[WSIS CS-Plenary] CS Speaker nominations - A personal short analysis and proposal

[djilali benamrane]

Dear Meryem,
What you did and what you are doing for the
preparation of WSIS is simply wonderfull regarding
many issues you have been involved about.
Unfortunately, your involvement is not so usefull
regarding the South position if any this issue is
yours. 
I try to follow WSCI discussions but more we approach
from the Summet more i am convinced that the Third
World in general and Africa in particular will be out
of Real Decison Makers.
With your statute, trying to actively participate,
aren't you playing an "alibi" role, the same role
African Governmants, so called African civile
societies and African private sector representatives
are going to play ?
Let's comdamn this inacceptable North-South
desequilibrum and irrelevant UIT Initiative to give
the power to Major Affairs Interest and use African
Governmant and Civile Society as "Alibi" in future UN
Summet.
The challenge is where the power is : in the unfair UN
System. Nominating or no nominating Mohamed or Kaddour
or Fatma as President, speaker or moderator is not so
important unless they have something to propose and be
prealably mandated by interested populations.
I hope you will have some answer to these problems the
next week in the ESF in Paris. 
Wish you the best 
Best regards
Djilali        
--- Meryem Marzouki <marzouki at ras.eu.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> This is a long message I'm afraid. Since the
> announcement of the 
> speaking slots for CS, I have been feeling very
> uncomfortable, more 
> than I ever felt since the very begining of the WSIS
> process, having 
> participated to all PrepComs, Paris intersession,
> and some other 
> WSIS-related meetings. In the following text, I'm
> proposing a short 
> personal analysis of the situation, as well as some
> concrete proposals 
> which are mine, and by no mean those of the Human
> Rights Caucus, which 
> is one of the recipients of this email.
> 
> I would be very much interested in reading your
> comments on this 
> anlysis and proposal.
> 
> Best regards,
> Meryem Marzouki
> PS. I'm writing this in English, so that most people
> can read, but I 
> would like very much to see translation of this
> analysis and proposal 
> be provided, if possible.
> ===============
> CS Speaker nominations - A personal short analysis
> and proposal
> 
> Since the announcement by the WSIS executive
> secretariat of speaking 
> slots for observers during the Summit, civil society
> organizations have 
> been the consentent victims of a very strange virus
> : the nomination 
> fever.  Without any discussion on the opportunity to
> take part in the 
> proposed process or any questioning of this process,
> nominations have 
> started, and, even more amazingly, the Content and
> Themes group have 
> decided to act as the nominations repository and
> coordinating body.
> 
> 1/ The proposed process:
> The WSIS executive secretariat has proposed the
> following speaking 
> slots for CS:
> - 1 slot in opening session (5mn)
> - 12 slots for declarations during the general
> debate (3mn each)
> - 18 slots in round-tables
> 
> All nominees for the general debate and the
> round-tables should 
> represent, in my understanding of the secretariat
> proposal, an 
> organization accredited to the WSIS, and "should be
> at the very top 
> level of their organizations or entities", as put by
> the secretariat.
> 
> The Civil Society Bureau (CSB) has been asked to
> propose speakers to 
> the executive secretariat, the ITU remaining
> sovereign in choosing or 
> not these speakers, or even nominating other
> speakers than those 
> proposed by the CSB.
> 
> 2/ The process undertaken by CS:
> Again, without any discussion or questioning, CS
> participants have 
> accepted this process, starting nominations.
> Moreover, the Content and 
> Themes group (and not the CSB), has decided to
> coordinate this 
> nominating process.
> This nomination fever has been so high that many CS
> organizations have 
> started proposing speakers who, for some of them:
> - have never even showed their faces at any
> WSIS-related event, and/or
> - have never said a word regarding WSIS and its
> process, and/or
> - are not representing an accredited organization or
> an organization 
> having asked for accreditation, and/or
> - are not "at the very top level of their
> organizations or entities", 
> hence are not fulfilling the administrative
> prerequisite set by the 
> secretariat
> 
> 3/ The process undertaken by the C&T group:
> Why the Content and Theme group, which has
> democratically acted till 
> now, as fas as the circumstances have permitted, has
> stopped this way 
> of behaving, and started to engage in the nominating
> process ?
> Could a reasonable answer be : to show that the
> Content and Theme group 
> is, contrarily to the CSB, the adequate body to
> represent CS 
> self-organization ?
> Till now, this has been indeed the case. The C&T
> group has, till now, 
> done a great job in compiling CS documents taking
> into account inputs 
> from legitimate, self-organized entities, i.e. the
> caucuses and working 
> groups. It has also been a key element in
> coordinating CS speaking 
> slots during PrepComs and intersessions, organizing
> the democratic 
> decision about the repartition of speaking slots
> among caucuses, so 
> that all issues can be covered.
> However, I have to say the C&T group is now acting
> like the CSB. To go 
> on with the democratic process, the C&T group should
> have started by 
> first asking CS organizations if CS should go on
> with the proposed 
> process, and how.
> 
> 4/ Questions to be asked before any nomination, and
> proposal to CS 
> organizations:
> - Should the participating CS organizations nominate
> a personnality for 
> the opening session ?
> My own answer is yes.
> The reason is that the importance of this opening
> session speaker is 
> not negligible, since his/her message will be
> reported by mainstream 
> medias which, as usual, will only be reporting on
> WSIS through the 
> Summit itself and, probably, mainly through the
> opening session.
> This person should be very high-profile, most
> desirably from the South, 
> raising an overarching issue, and charismatic enough
> to deliver a very 
> strong message not only to heads of States who will
> attend, but also to 
> the medias, then.
> I've personnaly proposed `madame Aminata Traoré, not
> because she is a 
> former minister, but because she is the founder of
> the "Forum for 
> another Mali", she fulfills the requirement set
> above, and she has a 
> strong message to deliver to WSIS and the world,
> just like she did at 
> the Bamako WSIS regional conference and at many
> other occasions, or 
> even in stronger words. I would welcome other
> proposals of the same 
> kind.
> 
> - Should the participating CS organizations nominate
> speakers for the 
> general debate ?
> My own answer is yes, but only if the following
> process is adopted.
> Although CS nominations are subject to acceptance or
> refusal by the 
> executive secretariat and the ITU, and although
> during the Summit there 
> wouldn't be any chance to see the Declaration and
> Plan of action 
> modified, this general debate could be seen by CS
> just like the 
> PrepComs and Intersessions plenaries, and it could
> be the occasion to 
> present our conclusions on the Summit official
> texts, process and 
> follow-up. To this end, these CS speakers for
> declarations during the 
> general debate should be nominated following exactly
> the same process 
> as for the PrepComs and Intersessions: each caucus
> should have a chance 
> to tell its conclusions. The Content and Themes
> groups should be in 
> charge of coordinating these nominations, and
> propose relevant merging 
> if there are more proposals than speaking slots.
> The compilation of such declarations by caucuses
> could be a very good 
> alternative declaration from CS.
> 
> IT IS STILL TIME TO DO THAT.
> 
> 
=== message truncated ===


=====
Djilali Benamrane : dbenamrane at yahoo.com
Tél/Fax : (331) 01 45 39 77 02 Paris - France
Page web sur l'Afrique et la globalisation : http://www.multimania.com/djilalibenamrane/
Groupe de discussion: http://www.egroups.com/list/afriqueglobalization

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