[WSIS CS-Plenary] civil society declaration

[Ralf Bendrath]

Dear Mustapha Masmoudi,

> to Mr. Qusaii Shatti and Mr. Ralf 
> Think a lot for your initiative that I support strongly, and good luck
> Please, don't forget to include my proposition about our Arabic Caucus
> (see in attached document).
I have already sent a lenghty reply to your contribution to the WSIS CS
statement on 18 December. I copy it again at the end of this mail.

Qusai, please work with the existing version from 23rd December for the
Arabic translation. This version is available on www.worldsummit2005.org
and has already been submitted to the ITU and translated into French and
Spanish.

Best, Ralf

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary]
Déclaration de la Société Civile
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 02:51:39 +0100
From: Ralf Bendrath <bendrath at zedat.fu-berlin.de>
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org

Dear Mustapha Masmoudi,

> Dear  Djilali Benamrane,
I am not Djilali, but I have been facilitating the drafting process in the
last two weeks, so bear with me if I reply. ;-)

I have read your input and proposals thoroughly (thanks a lot for the
quick English translation!). I have copied them here:

> 1. Replace all the words meaning the failing, in French “échouer”, 
> mentioned more than  10 times in the declaration, by the terms “don’t 
> totally succeed”.
This wording has been in the draft version from the first day, and
everybody else has agreed to it. I am afraid the drafting group is not in
a position too late to change it anymore.

> 2. Erase all the sentences in the French text, at page 3 : “ le sommet 
> citoyen a été empêché de se tenir à Tunis”.
(For the non-francophones: This is the sentence
"the initiative by parts of civil society to organize a "Citizens' Summit
on the Information Society" was prevented from happening"
in the current version - which already was amended after input from
Djilali Benamrane.) As many have made clear, this paragraph was already
pretty much watered down and is very diplomatic. The sentence you propose
to delete just refers to a fact. We will have to keep it in.

> 3. In the page 6 of the French version, concerned with the activities 
> of the civil society, please add other activities proposed by the 
> Arabic group and supported by the Africain group as follows: (...)
I am afraid this was a misunderstanding, and I hope it was not because of
translation problems. The existing list we have in the statement is from
the WGIG report and therefore can not be changed in this context and the
way the argument is developed. It lists different very generic functions
of Civil Society. It was never the intention to add our own ideas in this
part of the statement.
The activities you propose to include might fit into the last section, but
still we would have needed a more elaborated discussion about this, as
many others will come up with a gazillion more of concrete projects and
activities.

It definitely is a good idea to develop a separate document or a "Civil
Society stocktaking database" that lists all the ideas and concrete
projects for civil society engagement and activities in the Information
Society field. I think www.WSIS-online.net was exactly meant to provide a
tool for this.

> 4 - In page 11 of the French version, under the title “evolution of the
>  internal organization”, please add parliamentary NGOs and Arabic group
>  as full members of the B.C.S.
There is no listing at all of the different members of the CSB (Civil
Society Bureau). Therefore it does not make sense to include
"parliamentary NGOs and Arabic group" here. We would have to list all 30+
caucuses and working groups, and that list will evolve anyway. Maybe we
can include a note at the end or in a footnote that refers to
http://www.wsis-cs.org, where all of them are listed.

Thanks for your understanding,

Ralf