[CS Bureau] CSB Meeting - 14 Nov.

[wsis at iprolink.ch]

Find enclosed the minutes of 14 Nov. CSB meeting.

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CSB Meeting
14 November 2005, 12:00-13:30
Kram Center, Civil Society Pavillon

Tijani Ben Jemaa
Renate Bloem
Bertrand de la Chapelle
Divina Frau Meigs
Ann-Kristin Hakansson
Francis Muguet
Delphine Nana
Tracey Naughton
Magaly Pazello


1.	Host Country agreement
The CSB had invited Mr. Arnaud Guillot, ITU Legal Advisor, to discuss issues
related to the Host Country agreement and more specifically immunities for CS
participants.

Mr. Guillot made it clear that this agreement was negotiated with the Host
Country in accordance with usual UN practice and do not contain any major
difference with other host country agreements on rights and obligations granted
to participants. However he said that, in addition to many other HCA within the
UN system, a specific and more explicit provision provides functional and
jurisdictional immunities to representatives of SC and PS for their acts,
speeches and writing in their quality of participant in the Summit.

Entrance and exit of the Host Country territory
The general principle, as provided under Article III, is the free entrance, stay
and exit of the Host Country territory for all participants in the Summit. This
general principle within the UN system guarantees the independence of the
Summit and of its participants.
However, some specific limitations allow the Host Country to invoke duly founded
objections to restrict the participation of a duly registered participant, for
reasons of security and public order, including in case of criminal
prosecution. Each case is very precisely scrutinized and, as provided under
Article V-2, the final decision is only taken in consultation between the host
country government and the ITU SG.

Precisions on immunities and privileges
Participants in the Summit are protected by the functional immunity for his
speeches and writings in a forum or meeting of the summit not only in the venue
of the summit but also outside of the venue of the summit. He reminded most of
the information related to the Host Country Agreement in general is available
on the ITU website (FAQs on privileges and immunities:
http://www.itu.int/wsis/tunis/info.html).

Exceptions to immunities and privileges
Further to questions from CSB members on exceptions to general immunities and on
more precise definition of concepts of security and respect of public order, Mr.
Guillot clarified that immunities for CS participants are exclusively functional
to allow them to participate in the activities of the Summit, and not in the
only personal interest of the registered participant. Therefore, the
participation in side events outside of the UN perimeter is not covered by
immunities: this is a general principle for UN functional immunities.
Security and public security are provided by national law only, and therefore it
is not possible to define these concepts at the UN level. However, as provided
by Article V-2, each restrictive decision invoking security and public order
must be taken in consultation between the host country government and the ITU
SG. Therefore, it is important that the WSIS ES / ITU be regularly informed of
any problem potentially involving immunities of Summit participants or if
participants consider that retaliation measures could be taken against them, in
order to raise the attention of the ITU SG to guarantee the smooth running of
the Summit.

Reporters without Borders
At the request of several CSB members, Mr. Guillot gave some clarifications on
the situation of Mr. Ménard, SG of Reporters without Border. He underlined that
other representatives of Reporters Without Borders are in no way concerned by
this strictly individual notification.

Security staff in parallel event rooms
Mr. Guillot clarified that the security staff at the Kram centre acts under the
responsibility of the Secretary General of the Summit. The presence of UN
security staff in the parallel event room aims at preventing any potential
incident between participants. However, he reminded that security staff remains
under the authority of the Chairman of each parallel event, who is responsible
of the smooth running of the session he moderates.

2.	CSB statement
CSB members acknowledge that no consensus existed on whether the statement
discussed at its last meeting should be stated on behalf of the whole CSB or on
behalf of individual families willing to do so. It was therefore decided that
the Indigenous Family would pronounce this statement not on behalf of the CS
itself, in order not to impose it to other CS families.