Fwd: [WSIS CS-Plenary] report on WSIS Briefing, 9 Feb, Geneva

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

FYI.

Début du message réexpédié :

> De: Rik Panganiban <rikp@bluewin.ch>
> Date: Mar 10 fév 2004  14:31:24 Europe/Paris
> À: plenary@wsis-cs.org
> Objet: [WSIS CS-Plenary] report on WSIS Briefing, 9 Feb, Geneva
> Répondre à: plenary@wsis-cs.org
>
> Report on CONGO WSIS Briefing
> 9 February 2004, 1400-1600
> Palais des Nations
>
> Notes by Rik Panganiban.  Others who were there are invited to 
> correct, amend and add to these notes, if they wish.
>
>
> Renata Bloem, President, CONGO
> Ms. Bloem introduced the speakers on panel.  She noted that this 
> meeting is one of the regular briefings on relevant UN issues 
> organized CONGO.  The occasion for this meeting was a visit by the 
> Minister of IT in Tunisia, who expressed his commitment to civil 
> society participation in Phase II.
>
>
> H.E. Mr. Habib Mansour, Tunisia Delegation to the WSIS
> Expressed pleasure at being able to address civil society today.  
> Thanked  Ms. Bloem and the civil society bureau for this initiative to 
> mobilize different actors associated with the Information Society:  
> governments, the private sector, intergovernmental organizations, and 
> civil society.
> 	Civil society has contributed much to the documents.  Civil Society 
> is an integral part of the  transformation to the Information Society. 
>  We have identified the principles and the actions in the documents.
> The same spirit and modalities employed in the Geneva phase will 
> continue into the Tunis phase.
>
>
> Bloem	
> So the same rules of procedures in Geneva will continue up to Tunisia.
>
>
> H.E. Mr. Daniel Stauffacher, Swiss Delegation to the WSIS
> We have achieved a great deal already in the Geneva phase.  We have 
> strong language in the Geneva Declaration on human rights and the 
> media.  The Plan of Action is a good start.  It still needs improving 
> and deepening.
> 	Two important tasks have been given to the UN Secretary General: 
> internet governance and financing.  We see two priorities.  1. 
> Implementation of plan of action. We need action on the ground.  2. We 
> need to maintain this level of participation from CS, business and 
> media.
>
>
> Bloem: It would be good to see continued support for civil society 
> participation from the Swiss.
>
>
> Charles Geiger, Head of WSIS Executive Secretariat
> Mr. Geiger noted that the WSIS-Geneva put the issue of the information 
> society on the agenda of world leaders. Where do we go from here?  The 
> way ahead is not fully clear.
> 	Tunisia is inviting the bureaus of the governments and civil society, 
> the coordinating board of business interlocutors, and the high-level 
> summit organizing committee to a meeting from 3-4 March in Tunis.  It 
> will be an informal brainstorming session.  It will not produce a 
> document.
> 	The “Arrangements for the Tunis Phase of the Summit” document agreed 
> in December by governments notes that there will be a  preparatory 
> meeting to take place in 1st half of 2004. The government Bureau has 
> to give indications of when the meeting should be held.  The ITU has 
> problem with May and June.  So possibly late April, or early July.  
> This meeting may be in Tunis.
> 	The rules of procedure do not change.  Accreditation is an ongoing 
> process.
> 	The civil society division had to be dismantled because of lack of 
> money.  The Executive secretariat is temporarily taking over functions 
> of the civil society division, including accreditation. We can not 
> take over their website. New accreditations of NGOs will occur on the 
> ITU website. Groups will have to download a fax form and fax it to the 
> ITU.
> 	On the Working Group on Internet Governance,  the ITU is having a 
> meeting on internet governance, which is only for ITU members.  The UN 
> ICT Task Force will be meeting 25-26 March in New York.  This will be 
> a preliminary meeting leading to the working group that will be 
> established by the UN Secretary General.  The ITU nor the UN ICT Task 
> Force will be the official working group.  The working group will be 
> bigger with all stakeholders involved.
> 	On the working group on financing, there is no initiative that I know 
> about at this stage.
> 	On Internet security, the  ITU might have a thematic meeting on this 
> in the 2nd half of the year. Other themes could be taken up by 
> international organizations.  UNESCO could take up role of ICTs and 
> education.  ITU could take up spam.
> 	Ethics in the information society could be overarching theme in 2nd 
> phase.
> 	Most UN summits have failed in implementation. We have a 2nd phase 
> where we can focus much more on implementation.  Much to do in 
> national and regional implementation.
>
>
> Monsou
> 	Tunisia will be supporting staff to be responsible for civil society 
> to be part of the civil society division of the secretariat, similar 
> to the role that the Swiss hosts played.   The Tunisian government 
> will support civil society participation in Tunis, particularly those 
> from less developed countries.
