm a part of Latin American Civil Society.
Within the next 10 years what I would like to see is that technologies such as quantum computer systems among others could be not only decisions regarding as to why they're developed, but also how they're developed.
I would hope that we would forget the elephant in the room. We still have governments that are still spying on us through the Internet that are repressive and we're not talking about these topics. There is a rhetoric here. The first guarantors of our Rights in some of our governments are the ones who mainly attack us sometimes. In 10 years I would like a free, safe, neutral Internet. I want all of the Internet all the time for everyone.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you very much.
Mic 2 I think at the corner.
>> AUDIENCE: I'm Alex. I'm a student here. This is my first IGF. I'm really excited to be here.
I think there was many things that were nice in this conference. First, I think this was really a good opportunity to really grasp all of the challenges today of the Internet. I was really happy to be able to connect with so many interesting people and to move forward.
Also there were so many conferences. I really appreciated to be able to find the transcripts and to have the replays of all videos. That was really great.
What I remember though, in main session, I remember the moderator saying that we did not come up enough concrete actions at the end of the conference. I also remember many people saying that there were participants all over the world, in developing countries that are not able to be a part of the IGF because they didn't have the means to come here. I have been thinking that there were so many local IGFs that were here, I know there was a main session with them so that they can ‑‑ so that they could say what was being done on the local level, however the complaint I have heard from them was that they were not really able to tell enough what they had done and that their outcome was really on using this main outcome. My remark would be I think as a roadmap it would be great if we could make every IGF in the local part agree on some common outcome and then maybe have some Working Group at the national, international IGF, maybe summarizing all of those interesting things and maybe having this at the beginning of the conference so people could discuss upon it so that at the end we could have a non‑binding document on all the challenges and the ways of moving forward.
That was my remark.
Thank you very much.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
[Applause]
We now have an intervention from a remote ‑‑ from a remote moderator for an online participant.
>> REMOTE PARTICIPATION: Yes. Thank you.
This is from Dre Williams for the Civil Society, West Indies.
She says that for this session and for the future, we need to bring the issues of electricity, how it is generated and the issue of the spectrum, how it is shared closer to the center of the Internet Governance discussion. I have been hearing that all week from thousands of miles away in St. Lucia.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you. That was mentioned a couple ‑‑ in a couple of sessions here this week.
We'll go back to mic 3.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: I'm Tracy Hackshaw.
Small and developing States comprise under six countries and territories which are some of the most vulnerable places on the planet. For five years our chapter and others have partnered to organize a space at the IGF for them to discuss issues relative to circumstances. These issues being strongly aligned to the U.N. SDGs. The issues cover the range from access, critical infrastructure, climate change, Sustainable Development.
We believe that the time has come to follow-through on the work being done in other U.N. Fora to create a formal space for the SIDS in the IGF process and request that the MAG give us various options to ensure that the integration of the small and developing states issues are institutionalized within the Internet Governance Forum.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you, Tracy.
Now we go to the WebEx mic which I have to say is ‑‑ it is wonderful to see him there. I have seen him in so many sessions sitting in front. He sat through a 3.5NRI session the other day listening, taking notes, taking pictures.
Please, sir, you have the floor.
>> AUDIANCE: Thank you.
I'm from Armenia. I know that I'm younger than Internet. To me Internet means to learn to do my lessons, to reach cartoons more and to chat with friends and many more. Now that ‑‑ I know not everyone in the world has Internet, that's not good. Internet must be one and for everyone. It needs to be available at every corner of the world, be in all languages and accessible for you.
I hope it will come to you big guys here, you can help in this.
Thank you very much.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: That was absolutely fantastic.
Markus, you'll have a hard act to follow here on mic 4.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: It is a hard act to follow. Great comments, a great young man.
I'm Markus Kummer, IGF Supporting Association but speaking on my personal behalf.
For those of you that may not know me, I was head of the secretariat for the first five years and during that time I benefited greatly from the guidance of Nitin, who was then Special Adviser to the Secretary‑General. Unfortunately and for various reasons this post has been vacant for the past five years. I'm taking the floor here to express my hope that a new Secretary‑General will appoint a new special adviser for Internet Governance. Nitin was the political face for the IGF, access to high‑level decision makers and was a great support for the Secretariat.
Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you, Markus.
We'll go to mic 2.
