[WSIS CS-Plenary] report on WSIS Briefing, 9 Feb, Geneva

[Rik Panganiban]

Report on CONGO WSIS Briefing
9 February 2004, 1400-1600
Palais des Nations

Notes by Rik Panganiban.  Others who were there are invited to correct, 
amend and add to these notes, if they wish.


Renata Bloem, President, CONGO
Ms. Bloem introduced the speakers on panel.  She noted that this 
meeting is one of the regular briefings on relevant UN issues organized 
CONGO.  The occasion for this meeting was a visit by the Minister of IT 
in Tunisia, who expressed his commitment to civil society participation 
in Phase II.


H.E. Mr. Habib Mansour, Tunisia Delegation to the WSIS
Expressed pleasure at being able to address civil society today.  
Thanked  Ms. Bloem and the civil society bureau for this initiative to 
mobilize different actors associated with the Information Society:  
governments, the private sector, intergovernmental organizations, and 
civil society.
	Civil society has contributed much to the documents.  Civil Society is 
an integral part of the  transformation to the Information Society.  We 
have identified the principles and the actions in the documents.
The same spirit and modalities employed in the Geneva phase will 
continue into the Tunis phase.


Bloem	
So the same rules of procedures in Geneva will continue up to Tunisia.


H.E. Mr. Daniel Stauffacher, Swiss Delegation to the WSIS
We have achieved a great deal already in the Geneva phase.  We have 
strong language in the Geneva Declaration on human rights and the 
media.  The Plan of Action is a good start.  It still needs improving 
and deepening.
	Two important tasks have been given to the UN Secretary General: 
internet governance and financing.  We see two priorities.  1. 
Implementation of plan of action. We need action on the ground.  2. We 
need to maintain this level of participation from CS, business and 
media.


Bloem: It would be good to see continued support for civil society 
participation from the Swiss.


Charles Geiger, Head of WSIS Executive Secretariat
Mr. Geiger noted that the WSIS-Geneva put the issue of the information 
society on the agenda of world leaders. Where do we go from here?  The 
way ahead is not fully clear.
	Tunisia is inviting the bureaus of the governments and civil society, 
the coordinating board of business interlocutors, and the high-level 
summit organizing committee to a meeting from 3-4 March in Tunis.  It 
will be an informal brainstorming session.  It will not produce a 
document.
	The “Arrangements for the Tunis Phase of the Summit” document agreed 
in December by governments notes that there will be a  preparatory 
meeting to take place in 1st half of 2004. The government Bureau has to 
give indications of when the meeting should be held.  The ITU has 
problem with May and June.  So possibly late April, or early July.  
This meeting may be in Tunis.
	The rules of procedure do not change.  Accreditation is an ongoing 
process.
	The civil society division had to be dismantled because of lack of 
money.  The Executive secretariat is temporarily taking over functions 
of the civil society division, including accreditation. We can not take 
over their website. New accreditations of NGOs will occur on the ITU 
website. Groups will have to download a fax form and fax it to the ITU.
	On the Working Group on Internet Governance,  the ITU is having a 
meeting on internet governance, which is only for ITU members.  The UN 
ICT Task Force will be meeting 25-26 March in New York.  This will be a 
preliminary meeting leading to the working group that will be 
established by the UN Secretary General.  The ITU nor the UN ICT Task 
Force will be the official working group.  The working group will be 
bigger with all stakeholders involved.
	On the working group on financing, there is no initiative that I know 
about at this stage.
	On Internet security, the  ITU might have a thematic meeting on this 
in the 2nd half of the year. Other themes could be taken up by 
international organizations.  UNESCO could take up role of ICTs and 
education.  ITU could take up spam.
	Ethics in the information society could be overarching theme in 2nd 
phase.
	Most UN summits have failed in implementation. We have a 2nd phase 
where we can focus much more on implementation.  Much to do in national 
and regional implementation.


Monsou
	Tunisia will be supporting staff to be responsible for civil society 
to be part of the civil society division of the secretariat, similar to 
the role that the Swiss hosts played.   The Tunisian government will 
support civil society participation in Tunis, particularly those from 
less developed countries.


