AW: [WSIS CS-Plenary] tunis meeting

[William Drake]

Hi Wolfgang,

> 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

The Tunisian government is probably not all that aware of or concerned about
the details of the CS structure; certainly the ambassador gave no hint of
this at the CONGO meeting.  I suspect they think that by inviting the bureau
to Tunis to plan they've done all they need to do.

> 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.)

Sorry, but I don't think this really responds to what Rikke said.  The issue
here is not whether there are 'newcomers' who don't know the structure or
understand the process/substance division (which I am sure the Tunis meeting
will blur).  Rather, it's whether the structure is optimally configured in
terms of democratic representation.  This concern has been raised on the
list a number of times by by many 'old timers.'   Why should the bureau
comprise only families rather than also including people from the caucuses
and working groups, which after all were created bottom up and have
contributed heavily?  Why wouldn't we want the bureau to comprise reps of
the most active groupings, irrespective of which of the three forms they
take?

Cheers,

Bill

-------------

> > -- 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
> >> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am glad to see that C&T is a "born" participant in the
> > Tunis meeting, according to the information from Renata.
> >
> > However, it’s 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.
> >
> > Rikke