Internet Governance Forum to be held in Baku

The Seventh Annual IGF Meeting will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan from 6-9 November 2012. The proposed main theme for the meeting is: ‘Internet Governance for Sustainable Human, Economic and Social Development’, reported IGF.

This theme reflects the open and inclusive nature of the IGF with its multilateral, multi-stakeholder, democratic and transparent approach to discussions of Internet-related public policy issues.

The Baku meeting will help articulate a view of how we can use the Internet for the benefit of all humankind, and how we can further address the risks and challenges ahead. Internet governance should not be seen as an end in itself, but as a means of achieving development for all as expressed in internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

 The Internet Governance Forum was created on the results of the second phase of the World Summit on Information Society held in Tunis in 2005. The Forum, which held its first meeting in 2006 in Athens, is a new model of international discussion of the issues of Internet governance.

The primary purpose of the forum is to promote public awareness of current and future development processes of the global network, to stimulate discussions about methods and tools of Internet governance, and to present the variety of its use in the interests of social development. The forum will see the participation of nearly 2,000 delegates.

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