Fwd: Draft letter on Fellowships

[Meryem Marzouki <marzouki@ras.eu.org>]

Hi all,

This draft letter for your information and comments. The letter is a 
reaction to be sent to the WSIS Secretariat regarding the fellowship 
allocation process. Thanks. Meryem.

Début du message réexpédié :

> De : Meryem Marzouki <marzouki@ras.eu.org>
> Date : Jeu 16 jan 2003  01:30:27 PM Europe/Paris
> À : Wsis-cscg@comunica.org, wsis-sp@comunica.org
> Cc : wsis-prep1@lists.cpsr.org
> Objet : Draft letter on Fellowships
>
> Hi there,
>
> Here is the letter I drafted regarding the fellowships for PrepCom2. 
> Could someone forward this also to the Sub Committee on Finance, of 
> which I am not a member.
> Please send your comments and additions to this letter (feel specially 
> free to rewrite it in good English!!), so that we can finalize together 
> and send it ASAP to the Secretariat.
>
> Meryem
> ========
> CIVIL SOCIETY COORDINATION GROUP
> Letter to WSIS Executive Director
> About the Civil Society Fellowship Allocation Process for PrepCom2
>
> Pierre Gagné, Executive Director
> WSIS Secretariat
> c/o ITU
> Place des Nations
> 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland
>
> Copies:
> Adama Samassekou, Chair, WSIS Preparatory Process
> Daniel Stauffacher, Chair, sub-committee 1
> Alain Clerc, Director, Civil Society Division, WSIS Secretariat
> Members of the civil society plenary
>
> XX January 2003
> Dear Mr. Gagné,
>
> We are writing you as Sub Committee on Finance and Sub Committee on 
> Participation, both created by the Civil Society Plenary Group and 
> mandated by the Civil Society Coordinating Group. Civil society 
> organizations have received on January 13th, 2003, an information and a 
> request for fellowships from the Civil Society Secretariat.  We welcome 
> the establishment of a Civil Society Facilitation Fund, which we have 
> requested for a long time as the only mean to ensure balanced and 
> effective participation of civil society in the WSIS process, 
> especially regarding the participation of groups from least developed 
> countries. We still however would like to raise the following concerns 
> regarding this Civil Society Facilitation Fund and the allocation 
> procedure for fellowships.
>
> On the categories of candidates who may apply:
> Although we agree that 'Civil society' is a hard to define notion, it 
> covers for the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions 
> entities of the third sector, distinct from the State and from the 
> private sector. Given this definition, and considering the limited 
> number of available fellowships, we consider that the categories of 
> candidates should be limited to NGOs, social groups and social 
> movements.
>
> On the selection criteria:
> While the criteria for a balanced participation are quite reasonable, 
> we consider that the categories of the candidates roles in their home 
> country may go beyond NGOs and civil society groups general roles. To 
> say the least, NGOs and civil society groups seldomly act as 
> 'decision-makers'. We recommend that the relevance of applications 
> should be examined with regards to the sole criteria of acting in the 
> field of Information society. In this respect, the fact that the 
> organization of the candidate is accredited to the WSIS preparatory 
> process is not only sufficient, but also necessary for the 
> participation of the canditate to PrepCom2.
>
> On the selection process:
> Since the deadline for application is January 25th, 2003, we are 
> wondering how the selection panel, said to be composed by members of 
> the Civil Society, will be itself selected. As a matter of fact, 
> neither the Civil Society Plenary Coordinating Group, nor its relevant 
> Sub Committees on Finance and on Participation has been approached till 
> now on this regards.
>
> On the obligations of fellowship participants:
> We are very surprised by the listed obligations, specially the ones 
> stating that participants must "conduct themselves at all times in a 
> manner compatible with their responsibility as holders of WSIS 
> fellowships" and "refrain from engaging in political, commercial and 
> any other activities incompatible with the WSIS PrepCom2".  First of 
> all, we consider that participating in the WSIS process is a political 
> activity in itself, thus refraining from it would mean not even 
> attending PrepComs.
> Second, we are wondering what could be a "responsibility as holders of 
> WSIS fellowships" and a conduct uncompatible with this responsibility.
> Third, we don't have any information of the "instructions issued by 
> Fellowships Service", that the candidates should comply with.
> Fourth, it seems that these obligations are stated according to ITU 
> templates, while WSIS is a UN Summit, and should thus only follow UN 
> rules.
> For these reasons, and in the name of the Civil Society Plenary Group 
> which currently number hundreds of organizations, we protest against 
> these obligations which bring discredit upon NGOs and civil society 
> groups, and we urge you to drop them from the list of obligations.
>
> On the information requested from applicants:
> The fellowship application form requests a great deal of personal 
> information, and this raises privacy concerns, specially since there is 
> no clear privacy policy statement. Place of birth and passport details 
> (number, issuing location, date, etc.) are highly sensitive 
> information. While we understand passport details will be needed if a 
> visa is required and, for some countries, for flight tickets obtention, 
> they are by no mean necessary when examining an application for 
> fellowship. Furthermore, if the Secretariat is to share this 
> information with governements and/or national or international 
> agencies, this may lead to serious privacy infringement according to 
> national and international legislation.
>
> We urge you to address these concerns to facilitate the participation 
> of NGOs and civil society groups to PrepCom2 and subsequent WSIS events 
> in an open, transparent, and safe manner.
>
> On Behalf of the Civil Society Plenary Group and its Coordinating Group,
> Sub Committee on Finance
> [list of names]
> Sub Committee on Participation
> [list of names]
>