>> AUDIENCE: My name is Lorenza.
I think that IGF has to have, like, a bigger infusion in schools for the Youth to know about this. I didn't know about this if it wasn't for my mom. In my school, no one knew about this. I think it is really important that the Youth get to know this because it is ‑‑ Youth is going to be the power of the world in the future. In the not very far away future. I think we should get involved in this. We should know about this to help to understand and create and innovate things with this knowledge that I'm getting here.
Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
Mic 3.
>> AUDIENCE: All right.
Good afternoon to everybody. We are here with a lot of Civil Society organizations from Brazil launching a document because we're really worried once our country was an example with the Internet Steering Committee, with the Digital Rights framework, we call it Marco Civil Internet, a law enacted in 2014, Brazil was the space of another IGF and now we have a lot of threats to our Internet policies and one of the threats is Internet access. We have now really this week of all that's been approved by Congress that will prohibit or make it really hard for us to connect the other half of our populations. We have our government that has political and difficult transition saying it will not do any kind of politics to connect this other half of the country and we're really worried about this. This is one of the threats that we're facing and other people are going to talk about the other threats.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
We'll go next to the WebEx mic.
>> AUDIENCE: Hello, everyone.
I'm Ricardo. I come from Mexico.
I work for a public entity in the area of transparency, this is a local entity protecting data. I'll be very brief.
I'll speak in English.
NGOs, we need to integrate all people, multistakeholder from all sectors and it is more important that governments accessibility, connectivity for all, and security, privacy, personal data protection isn't against Internet Governance principles.
Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
We'll go next to the online participants.
>> REMOTE PARTICIPANT: This is from McPolicy Wonk and the question is will the IGF be held earlier next year? December is a stressful time for many. It used to be in September some while ago. 2016 is stressful for me already.
That was from Boat Face McPolicy and then another question from ‑‑ sorry.
He says hello, I have a question and in the future of the IGF is there considered to be more inclusive in all areas? We have walls of languages and technology difference in all the countries, but all the countries doesn't go ahead together. Now that the artificial intelligence is empowering the world also with Internet of Things, but this year no one is talking deeper about this.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
We'll go to mic 4.
>> MARILYN CADE: My name is Marilyn Cade. I'm a MAG member and I serve as a coordinator to enhance the engagement of the national and regional IGFs. I'm not, however, speaking for them because I feel very strongly that in acting as a coordinator and working with the IGF Secretariat focal point it is my job to help them to enhance their voice.
I want to give a quick comment about ‑‑ we began meeting as those that had founded IGFs informally, this is the first time that we have really come together to have a well‑known presence and space. We were here and supporting workshops and even main sessions as NRIs, but we have tried to create a broader identity. To me, in order for the IGF itself to achieve its full potential we must continue to strengthen and build national IGFs that are tied to the communities that they come from, not reporting in to anyone else, but reflecting in to the IGF. I think that's particularly important.
We have already grown the number of IGFs by more than 15 since last year. We have an aggressive goal of doubling the number of national IGFs. We're not going to try to create new U.N. regions, so we're really focusing on the national IGFs.
I want to make one quick comment.
In one of our conversations today there was a general agreement that it is important to give more time, in particular for those that have not had time, to submit comments into the IGF Retreat so that there is broader input.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you, Marilyn.
We'll go next to mic 2.
>> AUDIENCE: I'm Kimberly.
Continuing the explanation on the manifesto that is launching today, we would like to stress that since 2015 over 200 bills proposing changes to this have been presented in Brazil, many come from the Fundamental Principals and Rights such as net neutrality and reliability for Internet providers, privacy, Freedom of Expression and beyond this should allow we have the heavy lobbying by conservative, authoritarian political forces and all industries with private industries. In 2016 we have witnessed already the political actions by the executive branch, the threatening the multistakeholder in Brazil, more particularly the Steering Committee, CGI, the government representatives, have openly declared that they intend to review the strength of Civil Society representativeness and participation in the Committee and they're ‑‑ we're afraid of this kind of initiatives.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
We'll move to mic 3.
>> WISDOM DONKA: I'm Wisdom Donka. I'm a MAG member from Ghana.
Shaping the future of the Internet in my opinion I think that there is some critical issues that we have to consider.
