UN to make internet a global "common heritage"?This November, the UN will convene a "World Summit on the Information Society The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis. " in Tunis. In Tunisia, reported a February 21 Reuters dispatch, "global control of the world wide web may be decided." At present, "the most recognizable Internet governance Policies and mechanisms for Internet governance have been topics of heated debate between many different Internet stakeholders, some of whom have very different visions for how and indeed whether the Internet should facilitate free communication of ideas and information. body is a California-based non-profit company, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, www.icann.org) A non-profit, international association founded in 1998 and incorporated in the U.S. It is the successor to IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which manages Internet addresses, domain names and the huge number )," continued the report. "But developing countries want an international body, such as the UN's International Telecommunications Union See ITU. (body, standard) International Telecommunications Union - (ITU) ITU-T, the telecommunication standardisation sector of ITU, is responsible for making technical recommendations about telephone and data (including fax) communications systems for PTTs and suppliers. (ITU (International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, Switzerland, www.itu.ch) A telecommunications standards body that is under the auspices of the United Nations. Comprising more than 185 member countries, the ITU sets standards for global telecom networks. ), to have control over governance--from distributing Web site domains to fighting spare." According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Nitin Desai, chairman of a UN working group on the Internet created in December 2003, "There is an issue that is out there that needs to be resolved." The draft "Declaration of Principles" for the Tunis Summit calls for the creation of "a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society ... premised on the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations...." Under that vision, the Internet--rather than being a market-oriented entity controlled by no political body--would be used "to promote the development goals of the Millennium Declaration," particularly "the right to development, as enshrined in the Vienna Declaration...." That "right" refers to the desire of the UN to redistribute wealth and technology from the U.S. and other prosperous nations to the kleptocratic governments of the "developing world." Furthermore, the draft declaration pointedly invokes "Article 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Universal Declaration of Human Rights Declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Drafted by a committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, it was adopted without dissent but with eight abstentions. ," which states that "everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of their personality is possible, and that, in the exercise of their rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law.... These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations." In plainer language, the UN seeks the power to suppress any use of the Internet and other information technology to criticize the world body or impede its designs for global governance. The UN's proposed Law of the Sea Treaty would designate the oceans a UN-administered "common heritage of mankind." In similar fashion, the Tunis Summit would claim cyberspace as a UN-regulated "common heritage." |
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