[WSIS CS-Plenary] Governmental Bureau and First PrepCom

[Bloem Renate]

This was meant to be sent on April 23, when here everything broke down,
including my computer.
French and Spanish version will be sent later,
All best
Renata



Dear all,

The Governmental Bureau met on 21 April in a closed session, at which they
decided the following that

·	the Tunis meeting 24 – 26 June will be the official first PrepCom with
rules and procedures as in the first phase and an accreditation opened anew
for those currently not yet accredited (see also ITU website)
·	current discussions and consultations for a new Chair (proposed Latvia) to
be finalized at the next Bureau meeting 10 May . (*)
·	Governments should make proposals, based on their interventions during the
Geneva Summit, on expected outcome and roadmap until 21 May to the
Secretariat. These proposals will probably provide the basis for some
documents to be discussed at the First PrepCom. From what I heard is that
some governments want this process to be governmental only in the beginning,
while others opted for a more open-ended input. I hope to get more
clarification soon.

(*) During the previous Bureau meeting 31 March Mr. Samassékou had read a
statement, in which he movingly evoked the ups and downs and great moments
of the first phase. Mali and he himself would have been ready to continue,
would it not have been for some governments who claimed reversal: Summit in
the South and a Chair from the North. To make the way free for consensus
agreements in an anyway already difficult process he graciously bowed out.
CS owes him a lot. The space that grew larger throughout the process would
have been difficult to obtain without his support. Thank you Mr. Samassékou!



Today, 23 April, ended the Commission on Human Rights its annual exhaustive
6 –weeks deliberations, see also www.congoHCR.org. and all who participated
are at this moment exhausted. Rik will tell you that CONGO will have a new
Office as of next week.
With warm greetings,