What if We All Governed the Internet? Advancing Multistakeholder Participation in Internet Governance

The Study builds upon UNESCO’s Internet Universality framework, which helps to identify how the Internet can help to construct global knowledge societies by calling for decision-making about Internet-related issues to respect four principles summarized by the acronym R.O.A.M., namely: human rights-based; open; accessible to all; and with multistakeholder participation.

The study contributes to advancing the fourth principle. It highlights how

multistakeholder participation in Internet governance can support UNESCO’s work in general and the protection of the R.O.A.M. principles in particular. The initial part of the study consists of a review of literature relevant to the principle of multistakeholder participation in Internet governance and published since the World Summit on the Information Society (W.S.I.S.).

In addition, the study investigates how the principle of multistakeholder participation has been applied in practice in four case studies. The study focuses on multistakeholder participation in Internet Governance and related topics that support Internet Universality. In no specific order, the study's case studies move from Kenya to Brazil, South Korea, and an initiative under the auspices of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).