<div>How very kind </div>
<div> </div>
<div>and so soon ... </div>
<div> </div>
<div>thank you Rikke, and call on me/us for anything we can do also.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Best wishes, Linda.<br><br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 12/1/05, <b class="gmail_sendername">Rikke Frank Joergensen</b> <<a href="mailto:rfj@humanrights.dk">rfj@humanrights.dk</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<div>
<p><font face="Arial" color="navy" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Dear Linda and all,</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" color="navy" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" color="navy" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Pls find below the full text. Best Rikke</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" color="navy" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" color="navy" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" color="navy" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">WSIS Civil Society Statement <i><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">
DRAFT V3.1</span></i></span></font></b></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">last change: </span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span lang="ES" style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">
30/11/2005 18:52</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> CET</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">I. Introduction – Our perspective after the WSIS process</span></font></b>
</p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The WSIS was an opportunity for a wide range of actors to work together to develop principles and prioritise actions that would lead to democratic, inclusive, participatory and development-oriented information societies; societies in which the ability to access, share and communicate information and knowledge is treated as a public good and takes place in a ways that strengthens the rich cultural diversity of our world.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Civil society entered the Tunis Phase of WSIS with these major goals: </span>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Symbol" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol">·<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span> </span></font></span>
</font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Agreement on financing mechanisms and models that will close the growing gaps in access to information and communication tools, capacities and infrastructure that exist between countries, and in many cases within countries.
</span></font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Symbol" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol">·<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span> </span></font></span>
</font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Ensuring that our vision of the 'information society' is human-centred, framed by a global commitment to human rights, social justice and inclusive development.
</span></font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Symbol" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol">·<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span> </span></font></span>
</font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Achieving a sea change in perceptions of participatory decision-making. We wanted the WSIS to be a milestone from which the inclusion of civil society participation would become more comprehensive and integrated at all levels of governance and decision making at local, national, regional and global levels.
</span></font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Symbol" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol">·<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span> </span></font></span>
</font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Agreement on strong commitment to the centrality of human rights, especially the right to access and depart information and to retaining individual privacy.
</span></font></span></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Civil society wants to affirm that it has contributed positively to the WSIS process, a contribution that could have been greater if our participation was allowed to be more comprehensive. Our contribution will continue beyond the
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Summit</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">. It is a contribution that is made both through constructive engagement and through challenge and critique.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><i><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">[Note: This paragraph still could be more comprehensive and better summarize the issues below]</span></font></i>
</p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">While we value the process, and the outcomes, we believe more could have been achieved. Each of the issue of greatest concern to civil society is discussed in sections II and III of this statement. For most of the items, the results were mixed with some small success but with much remaining to be done. Some of the greatest concerns involve people centred issues such as the attention paid to human rights and freedom of expression, financial mechanisms to promote the development that was the impetus for the WSIS process, and support for capacity building.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">II. Issues addressed during the </span></font></b><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">
Tunis</span></font></b><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> phase of WSIS</span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></b></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0cm; TEXT-INDENT: 0cm; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span dir="ltr"><span><u><font color="navy" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Social Justice, </span></font></u></span></span>Financing
<span><u><font color="navy" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> and People-Centered Development</span></font></u></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">WSIS had the official mandate of addressing long-standing development problems in new ways that have opened up with the ICT revolution. The summit was expected to identify and articulate new development possibilities and paradigms made possible in the information society, and to evolve public policy options for enabling and realising these opportunities. WSIS in general has failed to live up to these expectations. Especially the
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Tunis</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> phase which was presented as the "summit of solutions" did not provide concrete achievements to meaningfully address development priorities.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The summit did discuss the importance of new financing mechanisms for ICT for Development (ICTD), however it failed to recognize that ICTD financing presents a challenge beyond that of traditional development financing. It requires new means and sources and the exploration of new models and mechanisms.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Investments in ICTD - in infrastructure, capacity building, appropriate software and hardware and in developing applications and services – underpin all other processes of development innovation, learning and sharing, and should be seen in this light. Though development resources are admittedly scarce and have to be allocated to with care and discretion, ICTD financing should not be viewed as directly in competition with financing of other developmental sectors.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Financing ICTD requires social and institutional innovation, with adequate mechanisms for transparency, evaluation, and follow-up. Financial resources need to be mobilised at all levels – local, national and international, including through realization of ODA commitments agreed in the Monterrey Consensus.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Internet access, for everybody and everywhere, especially among disadvantaged populations and in rural areas, must be considered as a global public good. Markets may not address the connectivity needs of these sections, and these areas. In many such areas, initial priority may need to be given to provide traditional ICTs - radio, TV, video and telephony - while developing conditions to bring complete internet connectivity to them.
