MANDATE OF ADVISORY GROUP OF INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM EXTENDED

The mandate of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of the Internet Governance Forum has been extended.  The Special Adviser for Internet Governance to the Secretary-General, Nitin Desai, has been asked to continue as the Chairman of the Advisory Group, which will meet again on 13 to 15 May in Geneva before handing over to a renewed group to prepare the next Internet Governance Forum meeting in Hyderabad, India, on 3 to 6 December.

The Advisory Group will renew up to one third of its members within each stakeholder group.  All relevant stakeholder groups, representing Governments, private sector and civil society, including the academic and technical communities will submit names to the Internet Governance Forum Secretariat.  All members serve in their personal capacity, but are expected to have extensive linkages with relevant stakeholder groups.  Members need to be willing to reach out and ensure continuous flow of information to and from interested groups and to participate actively and constructively in the Group’s work.  More details are available on the Internet Governance Forum website:  www.intgovforum.org.

The Internet Governance Forum is an outcome of the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, which took place in 2005.  In the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, Governments asked the Secretary-General to convene a “new forum for policy dialogue” to discuss issues related to key elements of Internet governance and set out the Forum’s mandate.

The Forum’s first two meetings took place in Athens in November 2006 and in Rio de Janeiro in November 2007.  A stock-taking session in Geneva on 26 February 2008 showed broad support for a continuation of the multi-stakeholder preparatory process.

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For information media • not an official record