Copenhagen Conference on
âWhere to go from Tunis?â
- Implementation of and follow-up to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the role of Civil Society in this process
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On February 21st and 22nd the Danish network on WSIS and the WFUNA Task Force on WSIS hosted the international conference âWhere to go from Tunisâ in Copenhagen. The focus of the conference was to follow up on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which concluded on November 18th 2005 with an agreement among world leaders on ambitious objectives and promises for the future Information Society.ÂThe Copenhagen conference specifically focused on evaluating the results of the WSIS process and taking stock of what impact the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society can have on global development in general, and more specifically on the future of the Information Society, particularly from a civil society perspective.
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The conference presented keynote speeches and workshops focused on four concrete issues and approaches:
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- National ICT strategies
- Local access to ICT
- Human Rights and ICT
- International follow-up mechanisms to the WSIS process â with special focus on the Internet Governance Forum and the ECOSOC Commission on Science and Technology
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Key conclusions from keynoters and workshops included:
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- All countries should create a national ICT strategy consistent with the WSIS Declaration and Plan of Action.
- Public-private partnerships in ICT should be subject to the public interest regulation and
spectrum should be considered a public good.
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- In addition, the Âthe Internet Governance Forum is to conduct an investigation on models of transparent and public interest investment in and governance of international data backbone
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- The Committee on Science, Technology and Development's (CSTD) composition, work program and reform process should be fully transparent and include all stakeholders
- The Internet Governance Forum should allow for the bottom-up creation of working groups on any relevant topic of interest to participants.
The full set of recommendations from the four workshops are presented below. Because of coinciding views and interests, workshops 1 and 2 chose to collaborate and write a joint set of recommendations.
Recommendations from Workshop 1 and 2: National ICT Strategies and Local Access to ICT
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1.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ All countries should create a national ICT strategy consistent with the WSIS Declaration and Plan of Action.
2.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Civil Society should ensure that the WSIS Civil Society Declarations are implemented locally and nationally.
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3.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ National and regional strategies should address infrastructure and content separately and in sequence.
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4.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Partnerships between the private sector, civil society, local government, academia, libraries and research organizations should be promoted at all levels to provide local access and content.
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5.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ It is the responsibility of governments to ensure that a monitoring multistakeholder engine is established.
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6.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Public-private partnerships for ICT development should be subject to public interest regulation.
7.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Spectrum should be considered a public good.
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8.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ The Internet Governance Forum should conduct an investigation on models of transparent and public interest investments in and governance of international data backbone.
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9.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Regulators should have the capacity to work independently and transparently.
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Recommendations from Workshop 3: Human Rights and ICT
 - A special effort should be put on learning about Human Rights in the information society starting in primary school, and special efforts should target the general public.
- A special UN Rapporteur on Privacy should be appointed.
- A study should be conducted on how current legislation on digital rights, market dominance, and digital rights management (DRM) technology prevents the exercise of the right to education including fair use and an extended public domain of knowledge.
- Internet Governance mechanisms must be tested for compliance with Human Rights, democracy and the rule of law.
- A global privacy forum working towards international data protection/privacy legislation should be appointed.
- An independent commissioner on the information society and Human Rights should be appointed to monitor practices and policies related to ICT regulation.
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