Re: [hr-wsis] HR caucus proposal for CS speakers at the Summit

[Rik Panganiban <rikp@earthlink.net>]

Hi Meryem,

We have finalized the selection committee recommendations for CS  
speakers in Tunis, which we will be forwarding to the Plenary later  
today.

Your caucus's nomination of Bruna Faidutti was included in our final  
list of speakers for the plenary.

If Shirin Abadi does become confirmed to be able to speak in Tunis,  
this should be communicated directly to the ITU and the President of  
the WSIS, since they are handling the final speaker's schedule.

We will inform you on how the full process went in our message.

Sorry for not having got back to you earlier.

Regards,

Rik


On Oct 9, 2005, at 6:03 AM, Meryem Marzouki wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> Apparently, no one knows what is the deadline for submitting  
> speakers proposals, or at least no one has provided any answer on  
> this list...
> Just in case the deadline is very close, the two members of the  
> selection committee who are on this list (Robert Guerra and Rik  
> Panganiban) are now well aware that the HR caucus is proposing two  
> other persons, and are kindly asked to forward this to the  
> selection committee.
>
> - Shirin Ebadi for the opening ceremony (TBC early next week)
> - Meryem Marzouki for other speaking slots, preferably for plenary
> in addition to previous proposal:
> - Bruna Faidutti
>
> I think all members of the HR caucus would agree with me that,  
> whatever the final list from the selection committee is, the  
> selection committee should provide to all WSIS CS participant the  
> list of speakers proposed to them, and should be ready to explain  
> why some of them have been selected and others not, beyond the very  
> general and fuzzy "balance of criteria: region, gender, etc.". This  
> is a need since not all the proposals has been made on the plenary  
> list.
>
> Regarding selection process, there have been a proposal made by  
> Bertrand de la Chapelle on the plenary list on October 5. This  
> proposal is based on themes and issues, given the fact that, as  
> Bertrand said:
> "There are three key elements/objectives to keep in mind :
> - civil society should be recognized the right to designate who  
> speaks on behalf of civil society in Tunis : this means it should  
> demonstrate it can make such choices (otherwise, we'll be back to  
> the Geneva situation and lose a critical opportunity)
> - civil society wants some key messages to be heard by governments  
> and must be clear about what they are (ie : we should structure and  
> prioritize them)
> - civil society wants to put in practice as much as possible  
> gender, geographic and competence balance in its representation"
> The selection committee should explain how this proposal (backed by  
> those who answered on the plenary list) has been taken into account.
>
> Finally, I also think all members of this caucus would agree that  
> the selection committee should be made of genuine civil society  
> people, deeply and honestly involved in WSIS. Being genuine civil  
> society people is a condition that also applies to selected  
> speakers, obviously.
>
> If such minimal conditions of transparency, accountability, and  
> relevance are not met, then I don't see how the final list from the  
> selection committee could reasonably be agreed as "proposed by CS  
> at WSIS".
>
> Best regards,
> Meryem Marzouki
> Co-chair of the HR caucus.
>
> Le vendredi, 7 oct 2005, à 19:02 Europe/Paris, Meryem Marzouki a  
> écrit :
>
>
> > Dear all,
> >
> > Apparently, we wont be able to hear from Shirin Ebadi before  
> > Monday. I'll let you know.
> > On the issue of having someone from inside the process, let's go  
> > ahead, then, if you find it relevant to propose my name. At least,  
> > it would be interesting to see what happens.
> > There is an important question, however: what is the deadline to  
> > make proposals directly to ITU? Alternatively, do you think if  
> > there could be another round of CS selecting speakers, since there  
> > have been quite a lot of resrvation on the selecting process and  
> > its result ? Rik, do you have any idea on how these quetsions may  
> > be answered ?
> > Best,
> > Meryem
>
>
> --
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