Annual Meeting of the Arab Internet Governance ForumUnder Auspices of Lebanese Telecom Minister and ESCWA Executive Secretary

Under the auspices of Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications Boutros Harb and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf and with the strategic partnership of the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications and Ogero Telecom, ESCWA hosts the Third Annual Meeting of the Arab Internet Governance Forum (AIGF-III) on 26 and 27 November 2014, at the Movenpick Hotel, Beirut. The event will be preceded on 25 November by a workshop for capacity building on Internet governance. Director General of Ogero Telecom Abdulmunim Youssef and Chief of the ICT Policies Section at ESCWA Ayman El-Sherbiny had convened a press conference yesterday, introducing the forum to journalists and officers of the telecommunications ministry. The press conference was a chance to project the TV spot produced by ESCWA on this occasion, and which was distributed to TV channels throughout the country. The spot highlights the issue of internet governance, which is among the main challenges globally and regionally. The forum opens at 9:30 AM on Wednesday 26 November 2014 and will include two days of thematic workshops and plenary sessions under the main theme "Arab Perspective for Shaping the Future of the Internet". It will address the following sub-themes: Internet Infrastructure and Access; Internet Global Public Policies, and National Policy-Making; Openness: Rights and Responsibilities; and Privacy and Rebuilding Trust. Participants in the meeting will be all stakeholders interested in internet governance issues from governments, the business sector, civil society, technical community and academia, and intergovernmental organizations. Also present will be policy and decision makers and experts in the area of Internet governance from within and outside the Arab region. The event is organized under the joint umbrella of the Arab IGF process, ESCWA and the League of Arab States (LAS), and with the close cooperation of the Egyptian National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) the host of the Arab IGF Secretariat and in consultation with the Arab Multistakeholder Advisory Group (AMAG). The Arab IGF was established in 2012 within the partnership framework between ESCWA and LAS similar to the global IGF, launched by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2006, following the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society. As the global IGF, the Arab IGF provides a platform that brings together all stakeholders to engage in open dialogue on internet-related public policy issues and priorities of the Arab region. * *** * For more information on the forum, kindly visit: http://www.escwa.un.org/information/meetingdetailsAR.asp?referenceNUM=3361a For your queries, kindly contact: ESCWA Communication and Information Unit (ECIU) on either of the following numbers: +961-70-993 144, +961-03-910 930, +961-76-04 64 02. Please direct your emails to: escwa-ciu@un.org