</span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><u><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><span style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </span></span></font></u></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">While the summit in general has failed to agree on adequate funding for ICTD, civil society was able to introduce significant sections in the Tunis commitment (paragraph 35) and in Tunis agenda (paragraph 21) on the importance of public policy in mobilizing resources for financing. This can serve to balance the pro-market orientation of much of the text on financing.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The potential of ICTs as tools for development, and not merely tools for communication, should have been realised by all states. Therefore, national ICT strategies in developing countries should be closely related to national strategies for development and poverty eradication. Aid strategies in developed countries must also include clear guidelines for incorporation of ICTs. ICT should therefore be integrated in the general development assistance and thereby contribute to mobilisation of additional resources and increase the efficiency of development assistance.
</span></font></p>
<p><b><u><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><span style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </span></span></font></u></b></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Human Rights</span></font></b></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><u><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><span style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </span></span></font></u></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The Information Society must be based on human rights as laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This includes civil and political rights, as well as social, economic and cultural rights. Human rights and development are closely linked. There can be no development without human rights, no human rights without development.
</span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">This has been affirmed time and again, and was strongly stated in the Vienna World Conference of Human Rights in 1993. It was also affirmed in the WSIS 2003 Declaration of Principles. All legislation, politics, and actions involved in developing the global information society must respect, protect and promote human rights standards and the rule of law.
</span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Despite the </span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">
Geneva</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> commitment to an Information Society respectful of human rights, there is still a long way to go. A number of human rights were barely addressed in the Geneva Declaration of Principles. This includes the cross-cutting principles of non-discrimination, gender equality, and workers' rights. The right to privacy, which is the basis of autonomous personal development and thus at the root of the exertion of many other fundamental human rights, is only mentioned in the Geneva Declaration as part of "a global culture of cyber-security". In the Tunis Commitment, it has disappeared, to make room for extensive underlining of security needs, as if privacy were a threat to security, whereas the opposite is true: Privacy is an essential requirement to security. The summit has also ignored our demand to ensure the privacy and integrity of the vote if and when electronic voting technologies are used.
</span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><b><i><u><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><span style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </span></span>
</font></u></i></b></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Other rights were more explicitly addressed, but are de facto violated on a daily basis. This goes for freedom of expression, freedom of information, freedom of association and assembly, the right to a fair trial, the right to education, and the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of the individual and his or her family.
</span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Furthermore, as the second WSIS phase has amplified, one thing is formal commitment, another one is implementation. Side events open to the general public were organised by civil society both at the
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Geneva</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> and Tunis Summit, in line with a long tradition of UN summits. The Citizens'
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Summit</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> in </span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2">
<span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Tunis</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> was prevented from happening. At the Geneva Summit, the "We Seize" side event was closed down and then reopened. This is a clear reminder that though governments have signed on to human rights commitments, fundamental human rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly can not be taken for granted in any part of the world.
</span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><u><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><span style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </span></span></font></u></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The summit has failed define mechanisms and actions that would actively promote and protect human rights in the information society. Post WSIS there is an urgent need to strengthen the means of human rights enforcement in the information society, to enhance human rights proofing of national legislation and practises, to strengthen education and awareness raising on rights-based development, to transform human rights standards into ICT policy recommendations; and to mainstream ICT issues into the global and regional human rights monitoring system – in summary: To move from declarations and commitments into action. Toward this end, an independent commission should be established to review national and international ICT regulations and practices and their compliance with international human rights standards. This commission should also address the potential applications of ICTs for the realization of human rights in the information society.
