AW: [WSIS CS-Plenary] tunis meeting

Fri Feb 13 12:39:48 GMT 2004

I thought we had the document, "Civil Society at the WSIS:  Basic 
Structures", written by Renata, Sean and Wolfgang in September 2003 
(around the time of PrepCom3?)

Or does it need updating?  item 5 about the civil society division 
probably does.

Text below.

Thanks,

Adam

Civil Society at the WSIS:  Basic Structures.

The following describes in summary the basic structures that civil 
society has developed over the preparatory process of the WSIS.

1. A key principle underlying the structures of civil society is that 
there must be multiple avenues and means for participation, and that 
all civil society entities can select the nature, level and extent of 
participation according to their needs and interests.

2. Civil Society can constitute itself into a Plenary (CSP) at every 
official convening of the WSIS process, such as Regional Conferences, 
PrepComs, Intersessional meetings and Summits. The CSP is open to the 
participation of all civil society participants. When convened, it is 
the ultimate civil society authority in the WSIS process, in relation 
to the mandate and scope of the specific event.  At PrepCom II, CSP 
endorsed the existence and terms of the Civil Society Content & 
Themes Group and the Civil Society Bureau.

3. The Civil Society Content and Themes Group (CS C&T) coordinates 
the work of numerous self-constituting civil society Caucuses, 
Working Groups and other content related entities.  It is charged 
with facilitating agreement on and taking decisions on 
content-related issues, while respecting the domain expertise and 
competence of Caucuses and Content Groups.  It reports regularly to 
the CS plenary on decisions taken.

4. The Civil Society Bureau (CSB) functions as an interlinkage 
between civil society participants and the intergovernmental Bureau 
and process, with regard to operational and logistical needs, 
procedures and interactions. It does not concern itself with 
content-related issues. The Bureau is constituted by 21 "family nodal 
points", that enable any civil society entity to find a "home", and 
it enhances interaction between all sections of civil society and 
between civil society and others.  The Civil Society Division of the 
WSIS Secretariat provides the Secretariat for the CS Bureau.  The 
Bureau reports regularly to the CS Plenary on decisions taken.

5. The Civil Society Division of the WSIS Secretariat (CSD) supports 
the activities of all civil society participants and entities in the 
Summit, including the above.  It may also provide support to 
participants who chose not to associate with some or all of the above 
entities, in a manner that respects the functions and authority of 
the above.

6. The CSP approved a Virtual CS Plenary group as an electronic forum 
between physical meetings of the CSP, to promote debate and greater 
transparency in the organisation of civil society during the Summit 
preparatory process, including between the various entities above. It 
is not a decision making entity, but decisions of other entities will 
be circulated there. It is open to all accredited entities, to 
registered bodies at WSIS meetings, and to all civil society entities 
with an active interest in the WSIS.  The e-mail address is 
plenary at wsis-cs.org

7. All the above entities will take action to ensure that, within the 
available resources, key decisions are taken only after consideration 
of the issues in the working languages of the Summit: English, French 
and Spanish.

Seán Ó Siochrú
Wolfgang Kleinwaechter
Renata Bloem 

12/09/2003

At 1:24 PM +0100 2/13/04, Rik Panganiban wrote:
>Wolfgang et al,
>
>While I think it might be useful to have this document explaining CS 
>structures, at least for ourselves, I am not so sure that the 
>Tunisian hosts are all that concerned about this.  They simply want 
>to know who is the "main" coordinating body among the various 
>sectors, which for governments is the government bureau, for the 
>private sector is the CCBI, and for NGOs is.... the Bureau and 
>Content and Themes.  The Tunisian ambassador on Monday's briefing 
>was clear:  he invited the respective bureau's and he expects the 
>bureaus to work out amonst themselves who actually are the most 
>appropriate people to attend, which might be delegated to someone 
>not on the bureau.
>
>Of course the CS plenary is sovereign, just as the government 
>plenary is sovereign over the govt bureau.  But this doesn't help 
>the summit hosts to know who to interact with directly from each 
>sector.
>
>It's important to note that governments are also apparently having 
>some difficulties re-constituting among themselves the government 
>bureau.  There are apparently many more candidates than there are 
>slots available, which is somewhat unusual.  Usually the regional 
>groups already work this issue out quietly amongst themselves to 
>avoid a more potentially politicized and controversial election 
>procedure.
>
>So really it is only the private sector that for the most part has 
>seemed to be able to coordinate smoothly its own representation 
>issues.  But that is also an open question, at least on my part.
>
>Rik Panganiban
>
>
>On 13 févr. 04, at 11:37, <wolfgang at imv.au.dk> wrote:
>
>>Dar all,
>>
>>It should be clear (also for the Tunis organizers) that the "main 
>>organ" of CS is the CS Plenary. CS-P has two arms, "C&T" for 
>>Content (based on a broad range of WG and Caucuses) and the 
>>"Bureau" for Procedures. The so-called "C&T Liaison" is a full 
>>member of the Bureau. It is important to explain this "simple 
>>structure" to the newcomers from the very early day to avoid any 
>>misunderstanding. CS is organized bottom up. The Bureau does not 
>>take content related decisions. It facilitates the communications 
>>between other bodies and stakeholders and the different families, 
>>caucuses wg etc. of the Civil Society and deals with formal aspects 
>>(which room is needed when, which speaking slots should be 
>>reserved, when we should have a meeting with the intergovernmental 
>>office etc.)
>>
>>It would be helpful to write a self-explaining one-pager (with an 
>>Organizational Chart) for distribution in Tunis.
>>
>>Best
>>
>>wolfgang
>>
>>
>>-- Original Nachricht--
>>Von: Rikke Frank Joergensen <rfj at humanrights.dk>
>>An: plenary at wsis-cs.org
>>Senden: 11:12 AM
>>Betreff: [WSIS CS-Plenary] tunis meeting
>>
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>>Hi,
>>
>>
>>
>>I am glad to see that C&T is a "born" participant in the
>>Tunis meeting, according to the information from Renata.
>>
>>
>>
>>However, it¹s still worrying that the family structure is the point
>>of access for CS at a meeting that will undoubtedly deal with both 
>>process and
>>content. And that effective means for participation in this 2. 
>>phase will be so
>>limited due to financial constrains on CS.
>>
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>>
>>Rikke
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>>
>
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