[WSIS CS-Plenary] Tunisia Pledges Openness for Second WSIS

[Ralf Bendrath]

Let's see what they _really_ do. At least the press has picked this up
quickly. 
Good overview on recent developments anyway, this article.
Ralf

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http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=22326

COMMUNICATIONS:
Tunisia Pledges Openness for Second WSIS

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Feb 9 (IPS) - The government of Tunisia has assured that all
civil society organisations will be allowed to participate in the second
phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, to take place in
Tunis next year, the follow-up to last December's meet in Geneva.

Accredited groups will be welcome to take part, including ”those that
enjoy criticising” the government of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali,
Tunisia's representative to the WSIS, Habib Mansour, said Monday.

With these statements, Mansour sought to remove any doubts among
non-governmental organisations and other members of civil society about
the atmosphere of freedom he assures will prevail at the United
Nations-sponsored Summit, slated for Nov. 16-18, 2005.

At that second-phase gathering, delegates are to continue deliberations
on fair access to information and communications technology (ICTs).

Mansour offered these assurances during a meeting convened here Monday
by CONGO, the Conference of Non-Governmental Organisations that hold
consultative status at the United Nations.

CONGO president Renate Bloem took Mansour's words to heart: ”Now we know
that in Tunis all of civil society will participate, including the
organisations that are critical of the government; that is clear.”

A representative of the International Federation for Human Rights
(FIDH), Beatrice Quadranti, had called on Mansour to explain what his
government's policy would be during the WSIS towards the organisations
that work for freedom of expression in Tunisia.

Quadranti objected to the Tunisian delegate's statements about the
supposedly clean record of his country in terms of human rights. She
noted that human rights activists had been rejected entry into Tunisia
in recent weeks.

Mansour responded that there would be no such problems during next
year's Summit. ”The NGOs will have the opportunity to come and see that
the people are happy and have a decent life.”

The first phase of the WSIS, held last Dec. 10-12 in Geneva, marked the
first time that civil society representatives participated in an
international conference at this level.

There the delegates approved a declaration of principles about the
expansion of information technology and a plan of action aimed at
bridging the ”digital divide”, the disparity between rich and poor
countries in access to these resources.

The second part, in Tunis, the international delegates are to assess the
progress made towards the goals set out in the declaration and in the
plan of action.

Among the issues left pending from the Geneva meet are the policies for
governing the Internet and plans to finance the dissemination of ICTs in
developing countries, the latter based on a digital solidarity fund
proposed by several nations, mostly from Africa.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan received the mandate from the first
WSIS to advance in the consideration of those two matters.

As for Internet governance, some developing countries have proposed a
reform of the system under which the U.S.-based private Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) holds authority over
a great portion of the worldwide web in terms of domain names.

The private sector has challenged the proposal of developing countries
to give inter-governmental agencies -- like the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) -- a role in Internet governance.

The International Chamber of Commerce, which represents the private
sector in the WSIS negotiations, says the countries pushing for reform
have governments that control most infrastructure, such as telecoms, but
at the same time provide only limited Internet access.

An open world forum on Internet governance is to take place in New York,
Mar. 25-26, convened by the U.N. Information and Communications
Technologies Task Force.

Expected to emerge from that debate -- to involve representatives of
government, inter-government agencies, the private sector and civil
society -- will be the guidelines and criteria that Annan is to follow
for setting up the working group on Internet governance, as mandated by
the WSIS in Geneva.

Prior to that, on Feb. 26-27, the issue will be taken up in a workshop
on Internet governance, organised in Geneva by the ITU, which is also
sponsoring the WSIS process in representation of the United Nations.

Shortly thereafter, Mar. 3-4, a meeting is to take place in Tunis about
the future of the Summit itself, with invitations going out to
representatives of the same groups -- government, private sector, NGOs.

But the degree of participation of civil society in the Summit in 2005
will depend on the resources available. Bloem told the delegates from
Tunisia and from the ITU on Monday that this is a matter that requires
”serious discussion”.

The Swiss government, which financed a large portion of the expenses for
the civil society's participation in the Geneva Summit, has already
announced that it will not be able to maintain that level of support.

But Switzerland will not abandon civil society, which together with the
communications media have become ”major stakeholders” in the information
society, said Daniel Stauffacher, a member of the Swiss delegation to
the WSIS.

The NGOs that participated in the first phase of the WSIS in Geneva are
assured of being registered for the second phase in Tunis.

Charles Geiger, head of the WSIS executive secretariat in Geneva,
announced that the registration of new civil society participants should
be carried out via the ITU web site.