New York, 19 August 2022 (TDI): Ten high-ranking individuals have been chosen by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres to serve on the first Leadership Panel of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).
Today @UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres has appointed 10 eminent and high-level members to the inaugural IGF Leadership Panel, joined by 5 ex-officio members.
👉Read on to learn more & meet the Panel! | https://t.co/AtGJFm3FM9#DigitalCooperation @UNTechEnvoy pic.twitter.com/o31ni2YuIr
— IGF – Internet Governance Forum (@intgovforum) August 16, 2022
The Panel has been established by the Secretary-General as a multistakeholder, strategic organization to assist and improve the IGF in accordance with the IGF’s mandate and the Secretary-Roadmap General’s for Digital Cooperation.
Along these lines, to increase the impact and distribution of IGF debates in accordance with its Terms of Reference, the Panel will address strategic and pressing topics, highlight Forum discussions, and potential follow-up measures.
Following an open call for nominations, the Secretary-General appointed the 10 distinguished members of the Panel in accordance with a fair distribution of multistakeholder representation.
These also include ministerial-level government representatives, executive-level representatives of the private sector, civil society, and the technical community, as well as well-known individuals in the field of digital policy.
The Chair of the Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group, the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, senior officials from the current, recent, and forthcoming IGF host countries, as well as the Chair of the Panel, make up the additional five ex-officio members.
The entire, initial Panel, made up of representatives from every continent and serving a two-year tenure during the IGF cycles 2022–2023, is as follows;
- Vint Cerf, from the United States (US)
- Egypt’s Hatem Dowidar
- Denmark’s Lise Fuhr
- Maria Fernanda Garza, from Mexico
- Estonian national, Toomas Hendrik Ilves
- Maria Ressa, from the Philippines and the US
- Alkesh Kumar Sharma, India
- Karoline Edtstadler, Austria
- Nigerian national, Gbenga Sesan
- Lan Xue from China
Extraordinary Members
- Huria Ali Mahdi, IGF 2022 Host Country (Ethiopia)
- Yuji Sasaki, Host Country for the IGF in 2023 (Japan)
- IGF 2021 Host Country, Krzysztof Szubert (Poland)
- Paul Mitchell, the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group’s Chair
- And Amandeep Singh Gill, Special Envoy for Technology to the Secretary-General
Internet Governance Forum
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a byproduct of the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society that took place in 2005.
Governments requested that the UN Secretary-General hold a “new forum for policy conversation” to explore concerns pertaining to important aspects of Internet governance in the Tunis Agenda.
During the high-level meeting of the General Assembly in December 2015 on the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society, the Forum’s mission was extended for an additional ten years.
The Forum’s 17th iteration will take place in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. It will last from November 28 to December 2, 2022.
