NETmundial Concludes With Multistakeholder Statement

Organisers estimated that, including remote participants, roughly 1,480 people participated from 97 countries. The event produced the NETmundial Multistakeholder Statement, a non-binding document adopted by consensus at the meeting, and included an agreed set of Internet governance principles and a roadmap for the future evolution of the Internet governance ecosystem.

The meeting was first announced in October 2013, following a meeting between ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé and President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff. Since then, several organising committees have coordinated the contributions of more than 180 individuals and organisations, including the Number Resource Organization (NRO).

The Multistakeholder Statement and discussions over the two days covered a wide range of issues and topics, and there were many areas of agreement, including the need for a strengthened Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Several themes meanwhile emerged as contentious, including references to network neutrality and online surveillance practices.

Development of a future, multi-stakeholder model for IANA administration was raised by many participants, and is noted in the Roadmap section of the Multistakeholder Statement (section II, paragraph 5). While NETmundial served as an important opportunity to discuss this issue, however, this development process is very much ongoing. Stakeholders in the RIPE community will have many opportunities over the coming months to contribute to the discussion.

RIR staff and community members from all five RIR regions were present at the meeting in São Paulo, with the RIPE NCC represented by Managing Director, Axel Pawlik, and Director of External Relations, Paul Rendek. Further reporting on NETmundial will feature on the agenda of the RIPE Cooperation Working Group session at RIPE 68 in May.