The issues are, one, the issues of equitable access to eServices. This cannot be addressed effectively without putting eGovernment in a broader context and working on all elements of eDevelopment. EGovernment efforts must act on all variety of forms to overcome barriers facing the poor and disadvantaged groups. Our secure multiple services, delivery channels, secure, affordable, sustainable, widely shared access to the Internet. We also have to look into their privatization of services most relevant to target groups we need to develop appropriate local content. That's very important. We need to invest in digital transparency, awareness campaigns.
In my opinion, I think that the NRIs need to be strengthened more so that they'll be able to at least mobilize the demand side of the IG. We have to creatively address disability and gender barriers to assess and engage important issues in defining and mobilizing the demand side of IG. We have to look into how we get feedbacks in order for our policy directives.
I thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you, Wisdom.
We'll go to the WebEx queue.
>> AUDIENCE: Hello. I'm from Brazil and I continue the reading of our manifesto.
We have seen judiciaries that are undermining the takedown of applications such as WhatsApp. Several lawsuits related to such takedowns are now before the Brazilian Supreme Court. We're aware that the coalition, the Rights on the Web, they're fighting all of this policy, challenging the chains that threaten Civil Rights hardly acquired over the course of several years. We recognize the need to make this backlash globally and declare our support to the coalition.
We also want the Brazilian government to take immediate actions against the limitations of the Internet Rights and principles and continue to foster the Internet ecosystem with digital inclusion, Human Rights, democracy governance are priorities.
Our manifesto is available online. We have more than 20 countries sign it, and we hope other countries, other organizations can subscribe to it.
Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
We're nearly halfway through this segment. I would like to remind people that this was really meant to focus on the Retreat, specifically to advance the issues in front of the IGF. If we could really try to focus on those, that would benefit the entire audience here and online.
The next one, mic 4.
>> AUDIENCE: I'm with Cloud Flare, and I'm also a member of the MAG in my last and third year.
I think we have made a lot of progress in the years I have been involved in IGF. Despite the uncertainty about the renewal, we have got a very strong MAG, a good vision of where to go. The Retreat I think did an excellent job to develop that with some important recommendations. I have a number of comments I have submitted, and I hope everybody in the room takes the time to read the report.
I want to focus on a particular thing, the MSM. I don't mean multistakeholder model, I mean mainstream media. How many people in the room would consider themselves a reporter? How many of you do something involving paper, radio, television? We have four, five people. We should have 40 or 50 reporters running around, talking to the leaders of the Internet community, getting the story out about where things are going, sharing experiences here. This is a hard thing to do in a saturated media world that we have today. It is not just sufficient to Tweet. We do that really well! Let's find a way to reach the Washington Post, papers in Japan, Germany, television elsewhere.
Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
We'll go to mic 2 next.
>> KELLY KIM: I'm Kelly Kim from South Korea.
It was my first time participating in IGF, and it was really interesting to see all of these kinds of discussions going on, some kind of new issues being brought up to be discussed.
What I actually observed during the whole event was that there are several ‑‑ there are so many issues being discussed in so many different values but we definitely have connections with each other. I thought that if there will be some kind of online places for all of the documents or some kind of presentation where the slides can be up loaded so that can look into that to make connections and make some kind of a ‑‑ to develop further ideas I think it would be really helpful for all of us.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
We'll move to mic 3. Benedicto Fonseca.
>> BENEDICTO FONSECA: I would like to look at two issues.
Speaking to the issues we have talked about, the 10 years ahead, I was part of the Retreat. One of the points I would like to highlight refers to the need for IGF to build bridges with other processes. It is very important that the richness of the debate, the wealth of information that is taking place in this Forum will also benefit other processes and other organizations. I think some of those have been touched on, the need for IGF to be made known before the silos or beyond the community that usually obtain that kind ‑‑ attend that kind of meeting.
The second point refers to the manifesto taking place in Brazil. I don't want to go in substance from this, I'm from government, Foreign Affairs. Some of the things that were said, things going on to Congress, Supreme Court, they're ‑‑ I just want to recall that Brazil is a full‑fledged democracy, it has shortcomings, but there are ways that citizenship can influence the process and discussions. We're surprised it is being brought to this international forum. To be frank, I don't know what kind of impact that can have in internal processes, they have their own dynamics.
Thank you very much.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you, Ambassador.
Now we go to the WebEx queue?
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you very much. I'm Mary from Nigeria.