</span></font></p>
<p><b><u><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><span style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </span></span></font></u></b></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0cm; TEXT-INDENT: 0cm; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Internet Governance</span></font></span></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></b></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Civil society is pleased with the decision to create an Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which it has advocated since 2003. We also are pleased that the IGF will have sufficient scope to deal with the issues that we believe must be addressed, most notably the conformity of existing arrangements with the Geneva Principles, and other cross-cutting or multidimensional issues that cannot be optimally dealt with within those arrangements. However, we reiterate our concerns that the Forum must not be anchored in any existing specialized international organization, meaning that its legal form, finances, and professional staff should be independent. In addition, we reiterate our view that the forum should be more than a place for dialogue. As was recommended by the WGIG Report, it should also provide expert analysis, trend monitoring, and capacity building, including in close collaboration with external partners in the research community.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">We are concerned, however, about the absence of details on how this forum will be created and on how it will be funded. We insist that the modalities of the IGF be determined in full cooperation with civil society. We emphasize that success in the forum, as in most areas of Internet governance, will be impossible without the full participation of civil society. By full participation we mean much more than playing a mere advisory role. Civil society must be able to participate fully and equally in both plenary and any working group or drafting group discussions, and must have the same opportunities as other stakeholders to influence agendas and outcomes.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The Tunis Agenda addressed the issue of political oversight of critical Internet resources. This, in itself, is an achievement. It is also important that governments recognized the need for the development of a set of Internet-related public policy principles that would frame political oversight of Internet resources. These principles must respect, protect and promote the civil and political rights protected by international human rights treaties, ensure equitable access to information and online opportunities for all, and promote development.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">It is important that governments have established that developing these principles should be a shared responsibility. However, it is very unfortunate that the Tunis Agenda suggests that governments are only willing to share this role and responsibility among themselves, in cooperation with international organisations. Civil society remains strongly of the view that the formulation of appropriate and legitimate public policies pertaining to Internet governance requires the full and meaningful involvement of nongovernmental stakeholders.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">With regard to paragraph 40 of the Tunis Agenda, we are disappointed that there is no mention that efforts to combat cybercrime need to be exercised in the context of checks and balances provided by fundamental human rights, particularly freedom of expression and privacy.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">To ensure that Internet governance and development take place in the public interest, it is necessary for people who use the Internet understand how the DNS is functioning, how IP addresses are allocated, what basic legal instruments exist in fields like cyber-crime, Intellectual Property Rights, eCommerce, e-government, and human rights
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> and promoting development</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">. </span>
</font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The responsibility of creating such awareness should be shared by everyone, including those at present involved in the governance and development of the Internet and emerging
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">information and communication platforms.</span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><u><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><span style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </span></span></font></u></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Global governance</span></font></b></p>
<p><b><u><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><span style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </span></span></font></u></b></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">A world that is increasingly connected faces a greater number of common issues which need to be addressed by global governance institutions and processes. While civil society recognises that there are flaws and inefficiencies in the United Nations system, we believe strongly that it remains the most democratic intergovernmental forum, where rich and poor countries have rights to speak and participate and make decisions together.
</span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">We are concerned that during the WSIS it emerged that many governments, </span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">
especially from the North,</span></font> <font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">lack faith in, and appear to be unwilling to invest authority and resources in the existing multilateral system.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">In our understanding summits take place precisely to develop the principles that will underpin global public policy and governance structures; to address critical issues, and decide on appropriate responses to these issues. Shrinking global public policy spaces raises serious questions of the kind of global governance that we are headed towards, and what this signifies for people who are socially, economically and politically marginalised: people who most rely on public policy to protect their interests.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0cm; TEXT-INDENT: 0cm; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Participation </span></font></span></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">In the course of four years, as a result of constant pressure from civil society, improvements in civil society participation have been achieved, including speaking rights in official plenaries and sub-committees and ultimately rights to observe in drafting groups. The UN Working Group on Internet Governance created an innovative format where governmental and civil society actors worked on an equal footing and civil society actually carried a large part of the drafting load.
