Unless and or until a concise definition of what constitutes "multistakeholder," it will remain a catch-phrase/word - fluid and conveniently useful to push through all sorts of interests. On 6 Jul 2014 21:49, "Sam Lanfranco" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Milton’s reference to governments using regulatory processes to repress > criticism by civil society will likely play out here in several areas. One > is how domain name registration processes are structured to expose, or > protect, civil society from arbitrary government action. The other is how > domain name system issues link to handle human rights within the Internet > ecosystem. The issues: How domain name registration processes expose or > protect civil society groups; and; How Human Rights are woven into the > fabric of the Internet ecosystem, are still underdeveloped in terms of > positions and strategies. > > Both issues are most acute at the national level, and linked to wider > Internet policy issues. In Canada NGO’s registered with the tax authorities > as a not-for-profit cannot engage in any advocacy work around Canadian > government policy. If Canadian NGO’s take a position on net neutrality > based on human rights or innovation policy grounds, when the government > turns to net neutrality policy, this can put status at risk. > > The issues are even greater in developing countries. Several of the larger > global players in Internet governance are using phrases like “legitimate > stakeholders”, with reference to multistakeholder participation, and > especially with reference to civil society voices from within their own > countries. Civil society will be seriously handicapped if stakeholder > participation, and voice, are set by government. > > Expect this area to be contentious in the design of the multistakeholder > governance component in an acceptable IANA transition proposal. That > governance component is likely to be seen as a prototype for wider > initiatives around multistakeholder governance, initiatives where other > stakeholders have vested interests. > > Sam L >