In an extraordinary meeting on 6 December the United Nation’s Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) decided to create a Working Group on Improvements to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) (http://www.intgovforum.org/) with a membership made up only of governments.

The Internet Society believes this decision sets back the model of multistakeholder cooperation under which the IGF was established, and contradicts the instructions given to the CSTD for the establishment of the Working Group.

The Internet Society has joined the International Chamber of Commerce – Business Action to Support the Information Society, the Internet Governance Caucus, and many other Internet, business, and civil society organizations in sending a letter to the CSTD, asking them to retract their previous decision and to establish an appropriately constituted Working Group that ensures the full and active participation of governments, the private sector and civil society from both developing and developed countries, involving relevant intergovernmental and international organizations and forums.

Like the Internet, a multistakeholder approach has been at the core of the Internet Governance Forum’s formation and success. We hope that Internet Society Chapters and Members, as well as other organizations, will join us in signing the letter.

You may read the full letter, and see the growing list of signatories, and indicate your own support here:

http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=2710