[WSIS CS-Plenary] Summary of Public Voice WSIS call 2/20

[djilali benamrane]

En Français ( résumé) ci-aprés
Dear Frannie,
i am wonderring when are we being able to promote
among the CS representatives names like Mohamadou or
Fatimatou, to show that the CS is a world one...
Thanks life there is one or two gender representative.
And when are we being able to organize such a
conferences in Africa and not everytime in Geneva,
London or NY... I like very much NY but i like also
Ouagadougou, or Ndjamena and please dont tell me that
these countries have note the elementary equipment to
respond to your need, because we have to fond solution
to the Digitzal Divide and how can we explain the
dramatical situation if we don't live it one or two
days !!!!
Friendly
Djilali
Je proteste contre ces rencontres qui ont lieu avec
des représentants à consonnance excluve du Nord et se
tenant excluvivement dans le Nord !!!
Si nous voulons que la société civile dénonce le fossé
numérique il faut que nos représentant puissent aller
goûter au dénuement qui prévaut dans certaines
capitales africaines, ils ne pourront que mieux
s'exprimer l'inégalité et la désespérance.
Amitiés
Djilali 
--- Frannie Wellings <wellings at epic.org> wrote:
> Summary of the Public Voice 2nd Teleconference on
> "WSIS and Civil Society"
> February 20, 2004
> 
> 
> On February 20th, the Public Voice held the second
> meeting to discuss 
> civil society involvement in the WSIS process. 
> Participating were 
> Deborah Hurley, Rikke Frank Joergensen (EDRI),
> Robert Guerra 
> (Privaterra), Nathan Mitchler (Public Knowledge),
> Marc Rotenberg 
> (EPIC), Frannie Wellings (EPIC), YJ Park, Milton
> Mueller (Syracuse), 
> Andy Carvin (Benton), Chris Chiu (ACLU), and Becky
> Lentz (Ford 
> Foundation).  Thank you to Deborah for moderating
> and to Rikke and 
> Robert for providing very useful updates.
> 
> The Next Public Voice Meeting will be coordinated
> alongside the UN 
> ICT meeting in NY (both in person and via
> telephone). It will 
> probably take place at the Ford Foundation on March
> 24 or 25, 2004. 
> Please let me know if you will be in NY at this time
> - it seems 
> opportune for a civil society strategy meeting. 
> Confirmation on 
> date/time/agenda still to come.
> 
> Summary:
> I. Updates
> II. Report from Civil Society Plenary
> III. Discussion of Internet Governance and Upcoming
> UN meetings
> IV. Addressing issues from last meeting
> V. Organizing Around Upcoming Events
> VI.  Needs/Next Steps
> 
> 
> I. Updates
> Robert Guerra's reported on Recent Canadian meeting:
> The Canadian government under UNESCO organized a
> civil society 
> debriefing in Ottawa on January 23rd.  They brought
> together 
> participants to discuss the process so far in terms
> of civil 
> society's organizing and challenges and what Canada
> should do next. 
> In the second phase, the Canadians see a problem in
> terms of 
> stakeholders - Canadian business wasn't as present
> as they expected 
> in the first phase.  It was said that the
> Declaration and Action Plan 
> would not be reopened according to governments. 
> There are now only 
> two concrete issues that will be dealt with,
> financing and Internet 
> governance. There are no modalities for oversight of
> the Action Plan 
> - the process is decentralized and there are a
> number of initiatives.
> Coming up:
> There will be an informal, brainstorming meeting on
> March 4-5 in 
> Tunisia. They want the Bureau to attend, but there
> are few funds for 
> travel. Very few people are able to go due to
> lacking funds, and 
> others are avoiding Tunisia for human rights
> reasons.  Robert will be 
> attending this meeting and will report back.
> There will be a WSIS civil society meeting in
> Berlin, Germany in 
> March, but without a funded Bureau, travel
> opportunities and even 
> discussions are sparse.  Robert thinks the new
> bureau will probably 
> pick a new president, though Deborah Hurley pointed
> out that 
> Sammassekou was appointed for the entire WSIS
> process.
> Regarding the next preparatory meeting, the
> Tunisians want April 
