[WSIS CS-Plenary] notes on civil society themes and contents Meeting - Tuesday

[Val é rie Peugeot]

Those are rough notes, sorry for misspellings.

1 -  Additions to the agenda

- Bureau meetings are not closed but open to any observers
- examine the status of document B : "remarks from observers" : who has it
formulated ? Who can we have input in it ?

2 -  Clarification on meetings

- 9 h/ 10 h : Civil society Plenary. Room 2.
includes report form yesterday's activities

- 14 h/ 15 h 30 : Civil society Bureau (opened meeting). Room 14, Bonvin
building.

- 14 h/ 15 h 30 : Civil society drafting group. Room A 12

- 18 h/19 h : Working group on content and themes. Room 4.


3 - Brief overview of issues discussed by governments on Tuesday

Rik Panganiban

Governments moving very slowly up to Paragraph 7 (out of 57)

Points of contention :
- right of information and communication => sub group on concepts will
discuss this
- reference to other bodies have gone, like UNESCO
- what is the knowledge society => discussion whether it should b e replaced
or not by information society => specific sub group
- partnership versus solidarity (Paragraph 6) : only Tunisia wanted to keep
it => they will keep both but being reformulated.
- merging paragraph 7 and 8, following the Mexican proposal

=> need for a group to do that monitoring with Rick : Diana Bronson + Jane
Johnson are volunteer.

The sub groups are generally not open to the public.
The sub group on concepts gather the following countries : Egypt, Mexico,
Salvador, Russia, European union, US, Switzerland.

Gert (German coalition of civil society) : possibility to discuss with the
European commission during the morning meeting.

Question : any possibility to add a new paragraph ?
=> at least try to defend what has already been written, like 1A, 1C.

The general context is that the governments are trying to reduce drastically
their own text. So we need more then ever to concentrate on strategic
issues.

4 - Text from civil society

Steve Buckley
Presentation of the text : sally and bill have done a tremendous among of
work behind the scene.

Previous steps : 
- end of may amendments by caucuses,
- decision to work on the basis of the outputs of the caucus.
- we should now have an extensive involvement in a new text, including new
amendments. It has to be started NOW (meetings at 2 o clock every day).

the revised version does not include the observers proposals
=> each caucus should stress on each of the individuals paragraphs, in order
to have specific inputs.

M. Koven (Media group)

We need at least 10 days to comment other ways it is impossible to react.

Karen Banks 
2 main lists :
<plenary at wsis-cs.org>
<ct at wsis-cs.org>

=> make sure you are subscribed to those 2 lists.
If you receive a message of moderation, just subscribe yourself => no
filter.

To have a complete list of  mailing lists, go to http://www.wsis-cs.org/

Meryem Marzouki :
what happened with the paragraph which was controversial  ? It has been
retrieved after the document was endorsed which is not correct.

Internet governance meeting  takes place just after this meeting => they
will decide what should be written on that global governance issue.


5 - Speaking slots for civil society

As we have so little time to talk we (each group) should not defend our  own
specific positions but try to have a broader approach.

Renata Bloem  (Congo):
Who can we move on to have the right language in relation with the
principles => use our slots for this.

Beatriz : academics caucus
want to insist on following issues : schools, work and employment, education
in work
Divina Meigs will be the speaker.

Wolfgang Kleinwächter : internet governance caucus
will speak on paragraphs 33 and 34.

Véronique Kleck : cities and local authorities.
would like a spot on Wednesday to take the opportunity of the attendance of
mayors and other elected people => they will support the general text of the
civil society.
Ready to leave the floor, would speak only if it is useful in terms of
efficiency to use the weight of elected people to support the general civil
society text.

Media caucus
main stream media should be able to express their point of view. => the
press needs a slot !

Veni markovski
Tomorrow is the last day to talk about the draft declaration => speak on
point 34.

Francis Muguet : patents, softwares... caucus
wants a slot on Wednesday because the French ministry for research will be
attending. Give the floor also to trichard Stallman.

Youth caucus 
want a slot, to insist on education, can also speak on the action plan.
suggesting that youth + academics + ICFTY could develop a text together.

Richard Stallman
wants to speak on Wednesday on free software  + patent issues.
question of sovereignty and independence of a country.

Disability working group want to speak on Thursday.


Birgita : postpone to thirsday.


Hervé Le Crosnier
We should answer 4 main issues which have been addressed by the governments
:
- right to communicate
- Intellectual property (the international chamber of commerce want it to be
stuck in the WIPO)
- linguistic diversity (some governments want to forbid any regulation which
could protect a specific language)
- free software

Myriem
A fifth main issue : We need to stress the fact the human rights are at
risks and that we should defend.


Conclusions : 

Wednesday

- gender 5 minutes (include youth issues)

- trade unions/labor 3 minutes (include youth issues)

- FS + copy rights trade marks, patents 3 minutes => Richard Stallman

- Human rights + right to communicate + right to cultural diversity 3
minutes => Diana Bronson

- Governance issues, 3 minutes => ?

- scientific contents - information  3 minutes  => Francis


Thursday

- media, 3 minutes => webforce

- disable people, 3 minutes => ?

- education  , 3 minutes => Divina

- youth, 3 minutes => ?


Every person should minute themselves.
Every one should have its presentation written. 3 minutes max.





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