[WSIS CS-Plenary] Request for Comments : Government contributions for Hammamet

[Bertrand de LA CHAPELLE]

Dear friends,

Some governments have made contributions in the perspective 
of the Hammamet meeting that are posted on the Executive 
Secretariat web site. They basically address the following 
themes :

- The opportunity and content of a Political Declaration in 
Tunis
- The structure and format of the Tunis Summit
- The organization of the preparatory process
- The need for mechanisms for the post-Tunis period

I encourage you to read them - particularly those from 
Canada, Switzerland and the European Union. 

Across these themes, some points of potential convergence 
emerge and are briefly outlined below. 

As civil society is likely to be taking the floor at least 
three times for about 15 minutes, they may be worth 
discussing on the Plenary list to see whether civil society 
supports them or not, or has other priorities. These points 
are in no way a complete description of all comments 
submitted.

I – USING THE 11 THEMES IDENTIFIED IN GENEVA

The first phase of the WSIS process has identified 11 Themes 
that structure the Declaration of Principles and Plan of 
Action adopted in Geneva :
• Role of governments and other stakeholders in the promotion 
of ICTs for Development
• Information and Communication Infrastructure
• Access to Information and Knowledge
• Capacity Building
• Building confidence and Security in the use of ICTs
• Enabling environment
• ICT Applications
• Cultural Diversity and Identity, Linguistic Diversity and 
Local Content
• Media
• Ethical Dimensions of the Information Society
• International and Regional Cooperation

Several contributions mention these themes could help 
structure the preparatory process, the various Thematic 
events to take place in the period leading up to Tunis and 
the Tunis Summit itself.

As a matter of fact, themes 1 and 11 could be grouped 
separately, as they relate more to implementation mechanisms 
(national e-strategies and international organizations.

what is the position of civil society on tusin this list of 
themes, knowing that :
- the priority order may not be the one that civil society 
would prefer
- it is clear that this list will not be reopened for 
discussion before Tunis
- a list of sub-themes contained in the Action Plan 
(see "List of summit themes" on the wsis-online web site) 
could provide some additional "hooks" to put issues on the 
Agenda  

 
II – KEEPING THE GENEVA FORMAT FOR TUNIS

It is proposed to organized Tunis, like Geneva, around  a 
plenary session, plus “summit events” with conferences and 
exhibitions.

Canada (supported by Switzerland) proposes in addition to 
organize the summit events around the 11 themes in the form 
of “@tents”, that is distinct spaces devoted to each theme, 
with multistakeholder participation.

They also suggest that 3-4 small “Advisory groups” be 
responsible for clusters of 3-4 themes. They would be 
composed of actors from the 4 constituencies (governments, 
international organizations, civil society and private 
sector) and oversee the organization of the “@tents” with up 
to 11 sub-groups.

Setting up of these groups would be the responsibility of the 
Executive Secretariat. 

What does civil society think of these notions ?

III – THEMATIC MEETINGS

Thematic meetings, potentially along the 11 themes above, 
should help structure the preparatory phase . 

The European Union has outlined a list of possible criteria 
for a meeting to be granted the label “WSIS Thematic 
Meeting” :
• the meeting is being organised on the initiative of a 
recognised WSIS stakeholder from a  government, the civil 
society, the private sector or an appropriate international 
organisation;
• the subject matter is relevant  to the WSIS agenda;  
• the outcomes of such meetings could be fed into the WSIS 
preparatory process proper for noting or endorsement by 
stakeholders, as they deem fit;
• participation in the meeting is open to all WSIS 
stakeholders and, as far as possible, financial costs of 
participation should not be prohibitive; 
• the meeting has no financial implications for the WSIS 
budget.

What is civil society's position ? Should it in particular 
support the criteria that an event should be open to all 
stakeholders to be qualified as Thematic Event ?

IV – STOCK – TAKING

Several contributions rightly underscore the need for a 
comprehensive stock-taking exercise during the coming months, 
by governments and international organizations but also by 
private sector and civil society entities to identify “who 
does (or could do) what” in each of the 11 Themes.

This opens up the question : How to organize in the most 
efficient, economic and useful way such a stock-taking 
exercise among 200 countries, more than 25 intergovernmental 
organizations and several hundreds of civil society entities 
and private sector companies ?

How would civil society like to take part in such a stock-
taking exercise ?


V – MORE GENERALLY 

Many of these comments (in particular EU, Canada, 
Switzerland) reaffirm the need to involve civil society, even 
more so now that we are moving “from Principles to Action” 
and get into the implementation phase. This is recommended 
for the preparatory process, the summit itself (in particular 
in the organization of Summit Events) and in the organization 
of Thematic Events.

The European Union stresses the need for limited PrepComs (2 
are suggested, one in the winter of 2004-2005) and the othr 
one in September 2005, and Australia recommends short ones 
used mostly to review reports on progress at the thematic or 
regional levels. 

Finally, several comments insist on not reopening the debate 
on the documents adopted in Geneva, and aiming at a short and 
strong Politicla Document (A “visionary Chair’s Statement on 
the importance of the Information Society” in Canada’s view, 
a “political preamble reaffirming the commitment to 
implementation of the DoP and PoA, and an more operative 
part” for the EU).

These various aspects could be discussed during the 
orientation session on the 23rd and comments on the plenary 
from those who cannot participate in Hammamet are certainly a 
useful input. 

Best to all

Bertrand