</span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Due to the pressure of time and the need of governments to interact with civil society actors in the Internet Governance field, the resumed session of PrepCom3 was in fact the most open. We would like to suggest
<i><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">[better formulation?]</span></i> that this openness, against all odds, contributed to reaching consensus. </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">WSIS has demonstrated beyond any doubt the benefits of interaction between all stakeholders. The innovative rules and practices of participation established in this process will be fully documented to provide a reference point and a benchmark for participants in UN organizations and processes in the future.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Civil society thanks those governments that greatly supported our participation in the WSIS process. We hope and expect that these achievements are taken further and strengthened, especially in more politically contested spaces of global policy making such as intellectual property rights, trade, environment and peace and disarmament.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">We note that some governments of the South were not actively supportive of greater observer participation as they believe it can lead to undue dominance of debate and opinions by international and northern civil society organisations and the private sector. We believe that to change this perception, they should engage in efforts to strengthen the presence, independence and participation of civil society constituencies in and from their own countries.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">As for the period beyond the summit, the </span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">
Tunis</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> documents clearly establish that the soon-to-be created Internet Governance Forum, and the future mechanisms for implementation and follow-up (including the revision of the mandate of the ECOSOC Commission on Science and Technology for Development) must take into account the multi-stakeholder approach.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">We want to express concern at the vagueness of text referring to the role of civil society. In almost every paragraph talking about multi-stakeholder participation, the phrase "in their respective roles and responsibilities" is used to limit the degree of multi-stakeholder participation. This limitation is due to the refusal of governments to recognize the full range of the roles and responsibilities of civil society. Instead of the reduced capabilities assigned in paragraph 35C of the Tunis Agenda that attempt to restrict civil society to a community role, governments should have referred to the list of roles and responsibilities assigned to civil society by the WGIG report. These are:
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Awareness raising and capacity building (knowledge, training, skills sharing);
</span></font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Promote various public interest objectives;</span></font></span>
</p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Facilitate network building;</span></font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Mobilize citizens in democratic processes;</span></font></span>
</p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Bring perspectives of marginalized groups including for example excluded communities and grassroots activists;
</span></font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Engage in policy processes;</span></font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Bring expertise, skills, experience and knowledge in a range of ICT policy areas contributing to policy processes and policies that are more bottom-up, people-centred and inclusive;
</span></font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Research and development of technologies and standards;</span>
</font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Development and dissemination of best practices;</span></font>
</span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Helping to ensure that political and market forces are accountable to the needs of all members of society;
</span></font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Encourage social responsibility and good governance practice;
</span></font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Advocate for development of social projects and activities that are critical but may not be 'fashionable' or profitable;
</span></font></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">-<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span>
</span></font></span></font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Contribute to shaping visions of human-centred information societies based on human rights, sustainable development, social justice and empowerment.
</span></font></span></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Civil society has reason for concern that the limited concessions obtained in the last few days from countries that refuse the emergence of a truly multi-stakeholder format will be at risk in the coming months.
</span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Civil society actors therefore intend to remain actively mobilized. They need to proactively ensure that not only the needed future structures be established in a truly multi-stakeholder format, but also that the discussions preparing their mandates are conducted in an open, transparent and inclusive manner, allowing participation of all stakeholders on an equal footing.
</span></font></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">III. Issues addressed in the </span></font></b><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">
Geneva</span></font></b><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> and </span></font></b><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">
Tunis</span></font></b><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> phases</span></font></b></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Gender Equality</span></font></b></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Equal and active participation of women is essential, especially in decision-making. This includes all forums that will be established in relation to WSIS and the issues it has taken up. With that, there is a need for capacity building that is focussed at women's engagement with the shaping of an information society at all levels, including policy making on infrastructure development, financing, and technology choice.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">There is a need for real effort and commitment to transforming the masculinist culture embedded within existing structures and discourses of the information society which serves to reinforce gender disparity and inequality. Without full, material and engaged commitment to the principle of gender equality, women's empowerment and non-discrimination, the vision of a just and equitable information society cannot be achieved.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Considering the affirmation of unequivocal support for gender equality and women's empowerment expressed in the Geneva Declaration of Principles and paying careful attention to Paragraph 23 of the Tunis Commitment, all government signatories must ensure that national policies, programmes and strategies developed and implemented to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society demonstrate significant commitment to the principles of gender equality and women's empowerment.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">We emphasise that financial structures and mechanisms need to be geared towards addressing the gender divide, including the provision of adequate budgetary allocations. Comprehensive gender-disaggregated data and indicators have to be developed at national levels to enable and monitor this process. We urge all governments to take positive action to ensure institutions and practices, including those of the private sector, do not result in discrimination against women. Governments that are p
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">arties to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) are in fact bound to this course of action.
