Dear Olivier,

thanks for the summary and especially thanks for the heads-up. There is little time left and we must work hard and at speed. "issue-trading" is too close to "horse-trading" and that usually happens way above our heads, and behind doors only government representatives can cross. Also, we do know that there are many governments, and many individual representatives, whose positions are already adverse and will harden for something like the UN GA. Some are lost cases and probably trying to communicate with them will only harden their positions even further and do more damage than good. Each one of us knows of a few so we can triage relatively fast.

Let's use all possible fora left before the fateful dates. One forum for sure is LACIGF, coming this week November 5 and 6. It takes place in Cordoba, Argentina, and online. There may be other international meetings and some NRIs (National and Regional Internet Governance Forums) upcoming, some ot them with a good chance of being powerful before their own governments and beyond borders. Let me propose the following action items:

1. Craft a briefing paper that highlights the important issues and the damage they can bring if done wrong;

2. Caucus among the participants in LACIGF and other upcoming venues and plan a solid intervention. Since in LACIGF and likely any other meeting in the coming few weeks the programs are already solidified, let's

a. talk to all scheduled participants and see that they convey the messages in their interventions and other discussions;

b. take the microphone (and written participations as well) in all possible relevant panels and discussions.

I* staff - can you come up with a list/schedule of events, from your own files and plans, and share it? can you share the briefing texts you have already written and maybe fine-tuned for the alarm Olivier is sounding?

Let's meet in small groups and push this work forward.

Yours,

Alejandro Pisanty

On Sat, Nov 1, 2025 at 6:11 AM Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond via wsis20 <wsis20@icann.org> wrote:

Dear Colleagues,

those of you attending ICANN84 will have been aware of the stakeholder consultations that His Excellency Ambassador Ekitela Lokaale (Kenya) held throughout the week, both in open, large assemblies and in small groups.
Ambassador Lokaale is one of the two Co-Facilitators of the WSIS+20 review process, the other being Her Excellency Suela Janina (Albania), who was not present in Dublin.

I was very pleased with the extent to which Ambassador Lokaale was open to full dialogue and to listening to all parts of ICANN's community. It was also very interesting to obtain some feedback as to what topics to be included in the Paper will have a chance to remain there and what topics are already flagged as receiving significant opposition by some member States.

Of course, the next big steps will be the virtual stakeholder consultations to be held on 14 November. Instructions on how to participate are given on: https://publicadministration.desa.un.org/wsis20 and https://publicadministration.desa.un.org/wsis20/rev1consultation

But then, the final meeting in the process will be that of the UN High Level Event on 16 and 17 December 2025: https://publicadministration.desa.un.org/wsis20/GA%20High-Level-Meeting

And this is where one particularly concerning bit of information troubled me: that there might be some "issue trading" at this high level, with issues that are not related in any way with the WSIS+20 process, traded for geopolitical reasons. And therefore, I heard that we, in our communities, should make sure that our countries' respective Ambassadors and Delegations at the UNGA be fully briefed about the importance of the WSIS+20 process, of our multistakeholder values, of the importance of the WSIS principles to the Internet and its repercussions beyond the Internet.

This is a job for each and everyone of us, with our respective national delegations.

Kindest regards,

Olivier Crépin-Leblond

_______________________________________________

Learn more about the WSIS+20 Outreach Network and review relevant resources: https://go.icann.org/wsis20

Read the public archives for this mailing list: https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/wsis20/

_______________________________________________
By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.