[WSIS CS-Plenary] PrepComIIIA: CS Strategy now on PrepCom.net

[Thomas Ruddy]

The minutes below from the adhoc civil society meeting
on Sunday 10th Nov.2003 are now available in HTML on
PrepCom.net under 
http://prepcom.net/wsis/1068466373487/view?portal_status_message=Status+changed

Regards,
Thomas Ruddy

--- karen banks <karenb at gn.apc.org> wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> Below are minutes from the adhoc meeting on Sunday
> 9th, attended by 
> (apologies if i haven't full names to mind):
> 
> Karen Banks (APC); Ralf Benrdath, German CS; Patcha
> (Korean WSIS CS 
> Group/jinbonet); Derrick Cogburn;
> Thomas Ruddy; Jane (Danish UNA); Dorte (Danish UNA);
> Rik Panganiban (WFM, 
> prepcom.net); heike jensen (german CS coord);
> christine wenzel (german CS 
> Coord); rikke frank joergensen (Danish instituteof
> Human Rights); nilo 
> (Indigenous peoples caucus/LAC); Hiroshi (People
> with disabilities); renate 
> bloem, CONGO; Steve buckley, AMARC; georg greve
> (Free Software Foundation 
> Europe)
> 
> In general, we proposed that we spend our time this
> week dealing with 
> issues of Civil Society strategising in the run up
> to the summit, and not 
> spend so much time drafting statements for plenary
> etc.
> 
> We realise we are a small number of people, and
> primarily from Europe, 
> however, we are all agreed that the work we do here
> has to reflect the 
> positions and concencus of the civil society content
> and themes group, as 
> best we can. Therefore, an important part of our
> strategy this week is to 
> be in daily contact with the virtual plenary and
> content and themes group, 
> and that your remote participation will be a
> critical part of our strategy.
> 
> Below i've outlined the main areas of work we've
> prioritised - where we 
> have questions for the virtual plenary/CT group,
> i've enclosed the text in 
> asterisks ***
> 
> 
> ** we welcome comments on this broad strategy,
> particularly if you think 
> there are areas of work we have not covered **
> 
> (1) DECLARATION
> ===============
> Will be discussed Today and tomorrow.  We will take
> advantage of speaking 
> slots, but will in the main be reiterating the
> points we have been making 
> consistently. We opened this morning in plenary,
> with an adaptation of the 
> letter Sally Burch composed to accompany our
> comments in reaction to the 
> 'Non-paper'.
> 
> Work on the declaration will be done primarily in
> plenary, with *possible* 
> working groups in the following areas (only
> financing is confirmed at this 
> stage). We will enssure that we have a monitor
> participating in each of the 
> informal working groups.
> 
> financing; media; governance: IPR:
> 
> (2)ACTION PLAN
> ==============
> Work will begin on the Action plan on Wednesday. We
> will start from our 
> Action Plan compilation from PrepCom III.
> 
> (3) Refining our "NON-NEGOTIABLES"
> ==================================
> An important part of our strategy for the Summit is
> to refine and 
> articulate very clearly, what our non-negotiables
> are, and what are 
> strategy will be if our non-negotiables are not met.
> 
> We will work from the following documents as a base:
> - PrepCom III Opening Plenary statement (wherein we
> state that we would not 
> endorse the statement as it stands and outline 7
> 'non-negotiables'
> - The CS response to the 'non-paper'
> 
> Our proposal is then to develop a contextualised
> statement on our 
> non-negotiables, which could be used in a variety of
> ways, for the Summit 
> (eg.. the press, etc)
> 
> (4) ALTERNATIVE/VISIONARY DECLARATION
> =====================================
> Many people feel that it is a good oppotunity, as we
> are here face to face, 
> to take forward work around development of a CS
> Declaration for the Summit. 
> In order for us to do that, we need to have a
> mandate from the Content and 
> themes group, and in particular, the drafting team
> who volunteered during 
> PrepCom III, to take this work forward.
> 
> For us to continue the work, we would need an update
> from the drafting team 
> as to where the process is currently at, any work
> that has been on formats, 
> content etc.
> 
> ** this is at least one of the priority areas we
> need some feedback and 
> guidance on and we would like to begin the work
> quite quickly **
> 
> (5) MONITORING and INFO DISSEMINATION
> =====================================
> As with all meetings, we will monitor the plenary
> sessions and participate 
> in the informal working groups, and shall share
> those notes with the 
> virtual spaces. Rik will again lead the monitoring
> team and i'll leave him 
> to post information on how that process is going.
> 
> (6) CS LEGITIMISATION OF WSIS/MULTI-STAKEHOLDER
> PROCESS
>
=======================================================
> Arne and meryem have both posted messages recently
> that highlight the need 
> for us to think critically and strategically about
> our role, and our 
> potential impact as a major stake-holder in the WSIS
> process. We feel that 
> CS needs to develop a stronger discourse around this
> issue, and that it may 
> well be one of our most important priorities for the
> Summit.
> 
> We do not have specific proposalsat this stage, but
> will begin discussing 
> this in our daily meetings in full plenary.
> 
> That's about it for now. I will ask that this
> message be translated as soon 
> as possible.
> 
> We look forward to your comments, and when you are
> replying, please 
> remember to remove any unnecessary 'reply-quotes'
> etc.  A lot of 
> information will be generated this week and we must
> try to keep the volume 
> of text to the lists to the absolute minimum.
> 
> Steve buckley will be making a proposal as to how we
> can use the plenary 
> and CT lists more effectively this week.
> 
> best to all
> karen
> 
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