The next 10 years I know that the conversation, the discussions, the dialogue, the global level, regional level, the national level, will be concentrating on the SDGs. Every conversation, everything we'll be doing will be looking at how to achieve the SDGs. Now we know that governments are very much interested, more interested in what's happening in the IG space. The synergy with governments, not government only in ICT, but others that are actors in the SDG achieving the SDGs, we'll be expecting them to be a part of this dialogue whenever we meet at the global level.
I want to say we need to strongly strengthen the initiatives whereas the Youth or the national or the regional, it is very, very important because the dialogue at that level would feed into what the governments would do to be able to achieve their SDGs. That's what we'll be seeing, that's what I expect will be happening in the next 10 years.
For that, I think the NRIs are becoming very, very much important to the process so that they can come in at their level and be able to bring issues out at the global discussion. When we finish this discussion here, we'll go back to our nations, our capitols and we don't bring this to the attention of the governments then the discussions are just like rhetoric. That's what I would expect for the next 10 years.
Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you, Mary.
We'll go to queue 4, mic 4.
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you, Chair.
Before I start making my comment on the 10‑year Retreat, the feedback on the Retreat ,I wanted to take a moment to thank the fantastic hospitality of the Host Country and all of the people that have made so much effort to make this Retreat and this IGF happen.
[Applause].
>> AUDIENCE: I realize doing something for 10 years must be really difficult and to do it so well, at least for the last two years I have been here, one year ‑‑ this is my second IGF ‑‑ it is a lot of effort. I want to say thank you.
I do want to make a quick comment on the 10 years going forward. The comment I want to make on better dissemination of outputs. I know this is a recent development in the IGF process to have outputs that are disseminated to the wider community. Beyond just optimizing feedback processes from within the community, I think there needs to be more dissemination of the outputs to the wider other processes happening in related areas at national, regional, global levels. I think that can be done, but not just through written reports, not a lot of people have the time to read, but through more innovative ways.
For example, infographics, videos, something that we have tried to engender this year. I realize it is result intensive, but there may be volunteers given that all of this is done by volunteers anyway, there may be volunteers that may be willing to lend their time to make this process more useful to a broader, wider community. I want to volunteer my time for that anyway.
Thank you so much.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
Mic 2 up there in the corner.
>> AUDIENCE: Can you hear me well?
First, I'm Alexandro from the National University of Mexico and the Internet Society Chapter in Mexico. I was a member of the Retreat and other things. I would like to comment on what's been said about it.
First, as the IGFs pileup over the years more and more issues are ascribed to Internet Governance relating more to the governance of something else like crime commerce, trade, et cetera, more conduct of persons and institutions and maybe moving away to those very news where they can be better solved. Internet Governance must be kept decentralized, issue‑based oriented to problem solving and bringing in the most productive mix of multiple stakeholders together.
The NRIs are important processes, and there are two caveats that need to be kept in mind: One of them is that they may create centralization and the wrong incentives, reverse incentives in some countries where problems are being solved in a different way than the centralized Forum. The other, it is that there should be no incentive to make them ‑‑ institutionalize themselves, but rather to keep them very, very agile.
The IGF itself, it should be prepared to phase out over the years. There may be other issues that attract more attention of human kind or at least more resources within the U.N. system and the IGF should prepare to transition for ‑‑ so it doesn't grow this big or take place every year and eventually it should prepare to completely phase out. That would correspond to keeping the Internet very exciting as it is, serving people, creating opportunities to communicate new services, new applications of critical thinking by people as well as results from software automation, et cetera, but the idea should be to keep the Internet exciting and make Internet Governance more boring.
Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you, Alejandro.
Next, mic 3 in the corner.
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you very much. I'm from Iran, Internet Freedom Advocate and former member of parliament and Vice‑Chair of ICT Committee.
In the past years among IGF we had lots of nice discussions with different groups, especially the governments, and I would like to talk about the important role of U.S. government that we had very nice discussion with them and collaboration. We've got a lot of support from Obama Administration in the past eight years and we have licenses for countries like Iran to exempt Iran, Sudan, Cuba, to exempt ICT items from sanctions and it helped a lot, and other programs.
So for future meetings among IGF I would like to raise this concern, after the new election in the United States we would like to see the continuation of such a great policy and action for these countries and for all to support in the development of Internet around the world, especially Iran, Cuba, Sudan.
