[WSIS CS-Plenary] Remarks concerning the 5 points

[Dr. Francis MUGUET]

Hello !

It seems that it is like a "Viva la revolucion" climax !

Concerning Jon's definition of plenary, lets just mention that
WSIS meetings when all states are convened are called 
"plenary sessions" even if many small states did not actually
show up.  The word plenary has both a meaning that all the
constituency is convened and it has plenary power
( within the limit of it mandate, of course ).

While making an abridged translation in French, I came onto those
points  that deserve clarification :

4.|  The Civil Society Division of the Secretariat serves the Civil
Society Plenary Meeting and anything the Plenary sets up,|  although it
can also provide support to any groups who choose not to associate with
the Plenary.

French language has some difficulties here to translate "serves", in
Spanish it has been translated
by the equally vague "sirve".  I believe the English text needs some
clarification.
what "serves" really means ?
 "serves to implement the decisions"  "serves" ie provides meeting
facilities
 and the remaining of the paragraph is kind of unclear to me.
  Does this mean that the Civil Society Division of the Secretariat may
implement a   "moral, technical, or financial ?" "support" to a Civil
Society group that does not wish   to be associated with the Plenary.
    First, I may be very naive, but I would grateful that an example be
given of a good reason why a civil society group would not like to wish
to be associated with the Plenary or   any of its specialized bodies (
Bureau, C&T ) ?
    Does this means that this group is afraid that its actions may not
be approved by the Plenary ?.
    I am somehow worried, because it happened at the Intersession that a
working group (that I am not not going to name) has managed ( how ?,
since I just got hearsay, I would not say anything )
to have a time slot for a plenary speech when the
C & T did not give permission to this group to have a time slot for this
day. This created a certain amount of tension.  I would not like this 
kind of incident to be repeated at PrepCom3.

I would  also like to suggest to add a sixth commandment :

 6. All important decisions of the CS must be taken only after
translation in the
  working languages of the Summit ( English, French, Spanish )

Concerning decision making before PrepCom3, we should have to agree
beforehand on a few points concerning the organization, otherwise this
is going to be anarchy. I see no other place that the virtual Plenary
where those minimal decisions could be taken. 

Otherwise, I would support the spirit of the 5 points proposed by Sean,
provided point 4 is clarified.

This is my personal opinion, not representing an opinion related 
to the Working Groups that I coordinate. For those groups; I am
currently writing reports that may take a few more days to complete. 
The Intersession was a fruitful event, whose consequences must be
carefully analyzed.

Thanks

Francis

-- 

------------------------------------------------------ 
Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D 
muguet at mdpi.org   muguet at ensta.fr  

MDPI Foundation   http://www.mdpi.net 

WSIS Civil Society Working Group coordinator
http://www.wsis-si.org
http://www.wsis-pct.org
------------------------------------------------------