[WSIS CS-Plenary] paralysis in civil society meeting

[Andy Carvin]

Paralysis

This evening?s content and themes meeting of the civil society caucus
degenerated into  chaos, as some Tunisian and African NGO representatives
overwhelmed the session, preventing chairs Karen Banks and Steve Buckley
from leading a discussion on tomorrow?s various civil society speeches to
the government plenary. With probably seven or eight Tunisians for every
non-Tunisian in the room, they demanded that civil society take an
immediate vote on whether language critical of the Tunisian government
would be excised from the human rights caucus text.

The Tunisians, who did not participate in the human rights caucus session
in which the language was drafted, demanded the right to overrule the text
criticizing the Tunisian government, as well as change the speaker to
someone they felt represented their view. They argued that a ?vote? had
been taken earlier in the afternoon during the previous civil society
meeting -- rather, it was their supporters shouting acclamation -- and no
consistent translation was offered to allow participants to make an
informed decision.

For nearly two hours, the audience of nearly 100 people were completely
deadlocked, with the Tunisians blocking calls for a discussion proposing
that two people ? one of their choosing and one chosen by the human rights
caucus ? be given time to speak tomorrow during the government plenary. On
numerous occasions, Karen Banks was shouted down by Tunisian
representatives, saying she wasn?t the legitimate chair of the meeting and
that the chair that had presided over the chaotic afternoon session return
to that position.

Eventually, Renate Bloem arrived, having come back from a meeting with
government delegates, and implored the group to attempt to arrive at
consensus. She said that if the session continued to be held hostage, it
would become impossible for civil society to craft the speeches on other
issues that need to be addressed during tomorrow?s plenary.

By this time it was just before 8pm, and the translators were off the clock
and left the room. This made it impossible to continue the debate with
adequate translation, and it was decided that a plenary to discuss the
human rights issue would be convened first thing tomorrow morning so that
the Content and Themes group could have an adequate amount of time tonight
to plan tomorrow?s other speeches.


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Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org
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