</span></font></p>
<p><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Culture, Knowledge, and the Public Domain</span></font></b></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Each generation of humankind is depending upon its predecessors to leave them with a liveable, sustainable and stable environment. The environment we were discussing throughout the WSIS is the public domain of global knowledge. Like our planet with its natural resources, that domain is the heritage of all humankind and the reservoir from which new knowledge is created. Limited monopolies, such as copyrights and patents were originally conceived as tools to serve that public domain of global knowledge to the benefit of humankind. Whenever society grants monopolies, a delicate balance must be struck: Careless monopolization will make our heritage unavailable to most people, to the detriment of all.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">It has become quite clear that this balance has been upset by the interests of the rights-holding industry as well as the digitalization of knowledge. Humankind now has the power to instantaneously share knowledge in real-time, without loss, and at almost no costs. Civil Society has worked hard to defend that ability for all of humankind.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Free Software is an integral part of this ability: Software is the cultural technique and most important regulator of the digital age. Access to it determines who may participate in a digital world.
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">While in the </span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Geneva</span></font>
<font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> phase, WSIS has recognised the importance of Free Software, it has not acted upon that declaration and fallen behind it in the </span></font>
<font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Tunis</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> phase. In the Tunis Commitment, Free Software is presented as a software model next to proprietary software, but paragraph 29 reiterates "the importance of proprietary software in the markets of the countries." This ignores that a proprietary software market is always striving towards dependency and monopolization, both of which are detrimental to economy and development as a whole. Proprietary software is under exclusive control of and to the benefit of its proprietor. Furthermore: Proprietary software is written in modern sweat-shops for the benefit of developed economies, which are subsidized at the expense of developing and least-developed countries in this way.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">While WSIS has somewhat recognised the importance of free and open source software, it has not asserted the significance of this choice for development. It is silent on other issues like open content (which goes beyond open access to academic publications), new open telecom paradigms and community-owned infrastructure as important development enablers.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The WSIS process has failed to introduce cultural and linguistic diversity as a cross-cutting issue in the information society. The information society and its core elements - knowledge, information, communication and the information and communication technologies (ICTs) together with related rules and standards - are cultural concepts and expressions. Accordingly, culturally defined approaches, protocols, proceedings and obligations have to be respected and culturally appropriate applications developed and promoted. In order to foster and promote cultural diversity it must be ensured that no one has to be mere recipient of Western knowledge and treatment. Therefore development of such cultural elements of the Information Society must involve strong participation of all cultural communities.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><i><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">[needs agreement / editing from Cultural Diversity and PCT caucuses]</span></font></i>
</p>
<p><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Indigenous cultures provide for rules and regulations on communicating, sharing, using and applying traditional knowledge.
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">WSIS has failed to offer solutions on how to </span></font><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">
protect the traditional </span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">knowledge, lore and culture </span></font><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">
of indigenous peoples from exploitation by third parties. It has </span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">not even considered the problems that arise for Indigenous peoples who cannot rightfully access their traditional heritage lest they infringe some private company's copyright or patent.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" color="black" size="1"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0cm; TEXT-INDENT: 0cm"><span dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Education and research </span></font></span></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">If we want future generations to understand the real basis of our digital age, freedom has to be preserved for the knowledge of humankind: Free Software, open courseware and free educational as well as scientific resources empower people to take their life into their own hands.
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">If not, they will become only users and consumers of information technologies, instead of active participants and well informed citizens in the information society.
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Each generation has a choice to make: Schooling of the mind and creativity, or product schooling? Most unfortunately, the WSIS has shown a significant tendency towards the latter.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">We are happy that universities, museums, archives, libraries have been recognized by WSIS as playing an important role as public institutions and with the community of researchers and academics. Unfortunately, telecenters are missing in the WSIS documents. Community informatics, telecenters and human resources like computer professionals, and the training of these, have to be promoted, so that ICTs serve training and not training serves ICTs. Thus special attention must be paid to supporting sustainable capacity building with specific focus on research and skills development.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Problems of access, </span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">regulation, diversity and efficiency require attention to power relations both in the field of ICT policy-making and in the everyday uses of ICTs. Academic research should play a pivotal role in evaluating whether ICTs meet and serve the individuals' and the public's multiple needs and interests - as workers, women, migrants, racial, ethnic and sexual minorities, among others - across very uneven information societies in the world. Furthermore, because power relations and social orientations are often embedded in the very designs of ICTs, researchers should be sensitive to the diverse and multiple needs of the public in the technological design of ICTs. Similarly, educators at all levels should be empowered to develop curricula that provide training not only in the uses of ICTs as workers and consumers, but also in the critical assessment of ICTs, the institutional and social contexts of their development and implementation, as well as their creative uses for active citizenship. These issues have largely been ignored by WSIS.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">We furthermore have repeatedly underlined the unique role of ICTs in socio-economic development and in promoting the fulfilment of internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration. This is not least true in the reference to access to information and universal primary education. To secure the fulfilment of these goals, it is of key importance that the issue of ICTs as tools for improvement of education is also incorporated in the broader development strategies at both national and international levels.