Thank you.
[Applause]
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
Before we move to the next queue, I want to say I'll be closing the queue shortly given the people that are in line. Then we'll go to some closing remarks from Mr. Zhu, if you would like, and then from Yolanda Martinez and encourage everybody to stay.
Immediately following this session, of course, is the Closing Ceremony. We have to allow a few minutes for that transition.
With that, we'll go to the WebEx queue.
>> ELIZABETH THOMAS‑RAYNAUD: Thank you. Yes.
Hello. I'm Elizabeth Thomas‑Raynaud with the International Chamber of Commerce to support the Information Society, ICC WSIS. I would like to reiterate a couple of ‑‑ or support a couple of points already made and elaborate on a couple of others.
We would feel very pleased if the new Secretary‑General were to come in and recognize the very, very important issue of Internet Governance in the context of the global goals and the issues that we're trying to face collectively as a society today. We would support the suggestion of special adviser for Internet Governance and even that link ‑‑ the global goal, the Sustainable Development Goal Vision.
I think it is important for the Multistakeholder Advisory Group to evolve in the way in which we use the expertise around the table. I will mention also that I am now a member of the MAG, and it is exceptionally valuable to have the dialogue that we have from the community, but I think going beyond just program from year to year we need to really get to a place where we're looking for forward, longer‑term vision. Perhaps a three‑year cycle where we can anticipate Host Country, resources, intersessional work that can be done so that we're operating in a very stable, more strengthened environment. .
The Sustainable Development Goals idea was raised, and I would like to add that perhaps one of the things ‑‑ some of us across the communities felt would be useful would be to make the link to the specific goals that are being addressed annually in the high‑level political Forum, that we could identify as part of the program of the IGF a couple or some of those goals that will be addressed by governments in that context and then perhaps invite them to come later in the year, the IGF, to follow‑up on ‑‑ with a different stakeholders communities in a completely different environment and benefit from the multistakeholder expertise that's here.
I think one of the things that I have heard a lot in different places this week is that we're missing private sector and private sector from different communities, and while some of us are here definitely interested and engaged, I have a lot of conversations with the business and trying to get more engaged here.
I think if we get to a place where there are conversations that are substantive looking at how those kind of ICTs and Internet can be leveraged for the societal, economic benefit and the challenges that we're facing today, this would be a much easier task to bring in both, more governments, more business and benefit from the other stakeholders and society members with expertise and valuable exchanges.
I will mention, we had a bit of that this year, we had the opportunity with the Sustainable Development and inclusive growth theme to bring in some nice case studies, and those are of the kind of things we could also perhaps as a MAG look at having specialized workshops where we could take a case study in addition to the program that's already there and look at a very focused set of capacity‑building exercises.
Finally, I will just mention it was a great delight to have so many of the national, regional initiatives here telling us about what they're doing locally. I think there's great opportunity for us as a global IGF to identify ways in which we could have a part of the program that's designated to making that, you know, think local, act local, to make that connection where those ‑‑ that dialogue, where it is mutually reinforcing. I would encourage discussion on that.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you, Elizabeth.
Let's go up to mic 2 in the corner there.
>> SEGUN OLUGBILE: Thank you.
I'm from Nigeria. I'm a member of MAG. I would like to speak from my personal, individual capacity.
In response to the question I want to share my vision concerning the IGF. I want to urge the U.N. to ‑‑ no the IGF ‑‑ the policy issues on inclusions to be strengthened. In such a manner that there should be inclusion of the physically challenged group as part of the MAG member.
I also want to see a situation where the policy dialogue, the outcome of the policy dialogue should ‑‑ the IGF should have substantial decision making so that some of the outcome of our discussions would be a binding policy. I also want to see a web funded initiative that has the capability to support the regional and the national initiative, most especially areas of capacity building and to help in coordinating the structure of information.
The last one, I really want to be ambitious here. I want to see IGF becoming a global instrument for resolving certain conflict among nations. I know that's a tall vision. That's my vision.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you, Segun.
The queues are now closed. We'll have the closing comments, keep them to two minutes or less, we'll do this and go to the closing session.
Mic 3 in the corner.
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you. I'm presenting remarks on behalf of the communication ‑‑ Access Issue Communications with related to the future of the IGF.
