<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV>Dear all,</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>These are my notes from a short statement given by Charles Geiger to Content and Themes this evening. I am not a lawyer, and was switching back and forth from the English and French. So I may have missed some detail. Someone else fill in my information or correct me if I am in error. Thanks.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>Charles Geiger came to the Content and Themes meeting this evening to report on the Host Country Agreement with Tunisia and other logistical arrangements for the Tunis Summit. He noted that he could not disclose the full text of the host country agreement, since it had not been ratified by the Tunisian parliament yet. However he could give some information as it pertains to civil society.<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>* He noted that the host country agreement covers both the official Summit as well as all of the parallel events that occur during the summit.</DIV><DIV>* Participants included in the agreement included all accredited entitities, including NGOs, civil society and the private sector</DIV><DIV>* The host country agrees to provide free visas to all accredited participants as well as "facilitate their access and circulation" to the Summit</DIV><DIV>* Under the section on immunity, the agreement notes that outside of the perimeter of the Summit grounds, that participants are subject to the national laws of Tunisia</DIV><DIV>* There are actually two kinds of privileges and immunity: one related to immunity of persons who are within the venue of the Summit, i.e. the Kram centre, and one related to persons who are accredited to the Summit, whether they are at the Kram Centre or not</DIV><DIV>* Each kind of immunity relates to which rules you are under. Within the Summit, you are under the jurisdiction of the rules of the United Nations.</DIV><DIV>* For the second category of immunity ("functional immunity") you are only considered under this immunity if you are engaging in activities that are "related to the summit."</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>He noted that he expected the full host country agreement to be made public once it is ratified by the Tunisian parliament.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>RFID BADGES</DIV><DIV>Ralf Bendrath asked about privacy concerns during the Summit. Mr. Geiger reported that the summit will employ RFID (radio frequency identification) badges, as were used during the Geneva Summit. He noted that the company handling the badges is the same company that provided the RFID badges for the Athens Olympics, and thus he expected that they had should have a privacy policy available. He noted that the Executive Secretariat was not giving them all information on the participants, only the name, affiliation, code number and type of badge. He added that every day any data collected by the badges is deleted from their system. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>"There will be no tracking in the Kram," he promised. He noted that it would be easier to track people with their cell phones than with their RFID badges, particularly since there will be 15,000 participants.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Rik Panganiban</DIV><DIV>CONGO</DIV><BR><DIV> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Arial" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Arial">===============================================</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Arial" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Arial">RIK PANGANIBAN <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Communications Coordinator</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Arial" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Arial">Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO)<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Arial" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Arial">web: <A href="http://www.ngocongo.org">http://www.ngocongo.org</A></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Arial" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Arial">email: <A href="mailto:rik.panganiban@ngocongo.org">rik.panganiban@ngocongo.org</A></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Arial" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Arial">mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Arial" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Arial">* Information on the WSIS at <A href="http://www.ngocongo.org/wsis">http://www.ngocongo.org/wsis</A></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Arial" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Arial">* Information on Millennium+5 at <A href="http://www.ngocongo.org/mdg">http://www.ngocongo.org/mdg</A></FONT></P> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>