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0cm; TEXT-INDENT: 0cm; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Media</span></font></span></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">We are pleased that the principle of freedom of expression has been reaffirmed in the WSIS II texts and that they echo much of the language of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While we are also pleased that the Tunis Commitment recognises the place of the media in a new Information Society, this should never have been in question.
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<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">In the future, representatives of the media should be assured a place in all public forums considering development of the Internet and all other relevant aspects of the Information Society. As key actors in the Information Society, the media must have a place at the table, and this must be fully recognized both by governments and by Civil Society itself.
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<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">While recognizing media and freedom of expression, the WSIS documents are weak on offering support for developing diversity in the media sector. They specifically neglect a range of projects and initiatives which are of particular value for civil society: Community media, telecenters, grassroots and civil society-based media. These media empower people for independent and creative participation in knowledge-building and information-sharing. They represent the prime means for large parts of the world population to participate in the information society and should be an integral part of implementation of the goals of the Geneva Declaration.
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<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The WSIS documents also mostly focus on market-based solutions and commercial </span></font><font face="Verdana"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">
use. Yet the internet, satellite, cable and broadcast systems all utilize public resources, such as airwaves and orbital paths. These should be managed in the public interest as publicly owned assets through transparent and accountable regulatory frameworks to enable the equitable allocation of resources and infrastructure among a plurality of media including community media. We reaffirm our commitment that commercial use of these resources begins with a public interest obligation.
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<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Health Information</span></font></b></p>
<p><i><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">[Health and ICTs WG is working on making it more specifically relate to the WSIS outcomes]</span></font></i></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">WSIS has failed to recognize the importance of access to health information and knowledge as essential to collective and individual human development and a critical factor in the public physical and mental health care crises around the world. It is essential that health care systems include a holistic approach that addresses the prevention, treatment, and promotion of mental and physical health care for all people and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
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<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">It is important to recognize that physical and mental health expertise and scientific knowledge is essential to aid disease stricken, as well as traumatized populations affected by war, terrorism, disaster and other events, and the implementation of ICT systems for physical and mental health information and services must be a two-way path recognizing cultural and community norms and values.
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<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">It is essential that healthcare specialists, practitioners, and consumers participate in the development of public policy addressing privacy and related issues regarding physical and mental health information affecting information and delivery systems.
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<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Children and young people in the information society
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<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><i><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">[Current text is edited Children's Rights Caucus contribution. Youth Caucus will submit its part later.]
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<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">We support articles 11, 13 and 16 of the Geneva Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action; articles 90q and 92 of the Tunis Declaration and article 24 of the Tunis Commitment. In doing so, we encourage the greater inclusion of children and young people – as key current and future telecom users and creators. We support the great opportunities that ICTs offer children and young people and recognize the potential dangers that children and young people face in relation to ICTs. In this regard we had hoped that WSIS supports our proposals on children's rights, participation and protection in the information society. These include, inter alia, making ICTs and connectivity available to all children; making ICTs an integral part of the formal and informal educational sectors; protecting children and young people from the potential risks posed by using new technologies, including access to inappropriate content, inappropriate or unwanted contact and commercial pressures; fighting the use of ICTs to exploit and abuse children. Through this, we are committed to work in the WSIS follow-up process towards a world where telecommunication allows children and young people to be heard one-by-one and through their voices, fulfil their rights and true potential to shape the world.
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<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Ethical Dimensions</span></font></b></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Values and ethics should be held as the ideal vision to underpin all aspects of individuals and organizations. Both should be regarded as central and thematic when evaluating ICTs as tools to enable just and peaceable conditions for humanity. The ethical dimensions are overarching and imperative and not value-added dimensions. These dimensions are clearer and stronger in the Geneva Declaration than the
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Tunis</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> texts.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The Tunis Agenda and Commitment are commendable in that they affirmed the Geneva Declaration's emphasis on a people-centred, sustainable development-oriented and human rights-based information society. But WSIS in
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Tunis</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> failed to restate what
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Geneva</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> considered acts inimical to the information society such as racism, intolerance, hatred, violence and others.