We suggest that the IGF puts in motion a steps recommendation by the Working Group on IGF improvements, continue to foster dialogue initiated by the IGF Retreat on ways to improve the IGF and also advance its mandate with the broader IGF community. In relation to government participation, it is important to prioritize the need to increase the involvement of governments in the IGF particularly governments from the Global South. We propose the MAG initiate discussions with these governments very early on in the prepare tore process for the annual IGF, including sending formal invitations to the government early in the year and also considering engaging the MAG with some institutions like the interparliamentary union to facilitate the participation of the parliamentarians in the IGF.
In terms of linking with the SDG follow‑up process, in order to take concrete steps to align SDGs, follow‑up with the IGF, the IGF should align a stream of this work with the themes selected for the annual high‑level political Forum.
We also consider that you should look at diversifying participation, and in that regard there is a need to increase participation from all stakeholders groups from the Global South in the IGF. Stakeholders from the developing countries should be encouraged to be Facilitators of sessions and funds should be secured to support the participation.
There is a need for the diversification of participation to ensure that the IGF Agenda responds to issues that matter to underrepresented groups. In relation to strengthening the capacity‑building dimension of the process, the IGF should establish closer relationships with the Internet Governance in schools in all regions. Finally, I would like to reinforce the fact that the IGF is a multistakeholder space. Therefore, this space should welcome all stakeholders, including respecting civil society participation in equal footing and also allowing the perspectives of Civil Society to be flourishing in this space.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
We'll move to the WebEx queue. If you could keep your comments to 2 minutes, less to the extent you don't do that means some people that have been waiting in line for some minutes will not be able to speak.
The WebEx queue.
>> HUMBERTO ARTHOS: Good afternoon.
I'm Humberto from Ecuador and also the Internet Society.
I want to see the children speaking about cybersecurity and Internet freedom with grandpas, I want to see people in the meeting connected to the Internet and sharing knowledge about them and what they're doing.
The moment is not in 10 years, but it is here and now. What can we do to bring connectivity to the world? We have the tools here and now everyone can be a teacher of Internet Governance, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things. A multidisciplinary group of engineers, lawyers, teachers, and we have to push also governments not only for legislation issues or cybersecurity, we have to push also the government to make that the Internet Governance goes to the schools, universities, teachers, and not only in an annual Forum but across the world.
Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
We have an online participant now.
>> REMOTE PARTICIPANT: This is only a comment from Yun.
He says thank you, thank you very much, everybody, for the wonderful meeting. IGF 2016 complicated business, complicated. If we're going to fix the Internet we should reach out to more people for guidance and help so that we can work together and unify our great Internet. I believe we have tremendous potential, tremendous. Let's make the Internet great again, but by tearing down the walls.
Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
I'm sorry. Mic 4 ‑‑ did you just move down ‑‑ that was quite clever.
Mic 4 is next.
>> AUDIENCE: Hello, everyone.
I'm one of the Youth Fellow and I'm from a Pacific Island Nation Kiribati. Like other small nations, we're under threat of the climate change impact, in particular the sea level rise. I would like to see the IGF talk more about how the Internet and technology can contribute to the issue of climate change in the future and a formal space in the IGF is created to discuss this very important issue.
Thank you very much.
[Applause]
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you. Thank you for staying well within the 2 minutes.
Mic 2, please.
>> MATTHEW SHEARS: Thank you, Lynn. I'm Matthew Shears. .
A couple of points: First of all, thank you for the wonderful hospitality, Mexico, it is a fantastic IGF.
[Applause].
Secondly, a big shout out to the BPFs. I have been a part of that Forum on cyber and it is a fantastic space for bringing together a whole range of stakeholders in an area and a subject that's incredibly sensitive. These are the kind of discussions that we need to have on an ongoing basis.
Third, absolute support for all of those that said good words about the imperative of the IGF linking to the SDGs. When the SDGs came out we noted with concern that there was no reference to the Internet or very few references to the Internet. It is up to this community to show how important the Internet is to achieving those goals. The more we link going forward to the SDGs the better.
I would like to support the other comments that have been made about the national and regional Internet Governance Forums, incredibly important that those inputs are more reflected at the global level.
I would like to say that I would like to see an empowered MAG, a MAG that goes from strength to strength, that actually does do some strategy and not just a program Committee.
Thank you very much.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you very much.
Mic 3, please.