> while the ITU wants June or July.  Most people
> involved want it to be 
> held in either New York City or Geneva. 
> 
> 
> 
> II. Report from the Plenary
> Rikke discussed the UN ICT Global Forum in New York
> in March.  (On 
> the Human Rights Plenary list, I read that the
> February ITU meeting 
> is an internal technical ITU workshop to feed into
> the UN ICT Task 
> Force Open Forum in New York, 25-27 March, on
> Internet Governance. 
> It is not directly part of the WSIS 2 preparatory
> process, but its 
> outcome will help determine the Secretary General's
> appointment of 
> the Internet Governance working group.)  While
> Saturday's meeting is 
> closed, the 25th and 26th are open to public
> participation.  Several 
> government delegates will attend, many from Europe
> and the US. 
> Rikke mentioned frustration with the Bureau family
> structure, with 
> the involvement of family members rather than caucus
> members.  The 
> human rights caucus should apply for a formal role
> in the Internet 
> Governance working group.
> Robert said that the Latin America regional plenary
> list is very 
> active, though there is a great deal of frustration
> that so many of 
> the documents are only in English.
> 
> 
> III. Internet Governance
> Milton Mueller led this very informative discussion
> of Internet 
> governance and the upcoming UN ICT Task Force forum.
>  He feels that 
> the only concrete accomplishment of WSIS I was the
> establishment of 
> an Internet governance working group.  The two
> documents, the 
> Declaration and the Plan of Action, won't be
> reopened.  He feels that 
> the broad range of information and communication
> concerns will have 
> to be, and can be, addressed through the question of
> Internet 
> governance.  The concept of Internet governance is
> very broad and can 
> concretely address issues such as Voice Over IP,
> Spam, and content 
> controls.  We're looking at an International
> framework/agreement for 
> the governance of the Internet. 
> The ITU meeting will take place on February 26th and
> 27th with 
> experts presenting, most of whom are critical of
> ICANN.  Milton will 
> also be presenting.   The UN ICT Task Force will
> become the 
> secretariat of the working group, which Kofi Annan
> will select.  The 
> UN ICT forum is shaping up to be a big meeting.
> Milton's not sure how 
> they selected invitees, but said some invitations
> must have channeled 
> through the WSIS civil society groups such as the
> Internet Governance 
> caucus.  He said it doesn't appear to be horribly
> selective.  Deborah 
> Hurley suggested the working group might be
> supplanting the Tunisia 
> phase.
> Milton stressed his belief that Internet Governance
> issues touch on 
> more than just the ICANN question, but also most
> other issues 
> involved in the World Summit, such as privacy and
> censorship.  All of 
> the human rights issues may be brought into the
> framework of Internet 
> Governance.  Progressive communities are not unified
> on IG, with 
> divergence on model of representation, for example. 
> Milton stressed 
> the need for a more unified strategy. 
> People on the call agreed that many issues may be
> tied up in Internet 
> Governance, that the working group is extremely
> significant, and 
> civil society needs to be involved pushing a human
> rights perspective 
> in the working group.  It is unknown whether this
> will be the only 
> point of significance, however. The CS Internet
> governance caucus has 
> already sent a letter to Mr Kofi Annan to express
> its willing to 
> participate in the Internet governance working
> group.  (As far as I 
> know right now, the Human Rights caucus is
> considering doing the 
> same.)
> There is still an Internet Governance civil society
> caucus list, 
> 
=== message truncated ===


=====
Djilali Benamrane : dbenamrane at yahoo.com
Tél/Fax : (331) 01 45 39 77 02 Paris - France
Page web sur l'Afrique et la globalisation : http://www.multimania.com/djilalibenamrane/
Groupe de discussion: http://www.egroups.com/list/afriqueglobalization

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