+1 Marilia and Nick. Peter's contribution to the CSTD and WSIS+10 is huge. A visionary gentleman who we'll miss greatly. Olivier On 15/09/2025 20:18, Marilia Maciel via wsis20 wrote:
Dear Nick, dear all,
These are extremely sad news. Thank you Nick, for speaking about the importance and the impact that Peter had on internet governance discussions today at the meeting of the UN CSTD working group on data governance. If we dig even further in the past, it was Peter's skill and experience that saved the CSTD WG on improvements to the IGF from derailing. That WG was the first CSTD multi-stakeholder WG, to my knowledge, and the fact that we managed to produce a report with concrete recommendations opened the door for similar WGs to be formed. That was largely thanks to his appointment as chair.
Peter was always open to explore new ideas, always ready to listen, always positive, sensible, kind. As chair, he made every effort to guarantee openness and inclusion. A peaceful force that has steered so many difficult discussions forward, productively.
He will be deeply missed. He leaves us a beautiful legacy, that we must strive to preserve. RIP, dear Peter.
Marilia
On Mon, 15 Sept 2025 at 19:34, Ashton-Hart, Nick via wsis20 <wsis20@icann.org> wrote:
Colleagues, friends, I hope you are well.
I'm very sorry to tell you that Peter Major has sadly passed away this past Friday.
It is hard to think of any one person who has had more impact on the political governance of the WSIS process than Peter. He personally helmed negotiation of every wsis progress resolution through CSTD, chaired CSTD multiple times, and was a tireless champion of the value of stakeholder-based Internet policy development. I do not believe the multistakeholder working groups on enhanced cooperation or the present one on data governance, of which I'm a member, would have happened without Peter pushing for the format - which is unique in the multilateral system.
More importantly he was a thoroughly decent human being who always had a smile or a joke to smooth over the difficulties of negotiations, always had time to talk to those with different views, and always sought outcomes which would benefit real people's lives.
Personally I've lost a friend, many of you have too. The notion of a people centric Internet has lost one of it's great champions.
Below a message from his daughter, Vera
Dear Colleagues,
It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my father, Péter Major. He died this past Friday, September 12, after a very short battle with cancer. He leaves behind his wife of 44 years, two loving daughters, and four grandchildren.
[...]
We are planning a private funeral, and in lieu of flowers we would be grateful for donations to the Recherche Suisse contre le cancer (IBAN: CH67 0900 0000 3000 3090 1), marked ‘P. Major’. I will put together a memorial book to celebrate his contributions and his memory. If you would like to include a message, you may email me directly or share it on the IGF website In Memoriam Péter Major. Please also feel free to circulate this message among people who knew him.
I am deeply proud of all that he accomplished, and I take comfort in knowing that his contributions and time with us touched many lives. I hope you will all remember him fondly.
Best regards,
Vera Major
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*Marília Maciel, PhD* Director of Digital Trade and Economic Security, Diplo *Email*: _MariliaM@diplomacy.edu <mailto:mariliam@diplomacy.edu>_ LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/in/marília-maciel-27ab9418>*| *_www.diplomacy.edu <http://www.diplomacy.edu>_
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