Alain Clerc, Civil Society Division, WSIS Executive Secretariat
CS has played a role important.  60% of content in final texts came 
from civil society.
	Civil society have to organize themselves to participate effectively 
in the debate. Civil society needs to be able to participate in the 
negotiations. The structures that we have put into place have been 
effective, i.e. the plenary, virtual plenary, and the bureau and its 
families.
	Is Tunisia to be the implementation of Geneva?  It would be hard to 
see much progress in two years.  Tunis cannot be just about evaluating 
implementation.	


Bertrand de la Chapelle, WSIS-online.net
The Declaration and Action Plan from Geneva represents an agenda, a 
list of issues, within which work among the stakeholders can be 
organized.  It is important for people to be able to identify other 
people and groups that are working in the same domain and bring those 
people together.
	WSIS-online.net is a platform that continues beyond December 2003.  It 
will serve those actors involved in the Action Plan. We want to create 
a platform that can serve everyone.
	The 3 functions of WSIS-online: (1) put actors in contact with each 
other; (2)  Identify projects; (3)  facilitate consultations around 
certain themes, such as internet governance.  Allow those online to 
participate in the discussions.
	De la Chappelle was impressed that the meeting at the last prepcom 
conducted by Tunis on phase II was very open to civil society.  He 
hoped that this forms the beginning of an open process.


Bill Drake, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
Mr. Drake has been active in the ICT governance civil society caucus. 
The Caucus has a group of people with a lot of expertise in these 
areas.  We have tried to weigh in on this process, including having 
text in the civil society declaration.
	We are not participating in ITU meeting as a group because we weren’t 
invited on that basis. We aren’t a sector member, we aren’t a legal 
entity. It is unclear on how the caucus can be involved.  It remains a 
real problem.
	There is some controversy around families versus working groups and 
caucuses represented on the civil society bureau. So some of the most 
active groups are not represented on this important body. He posed a 
challenge to the Tunisia organizers and the rest of us: how to involve 
those organizations that aren’t represented on the bureau?


Representative of International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
The FIDH representative raised issue of which groups will be accredited 
for the Tunis phase.  She noted that  accredited NGOs need a legal 
identity in their own country, however  some Tunisian groups do not 
have legal status in Tunisia and so can not participate.
During the WSIS 1st phase, Tunisia declared that they did not violate 
any human rights.  However independent inquiries from FIDH and ICJ into 
Tunisia were refused.

Mansour
We did not choose the bureaus.  Every member of the bureau can come by 
themselves, or can delegate someone as a specialist.
	In Tunisia, we will ensure participation by every stakeholder, 
including civil society.  There are only the rules of procedure agreed 
upon.  Every accredited NGOs will be welcomed, even the ones that 
criticize Tunisia.  Tunisia respects its international commitments and 
its internal laws.  No one is above the law in Tunisia.  We do not have 
any problem with violation of human rights in Tunisia.  These are 
allegations without support.
	We invite NGOs to come and see what the situation is really in Tunisia.


Geiger
It is the role of the UN Secretary General to compose the working 
groups.  There are no deadlines for when this must happen, but by March 
or April the Secretary General should make a decision.


Bloem
The Bureau is only constituted to only concern itself with process.  If 
there are also content issues going to be raised, than we need someone 
from Content and Themes to participate in the March meeting.


Rik Panganiban, WFM/CONGO
Will there be regional meetings? Are there no plans for a financing 
meeting as of yet?  Financing is of great importance to many NGOs, 
particularly those from the South.


Mansour
The regional process is part of the official decision on arrangements 
for Tunis.  The text calls for thematic conferences, as well as 
national, regional and international level meetings.


Geiger
The 2nd phase is more thematic oriented.  But there will probably be 
regional meetings.  Africa, and Latin America interested in having 
regional meetings.  These meetings will be nformal and non-binding.


Senegalese representative
Can our delegation participate in the informal March meeting?


Mansour
It is up to the Bureaus to decide who participates.  The government 
bureau is having some difficulty re-constituting itself since there are 
more candidates than there are slots for each region.


Report by Rik Panganiban
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 9983 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/pipermail/plenary/attachments/20040210/07ade0f9/attachment.bin