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

[Sean O Siochru]

Hi

I want to address just one point that Meryem raises, regarding whether CS 
should participate at all in nominating the speakers to the 
Multi-Stalehoder sessions.

I think she is absolutely right that we must not allow this process to be 
seen as endorsing the Multi-stakeholder RTs.  My own opinion is that these 
have added virtually nothing in terms of effective modalities for civil 
society participation, neither by influencing the official process 
(Declaration /Action plan) nor by leading to an informal coming together, 
or narrowing of differences, of views of the stakeholders.  There are 
several reasons for this, and here is not the place to go into them.  But I 
am sure there are many others on this list who will agree (and indeed who 
disagree) with me.

Yet we have a lot of names on the table, many of  whom either do not see a 
problem with the legitimation issue, or simply want an opportunity to make 
their point in every possible venue.  It will also be difficult to stop 
this process so close to the end.

So I suggest that following:

a)  The Selection Committee, in their response to Utsumi, makes it clear 
that many in civil society do not believe that the multi-stakeholder Round 
Tables, as organised for the WSIS, contributed in any significant way.

b) Given this, the Selection Committee has gathered nominations from civil 
society, but will not select between them, and instead will forward the 
entire list of nominees to Utsumi for consideration.

In a way this makes the work of the Selection Committee redundant, in which 
case the response could come directly from the Civil Society Bureau, which 
officially is the body that is to respond to Utsumi.

This has the advantage of simplifying an impossible task for the Committee, 
making the presence of widespread rejection clear, while respecting the 
views of those who wish to put their names forward.

Incidentally, I think we should in our response at least refer to the 
problematic nature of this whole process - though I know the response would 
be to come up with something better.

Sean

Sean

At 14:52 09/11/2003 +0100, Meryem Marzouki wrote:

>- Should the participating CS organizations nominate speakers for the 
>round-tables ?
>My own answer is no, definitely no.
>What is the purpose of these round-tables ? Are we in an amicable 
>discussion process with friends or colleagues ? No, we are in a UN Summit 
>process. Are we here for legitimation ? No, we are here to meet other CS 
>organizations, establish networks, follow the Summit process and try to 
>impact some (very little as we know, not surprisingly) output of the Summit.
>I am not that naive. I know that many CS organizations have and will 
>nominate speakers for round-tables. I know that the secretariat and ITU 
>will choose their speakers. They will have a cup of tea with some heads of 
>states. So what ? Let's let them do that, this wont change anything. But 
>please, let's let them do that AS INDIVIDUAL ORGANIZATIONS, without any 
>implicit or explicit approval of "the world civil society", since this is 
>the way CS organizations participating to the WSIS will be called, 
>specially by the media. Let's ensure that they are not proposed by 
>caucuses, and specially not by "CS self-organizing bodies".
>
>--
>Meryem Marzouki - http://www.iris.sgdg.org
>IRIS - Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire
>294 rue de Charenton - 75012 Paris
>Tel/Fax. +33(0)144749239
>
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