MULTISTAKEHOLDER ADVISORY GROUP RENEWED TO PREPARE INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM

MEETING IN SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT, 15-18 NOVEMBER

The membership of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group, which is entrusted with assisting in the preparations for the annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, has been renewed.

A total of 56 members, 18 among them new, have been appointed.  The Advisory Group members are from all stakeholder groups, representing Governments, private sector and civil society, including the academic and technical communities, representing all regions.

The Special Adviser for Internet Governance to the Secretary-General, Nitin Desai, has been asked to continue as the Advisory Group Chairman.  He may select special advisers to assist him.  Representatives of relevant intergovernmental organizations and the European Commission are also invited to attend the Advisory Group meetings.

The renewed composition of the Advisory Group is the result of broad-based consultations.  It reflects a widely held view that the Group should represent a better balance in terms of geographical diversity and gender.  The Group now includes 20 women, thus further improving the gender balance.

All Advisory Group members serve in their personal capacity, but are expected to have extensive linkages with their respective stakeholder groups.  The main task of the Advisory Group is to provide advice on the preparations of the next meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, which is to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from 15 to 18 November 2009.

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 three meetings took place in Athens, Greece, in November 2006, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in November 2007 and in Hyderabad, India, in December 2008.

For further information, please visit www.intgovforum.org or contact Markus Kummer, Executive Coordinator, Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum, tel.: +41 0 22 917 54 88, e-mail:  mkummer@unog.ch.

For a list of new members, please see http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/mag/45-mag-membership/406-mag-2009.

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For information media • not an official record