[WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: [WSIS-CT] On openness of working groups (WG on internet governance)

Wed Sep 17 16:58:09 BST 2003

Thanks Bertrand

good that you took the floor. Jeanette who was probably also there, but 
she is not allowed to take the floor as an official member of the 
German delegation. Feel free in the spirit of the discussion we had on 
the list and in the absence of the two co-chairs of the caucus to make 
your voice heard. Your statements were exactly what had to be said at 
this very moment.

The proposal for "innovative and creative interaction on the working 
level" is good as far as I can see it. We should be very careful and 
using the opportunities in a very responsible way. We are entering new 
territory which is slippery and can fire back if we go too fast. And 
Sammassekou is on our side, but under big pressure. So is Linda.

To sit in the room and to answer only if somebody from the government 
asks an observer for clarification is not so bad. With this exclusive 
knowledge from the internal intergovernmental negotiations we can try 
to discuss discretely with friendly governmental delegations to take 
the points of view of civil society into account. This makes more sense 
than to bring big words to the WG.

Half a step forward is more than two step forward and three backwards 
:-(

Best wishes and keep going with short detailed reporting.

Wolfgang

On onsdag, sep 17, 2003, at 16:54 Europe/Copenhagen, Bertrand de LA 
CHAPELLE wrote:

> Hi, follow-up on Chun's report
>
> In the absence of any other active member of the civil
> society caucus on internet governance, and given the
> urgency, I indeed issued a statement in the name of civil
> society on two levels :
>
> - lightly on the substance to remind present governments of
> what we had circulated before (ie : refusal of an
> intergovernmental process and insistence on dealing with
> this issue between Geneva and Tunis in a manner that
> associates all stakeholders)
> - more precisely on the question of the openness of these
> working groups, to submit a proposal (see below) that had
> been informally discussed with some members of CS plenary
> and CS bureau; this proposal was distributed in writing to
> the chair (Kenya) and also - at their request - to the
> governments who had expressed their discontent with the fact
> that these meetings were going to be closed.
>
> Further discussions have taken place with Lindall Shope-
> Mafole (chair of the drafting committee) and some friendly
> delegations. This issue is likely to be addressed in the
> governmental bureau this evening.
>
> Proposed formula is :
>
> 1 – these working groups should be as open as possible
>
> 2 – their methodology may vary, depending on the issues
> adressed
>
> 3 – to facilitate the most efficient interaction between the
> different stakeholders, each chair / facilitator will have
> the responsibility to use in a balanced proportion the
> following three modes of interaction :
> - observers will have the right to make short statements on
> the issue and to submit them in written form for all
> governmental delegations to take them into account as they
> see fit
> - further interaction with observers will be possible at the
> discretion of the chair or at the request of one governement
> - a “silent mode” will allow observers to remain in the room
> without being further allowed to participate in the
> discussion
>
> Bertrand
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
>> Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 21:57:33 +0900 (KST)
>> From: Chun Eung Hwi <chun at peacenet.or.kr>
>> Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] 2nd Unofficial personal report
> of Government meeting
>> To: plenary at wsis-cs.org, <ct at wsis-cs.org>
>>
>> For the negotiation of conflicting views on some
> contentious issues,
>> governments decided to make six working group depending on
> those issues
>> such as Right to communicate, Internet Security, Internet
> Governance,
>> Enabling environment, Cultural identity, Media and Freedom
> of expression.
>>
>> This afternoon, I attended to one working group of Internet
> Governance.
>> Then, there I heard that in the morning session, some
> countries raised
>> questions on the attendance of civil society and private
> sector. So, they
>> decided their policy to allow only five minutes for civil
> society and
>> private sector to speak out their concerns and to make them
> leave from
>> meeting place when governments begin to negotiate. Only two
> minutes was
>> allowed to those groups. One person of Private sector spoke
> out the
>> importance of private sector initiative and the cooperation
> between
>> private sector and governments in internet governance. And
> nobody made a
>> comment from civil society group.
>>
>> However, EU representative, Norway, Israel and the U.S
> expressed their
>> uncomfortableness to that policy. But the chair said that
> he has no right
>> to reverse that policy. So, I should have left out from the
> meeting place.
>> That's it.
>>
>> At the meeting place, I met Mr. Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, the
> chair of
>> GAC(Government Advisory Committee) of ICANN and Paul
> Twomey, President/CEO
>> of ICANN and Theresa Swinehart, Counsel of ICANN. But Paul
> and Theresa
>> should also have left out.
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> Chun Eung Hwi
>> General Secretary, PeaceNet | phone:     (+82)  2-2166-2205
>> Seoul Yangchun P.O.Box 81   |   pcs:     (+82) 019-259-2667
>> Seoul, 158-600, Korea  	    | eMail:
> chun at peacenet.or.kr
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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