[WSIS CS-Plenary] Report-back to the bureau on Samassekou's non-paper

[Sally Burch - ALAI]

Report-back to the bureau on the reaction to Samassekou's non-
paper.

Forgive me for writing only in English for time reasons.  Translation 
help would be appreciated.

Those who are following the CT list will know that we are compiling 
the comments received on the non-paper version of the Declaration. 
We have received comments so far from the PCT caucus, 
indigenous, youth, community media (being finalized), environment, 
human rights and security and privacy group.  The compiled 
comments will be sent before the 6pm (Geneva) deadline on 
Thursday.

We had asked for all comments to be in by Wednesday.  Any last 
comments received before 3pm Geneva time on Thursday might be 
incorporated as long as they are brief.

I would also like to point out that a number of caucuses and 
organizations have decided not to send in comments at this time 
due to the unacceptably short time-frame and (in the case of Latin 
America) the unacceptable lack of availability of a Spanish version 
of the non-paper.

We propose that the bureau and secretariate should take a more 
active role in giving us advance information of these kinds of 
requests.  We appreciate Mr. Samassekou's concern to receive 
our input, but in the circunstances (we all have full-time jobs 
elsewhere) it is almost impossible to organize a reaction at such 
short notice, much less to make a proper on-line consultation, 
which means that whole regions (such as Latin America) are left 
out of the opportunity to react.

Even though the document was not ready until last Friday, we 
could have been warned in advance that we would be receiving it 
with a given deadline to respond, which would have helped us to 
organize our time and allocate responsibilities.

Regards,

Sally Burch


---------------------------------
Sally Burch - Directora Ejecutiva
Agencia Latinoamericana de Información - ALAI
Casilla 17-12-877, Quito, Ecuador
sburch at alainet.org      http://alainet.org
Tel: (593 2) 250 5074  222 1570  Fax: (593 2) 250 5073