Peter Dengate Thrush re-appointed to United Nations Committee on Internet Governance

New Zealand barrister Peter Dengate Thrush has been re-appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the MAG, (Multistakeholder Advisory Group) after nomination by the Internet's global technical community.

Mr Dengate Thrush is the former chairman of InternetNZ, and immediate past chairman of ICANN, the Los Angeles-based global governance authority of the Internet. At ICANN, he led the process to replace direct US Government oversight of ICANN with accountability to the global internet community. He also led the introduction of internationalised (non-English) domain names, the de-regulation of the registry/registrar market, increased security for internet users via the addition of DNSSEC (cryptographic security) to the root of the Internet, and the introduction of a market-driven process for adding new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) These innovations are cumulatively the biggest technical changes to the Internet since its inception.

"I'm honoured by my reappointment to the MAG, and particularly to have been endorsed again by the Internet's global technical community. The Internet is facing more issues than it has in its short life. Between net neutrality, privacy and surveillance there is a lot to discuss and sort through. I'm excited at the thought of being part of that process," said Mr Dengate Thrush.

Peter has been active for more than 20 years in developing the global Internet's institutions, policies and governance standards. He has been a leading pioneer in developing the concept and the successful implementation of "multistakeholder governance" for the Internet – an approach which brings all parties affected by any policy or decision to the negotiating table. The Internet is the first major global institution to be run on a multistakeholder model of governance.

The MAG advises the Secretary General on the programme and schedule of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) The IGF is an open forum for governments, civil society, academia and the technical community to meet and discuss global Internet issues. Recent efforts have addressed, amongst other topics: Online abuse and gender-based violence against women, regulation and mitigation of unsolicited communications (SPAM), developing Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) for Internet security, and developing the policy options for connecting the next billion internet users.

The MAG is made up of 55 Members from governments, the private sector, civil society, and the technical communities. It next meets and conducts public hearings in Geneva from 3-6 April 2016. ENDS