[WSIS CS-Plenary] Passes - The latest scandal

[Meryem Marzouki]

Hi all,

I've followed the exchanges regarding the issue of passes for the 
summit. They expresses the latest scandal regarding the process.

First of all, this issue has been in formal or informal discussion for 
a while, at least since early November. I've heard about that 
informally at that time, and was asked for advice. The latest 
arrangement that should have been suggested by the CSB was the one 
recently recalled by Sean, i.e. a fair repartition of half of the total 
passes among "families" and caucuses/WG (fair meaning that caucuses/WG 
can allocate twice the number of passes allocated by "families"), the 
other half of the total being allocated on a first come first served 
basis. Moreover, if I well remember, these badges shouldn't have been 
nominative badges, i.e. they could be passed along from one person to 
another from the same caucus/WG, under the responsibility of the 
caucuses.

Second, let me recall what I've continuously said since PrepCom2 
regarding the CSB: apart perhaps for some of them, most are not 
representative of anything. My organization, which is supposed to 
"belong" to at least three "families" (Europe&North America, NGOs, 
social networks or whatever this is called), has never been consulted 
on anything, apart from the remarkable efforts from Sean and Angela to 
keep the plenary aware of important decisions being made in our names.

Third, most of the "families", as designated by the CSD, either have no 
meaning or have nothing to do with civil society. I wont give again the 
arguments for that, I'm tired of doing this.

Fourth, the "families" are unbalanced and at the same time overlapping 
: e.g. the NGO "family" obviously includes many more entities than any 
other "family" and regional groups obviously overlap with "statutory" 
groups. What is the point then in giving the same amount to each 
"family" ?!

Fifth, it's really interesting to see at the same time the latest 
tentative to discredit the civil society self-organization through 
caucuses and WG, coordinated by the Content & Themes group, and its 
work since the beginning of the process. We have already seen that on 
this list, short before PrepCom3.

Finally, we can say that the CSB has played his role towards the CSD 
and the executive secretariat as a whole. Not towards the civil society 
organizition participating to the WSIS process.

The only really fair process would be to provide passes to any CS 
organization accredited to WSIS (which means at least participation in 
the process), and, since rooms are limited in capacity, let pass 
holders in on a first come first served basis. This is enough security 
ensuring: these organizations are known enough from the huge amount of 
paper they had to provide.

Any additional pass provided to "new comers just for the show" is the 
business of the executive secretariat, not ours.