<div>Dear all,</div>
<div> </div>
<div>As Ralf has reported, inputing in the drafting process of Sub-Committee B yesterday was impossible for Civil society.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I exceptionnally send to the Plenary the statement made yesterday on behalf of the CS Working Group on Follow-up to express our dissatisfaction. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>From now on, in order not to clog the Plenary list, posts related to the Follow-up Working Group will only be sent to the group's list. Please subscribe so that we can be able to fully associate everyone and get all relevant inputs in drafting processes that are very demanding.
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>To subscribe to the WG list, go to : <a href="http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/followup">http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/followup</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div>Best</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Bertrand</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">Statement on behalf of Civil society Working group <br>on WSIS Implementation and Follow-up</font></span>
</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><font face=""><b><span lang="EN-GB">Sub-Committee B – WSIS PrepCom3 – </span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB">Sept 21, 2005</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB">
</span></b></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">Thank you very much Madam chair. We congratulated you yesterday on your efforts to establish an inclusive process and your efficiency in speeding up the process.
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">But today, we must confess that your efficiency had involuntary detrimental effects for the very inclusiveness you attempt to promote. </font>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">Knowing what document was going to be the basis for discussion was only decided this afternoon. As you know, preparation of any civil society statement is a very inclusive and iterative process and such uncertainty on what will be the topic of intervention is not allowing us use effectively the few minutes that are allocated to us. In addition, the present intervention had to be drafted on the fly and could not go through the careful consultative process we normally respect.
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">But more, contrary to the procedure adopted yesterday, the Document 6 (Friends of the Chair) did not contain any proposed written formulation emanating from civil society for governments to consider, a drastic difference of procedure between the way Paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 were handled.
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><font face=""> </font></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">In addition, in the interactions among governments this afternoon, you took note of contributions on the fly and made immediate decisions to integrate them with or without brackets. There is no way civil society could submit any comments in this procedure, let alone have governments comment upon them.
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">Last but not least, there is no way Civil Society could make all the comments it needs to make in the few minutes available to me now. And in any case, governments could not comment on them on the fly.
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">As a result, if we were to apply strictly your procedure, discussion on paragraphs 10, 11 and 12<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>are now closed without civil society having had any opportunity to make any comment – this is true for private sector as well -.
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">I don't have to underline the irony of the situation if we were to see our comments taken so nicely into account and studied in detail on more minor issues yesterday and have no way to participate meaningfully in the essential debate on how to precisely implement a multi-stakeholder mechanism that allows full participation of civil society !
<br><br>This is certainly an unintended and not anticipated side-effect. We only intervene here to help find a solution. We therefore suggest to keep with the spirit and the practice of the procedure you have implemented yesterday so efficiently;
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">For that purpose, the Civil Society Working Group on Followup is ready to provide the Secretariat with a compilation of written contributions on paragraphs 10 to 13 in the same format as was used for paragraphs 1 to 9. We strongly demand that those contributions be distributed to all delegations and that this Sub-Committee, before the first clean version is finalized, revisits the corresponding paragraphs in a specific session, so that governments have an opportunity to comment on them the way they have for other paragraphs.
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">Given the consultation processes within civil society and editing constraints, this document can hardly be drafted to be used during the afternoon session of tomorrow and we suggest to hold this special session on friday afternoon. Were that not possible, inclusion of our contributions as proposed text in the clean document could
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">In addition, with your agreement, we intend to use at the beginning of tomorrow's session, a portion of our speaking time to address the key issues related to paragraphs 10 to 13.
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face=""> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="">We are at your disposition to explore further the appropriate modalities and reiterate our strong desire to make this exercise as inclusive as the subject requires.
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times New Roman">_______________</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p></div>