>
>
> Alain Clerc, Civil Society Division, WSIS Executive Secretariat
> CS has played a role important.  60% of content in final texts came 
> from civil society.
> 	Civil society have to organize themselves to participate effectively 
> in the debate. Civil society needs to be able to participate in the 
> negotiations. The structures that we have put into place have been 
> effective, i.e. the plenary, virtual plenary, and the bureau and its 
> families.
> 	Is Tunisia to be the implementation of Geneva?  It would be hard to 
> see much progress in two years.  Tunis cannot be just about evaluating 
> implementation.	
>
>
> Bertrand de la Chapelle, WSIS-online.net
> The Declaration and Action Plan from Geneva represents an agenda, a 
> list of issues, within which work among the stakeholders can be 
> organized.  It is important for people to be able to identify other 
> people and groups that are working in the same domain and bring those 
> people together.
> 	WSIS-online.net is a platform that continues beyond December 2003.  
> It will serve those actors involved in the Action Plan. We want to 
> create a platform that can serve everyone.
> 	The 3 functions of WSIS-online: (1) put actors in contact with each 
> other; (2)  Identify projects; (3)  facilitate consultations around 
> certain themes, such as internet governance.  Allow those online to 
> participate in the discussions.
> 	De la Chappelle was impressed that the meeting at the last prepcom 
> conducted by Tunis on phase II was very open to civil society.  He 
> hoped that this forms the beginning of an open process.
>
>
> Bill Drake, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
> Mr. Drake has been active in the ICT governance civil society caucus. 
> The Caucus has a group of people with a lot of expertise in these 
> areas.  We have tried to weigh in on this process, including having 
> text in the civil society declaration.
> 	We are not participating in ITU meeting as a group because we weren’t 
> invited on that basis. We aren’t a sector member, we aren’t a legal 
> entity. It is unclear on how the caucus can be involved.  It remains a 
> real problem.
> 	There is some controversy around families versus working groups and 
> caucuses represented on the civil society bureau. So some of the most 
> active groups are not represented on this important body. He posed a 
> challenge to the Tunisia organizers and the rest of us: how to involve 
> those organizations that aren’t represented on the bureau?
>
>
> Representative of International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
> The FIDH representative raised issue of which groups will be 
> accredited for the Tunis phase.  She noted that  accredited NGOs need 
> a legal identity in their own country, however  some Tunisian groups 
> do not have legal status in Tunisia and so can not participate.
> During the WSIS 1st phase, Tunisia declared that they did not violate 
> any human rights.  However independent inquiries from FIDH and ICJ 
> into Tunisia were refused.
>
> Mansour
> We did not choose the bureaus.  Every member of the bureau can come by 
> themselves, or can delegate someone as a specialist.
> 	In Tunisia, we will ensure participation by every stakeholder, 
> including civil society.  There are only the rules of procedure agreed 
> upon.  Every accredited NGOs will be welcomed, even the ones that 
> criticize Tunisia.  Tunisia respects its international commitments and 
> its internal laws.  No one is above the law in Tunisia.  We do not 
> have any problem with violation of human rights in Tunisia.  These are 
> allegations without support.
> 	We invite NGOs to come and see what the situation is really in 
> Tunisia.
>
>
> Geiger
> It is the role of the UN Secretary General to compose the working 
> groups.  There are no deadlines for when this must happen, but by 
> March or April the Secretary General should make a decision.
>
>
> Bloem
> The Bureau is only constituted to only concern itself with process.  
> If there are also content issues going to be raised, than we need 
> someone from Content and Themes to participate in the March meeting.
>
>
> Rik Panganiban, WFM/CONGO
> Will there be regional meetings? Are there no plans for a financing 
> meeting as of yet?  Financing is of great importance to many NGOs, 
> particularly those from the South.
>
>
> Mansour
> The regional process is part of the official decision on arrangements 
> for Tunis.  The text calls for thematic conferences, as well as 
> national, regional and international level meetings.
>
>
> Geiger
> The 2nd phase is more thematic oriented.  But there will probably be 
> regional meetings.  Africa, and Latin America interested in having 
> regional meetings.  These meetings will be nformal and non-binding.
>
>
> Senegalese representative
> Can our delegation participate in the informal March meeting?
>
>
> Mansour
> It is up to the Bureaus to decide who participates.  The government 
> bureau is having some difficulty re-constituting itself since there 
> are more candidates than there are slots for each region.
>
>
> Report by Rik Panganiban