>> AUDIENCE: Hello.
I'm Sabrina. I'm an a Ambassador of Youth IGF in France.
I'm very happy to have been able to participate at this open Forum in IGF 2016. I was able to have the opportunity of interacting and discuss with participants on the problems of Internet Governance and I was truly ‑‑ it was a wonderful feeling to be able to participate in this Internet Governance Forum. I find it is a very good omen for our future.
I see there were a lot of exchanges on the obstacles to come, but very little on what the positive elements that already exists and the ones that are to come.
There were problems, for example, regarding finances, financing for some participants, and this is why I think that we should take advantage of the situation and have more synergy between countries because we are going very fast, but together we will go even further.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: The WebEx queue.
>> AUDIENCE: Good afternoon.
I'm Carla from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Costa Rica. In our country we have a model of multistakeholder ‑‑ a model called a Consultant Internet Consortium which involves the public sector, the technological sector and Civil Society. Among all, we built a consortium for the IGF 2016 and we have an official position so that you can consider it for future events.
The position of Costa Rica says we'll support the MAG Internet belongs to all, we must all participate in the debate on the rules that it will follow. The model of Internet Governance must involve multiple stakeholders independently from their political, economic and social power. Support a free, safe Internet, there are legitimate preoccupations on Intellectual Property protection and this should not be an excuse to restrict cyberspace in the future and there should not be barriers regarding the Internet. We must support a model to guarantee safety and security. We must guarantee privacy and security in terms of universal access and in pro of vulnerable parts of society, youths, our citizens.
We must take into account our Human Rights as a basis for Internet government and the users in order to manage these spaces that are coming into place.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Queue 4, please.
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you to the Mexican people for hosting this event. It is my ‑‑ it is my first time at an IGF. At the same time, I'm a young coordinator from Chad.
I have a few recommendations: We ask for a re‑enforcement of capabilities. This is truly what we want when it comes to Internet Governance, reinforcing the initiatives of local Internet schools for example, financing ‑‑ sustainable financing of IGF activities within our national plans. We know many things are being done in these terms, we were able to organize a national IGF but it is not enough. I'm sure you'll be able to accompany us in the future. Also when it comes to the government and the IGF Fora we would like to have more correspondence with the members of the U.N. on the importance of Internet Governance at an international level. This is truly important for recommendations when it comes to ICTs. We also need better communication and collaboration between different nations. This is essential. This is essential for future work.
We ask to have a Permanent Secretariat because the work is truly formidable, but all of this is happening because she's collaborating with Chengetai Masango but we ask for a permanent Secretariat for the continuity of these things in Chad. What I saw here in the same sessions it has been difficult to manage here as youths. We know the translation into the six U.N. languages is of the utmost importance and we want more participation from our Youths. It is important to bring here people or our Youths from Europe, from Africa, from different continents.
I know that you're doing great work, but we ask the Secretariat to keep going at this for a permanent participation of our Youths in the future.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Going up to queue 2.
Keep your remarks well within the time limit.
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you very much, indeed, to listen to me.
I think information sharing is going to make us as mankind free. Information creates evolution. If we want to improve, we have to make Internet free of money, free of charge. No money is involved in the Internet.
I just have a question about why radiocommunications have not ‑‑ are not free of money. If we want free Internet, we first have to make Internet free of money.
Thank you.
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Thank you.
We'll move to mic 3.
>> AUDIENCE: Hello, everyone.
My name is Dana. I'm studying computer science and I come from IT.
It was fortunate for me to participate in the IGF this year. I think the Internet Society and partners ‑‑ I thank ‑‑ for the great initiative, the Youth IGF fellowship. I wouldn't be able to participate in this Forum without them.
This is my first IGF and I'm interested on digital inclusion. I can say I find so many answers about my questions. Access to the technology, access to the Internet is a Human Rights. Every single person must be able to access the Internet. If they use it wisely, as I do, I think that they will see how useful it can be.
One thing I would like to have heard, I hope next year the translation works better, I'm a French speaker.
Finally, I can say it was a great experience and I'll come back to my community to share with them what I have learned during this IGF.
Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: I'll give you the floor.
As you spoke earlier, could I ask you to be really quite brief.
>> Thank you very much.
Please, pardon me for coming back. Just to give a shout out to the MAG, you did a great job in this organization of this IGF, first.
