The following is the final version of the statement, which was
composed in a truely collective way and read by Adam Peake. A
big thank you for all who contributed!

Statement on behalf of the Internet Governance Caucus:

1. The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus would like to
express its support for the Working Group on Internet
Governance's multi stakeholder approach. We believe that
legitimate and successful Internet Governance can only be
achieved if all concerned or affected groups have an
opportunity to influence the outcome of governance processes.
We want to stress that there is a fundamental difference
between multilateral and multi stakeholder processes.

It should be remembered at all times that the WSIS declaration
of principles states that Internet governance decision making
should be pursued on a multi-stakeholder basis reflecting the
full participation or civil society. The governments that
agreed to this new international norm should now take positive
steps to ensure its full implementation.

As a first step, conformity with this norm should be carefully
assessed with respect to existing arrangements at
intergovernmental level, like the ITU, OECD and WIPO, private
sector arrangements like ICANN, and to any new emerging
mechanisms.

2. The Internet Governance caucus proposes that the WGIG
places greater emphasis on basic principles such as human
rights, freedom of expression, openness and innovation. The
caucus believes that two outcomes of the WGIG that will add
significant value are: - an understanding of how governance
mechanisms can further these basic principles, and, - an
elaboration of the concept of democratic internet governance
in the context of the interplay between local and global
decision-making.

3. We would like to point out that the extent of participation
from the developing parts of the world in the various Internet
governance mechanisms is still far from sufficient. This is
especially true for civil society actors. We would like to
suggest that the WGIG make appropriate recommendation to
ensure the effective participation of ALL stakeholder groups
from developing countries.

4. We think it is important for WGIG members to recognize the
diversity of processes and mechanisms involved in Internet
governance, including: - decisions by individual users -
private agreements - national policies, and, - international
and transnational bodies.

These correspond to a diversity of perspectives on what issue
areas are important in Internet governance. The caucus would
recommend that all relevant issues of importance to
stakeholder groups should be addressed by the working group.
Unresolved controversies should be documented in papers and
statements and not used as a basis to omit particular issues.