Secondly, I also want on behalf of the NRIs to thank ‑‑ publicly thank Ana who in a short period with the backing of Marilyn, they have done so well for us in the NRIs. Please, can you help me to acknowledge them! Thank you!
[Applause].
>> AUDIENCE: Having said that, they have done a good job. I think they should be allowed to do more good jobs in the coming year. Thank you. We would like to see them to continue this job.
Our mentor, our promoter, Marilyn! You are wonderful! You have brought us to the limelight and we're hoping that you continue to be there!.
Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: Good work should always be rewarded.
I'm going to turn to first Mr. Zhu to see if he has any reflections or comments either on specifically the comments on the Retreat or otherwise, then we'll go to Yolanda Martinez.
>> JUWANG ZHU: Thank you.
This is a very inspiring session. I'm deeply touched, moved. I can also say that I'm galvanized. I'm eager to plunge into action. There are a lot of issues raised, some in terms of MAG, we have heard you.
I personally would like to say that I'm with you on giving more space for MAG, strengthen them back, turning MAG from a programming group into a strategy group, an action group.
We have heard a lot about strengthening national, regional IGF, Youth IGF, yes, we will do our best to fulfill these objectives.
I also heard about some specific requests about the appointment of the special adviser for SG. Rest assured, we'll convey this back to the SG's office.
Also a lot of emphasis on linkages with the SDGs. I'm 100% with you. I want to let you know that in the U.N. Secretariat the division I have, it happens to be the Secretariat for the High Level Political Forum. We're well placed to make sure that what the IGF is doing here is mainstreamed into the work on SDGs.
Finally, I'm really touched, inspired by all that you said about the visions of the IGF in 10 years from now. No words can speak better than what I just heard from the floor. I don't want to repeat it, however I do want one thing from you: Some of the visions, some of your demands, some of your requests, for example, turning the IGF from a platform for dialogue, which has been very successful to a flat form for solutions, for actions, it will require some rethinking of the mandate of the IGF, including the terms of reference of MAG. We'll need to work with all of the stakeholders to transform this vision into reality, to transform the IGF into the IGF that you all want.
I need your support.
Can you give me that support?
[cheers and applause].
>> JUWANG ZHU: I didn't hear you.
[cheers and applause].
>> JUWANG ZHU: With your support I can assure you we'll do our best to make that vision into a reality.
Thank you.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: We'll turn to Yolanda Martinez for final remarks here.
There is a short announcement at the end.
>> YOLANDA MARTINEZ: What can I say?
As well as Mr. Zhu, I'm inspired. I am excited.
This is my second IGF, and not only did I have the opportunity to actively participate, but I was able to be behind the organization of such a large event. I would like to leave you with this reflection. Internet Governance is a permanent process, if we want to see full auditoriums in the following next 10 years we need each of the local communities to have this dialogue in a permanent way, in schools, Civil Society, with the industrial community, with the Technical Community, with the different government agencies not only having to do with foreign affairs, but also those who carry out digital work.
Internet Governance is inclusive and transversal. The world is digital and we all have something to share and to bring to this process. I invite you as well as all of the Mexicans who have had the opportunity to participate and host you the best way possible to keep going at it with this conversation in each of our influence spheres.
I hope to see many of you back again next year. Especially I hope to see much more participation on ‑‑ of developing countries, of countries where they still don't know what Internet is and what its risks imply in order to use it for fighting poverty and to empower women and girls.
We have a big challenge in front of us. It is our responsibility, inner this community's responsibility, to make sure that nobody is left behind. Thank you very much.
[Applause].
>> LYNN St. AMOUR: There's one final announcement.
The Chair's Report, thanks to the very hard work of Chengetai Masango and his team has been published. I believe hard copies are being distributed as of December 9th. It will be updated before the final publication, of course, to take into account the later sessions.
Before we move to the closing ceremony, I think it just really remains to thank Mexico for the great venue, for bringing out the sun in the last few days and for all of the work.
[Applause].
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you.
That's the end of the session. We'll do a quick change of the dais and start the closing session.
Thank you.
>> YOLANDA MARTINEZ: For those of you just getting here, we would like to remind you there are headphones at the entrance so you can hear the interpretation in all U.N. languages.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: I invite the closing session speakers to come, please, and sit on the front row where their names are.
Thank you.