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<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Geneva</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> lifted the ethical values of respect for peace and the fundamental values of freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, shared responsibility, and respect for nature as enunciated in the Millennium Declaration.
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Tunis</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> should have improved on these by including the principles of trust, stewardship and shared responsibility together with digital solidarity.
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The strong emphasis on technology in the </span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">
Tunis</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> texts must not eclipse the human being as the subject of communication and development. Our humanity rests in our capacity to communicate with each other and create community. The technologies we develop, and the solidarities we forge, must build relationships, trust, and cohesion. It is in the respectful dialogue among peoples and in the sharing of values among peoples, in the plurality of cultures and civilizations that meaningful and accountable communication thrives. The
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Tunis</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> texts do not give clear indications on how this can happen.
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<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Beyond </span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Tunis</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2">
<span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">, we must encourage all stakeholders to weave ethics and values language in working on semantic web knowledge structures. This can help balance current dominant market values and the commodification of knowledge and attendant business logic. Communication rights and justice is about making human communities as the home of technology and human relationships as technology's heart.
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<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">IV. Where to go from here – our </span></font></b><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">
Tunis</span></font></b><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> commitment</span></font></b></p>
<p><i><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></i></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Civil society is committed to continuing its involvement in the future mechanisms for policy debate, implementation and follow-up on information society issues. To do this, civil society will build on the processes and structures that were developed during the WSIS process.
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<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Element one: Evolution of our internal organization</span></font></b></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Civil society will work on the continued evolution of the current structures. This will include the use of existing thematic caucuses and working groups, the possible creation of new caucuses, and the use of the Civil Society Plenary, the Civil Society Bureau, and the Civil Society Content and Themes Group. We will organise at a date to be determined to launch the process of creating a Civil Society charter.
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<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Element two: Involvement in the Internet Governance Forum</span></font></b></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">In specific reference to the Internet Governance Forum, in addition to continuing to develop the consensus notion of the CS Internet Governance caucus, discussions are under way to create a new working group that will focus on making recommendations on the modalities of the new forum.
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<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Element three: Involvement in follow-up and implementation</span></font></b></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">In order to ensure that the future implementation and follow-up mechanisms respect the spirit and letter of the Tunis documents and that governments uphold the commitments they have made during this second phase of the WSIS, civil society mechanisms will be used and created to ensure
</span></font></p>
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</font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">the proactive monitoring at the national level of the implementation of the Geneva Plan of Action and the Tunis Agenda by governments;
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</font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">a structured interaction with all UN agencies and international organisations to ensure that they integrate the WSIS objectives in their own work plan, and that they put in place effective mechanisms for multistakeholder interaction;
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</font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">that the information society as a complex social political phenomenon is not reduced to a technology-centred perspective. The ECOSOC Commission on Science and Technology for Development will have to significantly change its mandate and composition to adequately address the needs for being an effective follow-up mechanism for WSIS whilst re-affirming its original mission of developing science and technology, in addition to ICTs, for the development objectives of poor countries;
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</font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">not only that the reformed Commission on Science and Technology for Development becomes a truly multi-stakeholder commission for the information society, but also, that the process to revise it's mandate, composition and agenda is done in a fully open and inclusive manner.
</span></font></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span lang="EN-US" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; LETTER-SPACING: 4.85pt"> </span></font></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Element four: Lessons learned for the UN system in general</span></font></b></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">We see the WSIS process as an experience to be learned from for the overall UN system and processes. We will therefore work with the United Nations and all stakeholders on
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</font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">developing clearer and less bureaucratic rules of recognition for accrediting civil society organisations in the UN system, for instance on obtaining ECOSOC status and summit accreditation, to ensure that national governmental recognition of civil society entities is not the premise for official recognition in the UN system;
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</font><span dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">ensuring that all future summit processes be multi–stakeholder in their approach, allowing for due flexibility. This would be achieved either by recognition of precedents set in summit processes, or by formulating a rules of procedure manual to guide future summit processes and day-to-day civil society interaction with the international community.
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<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><b><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Element five: Outreach to other constituencies</span></font></b></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The civil society constituency that closely associated with the WSIS process is conscious that the information society, as its name suggests, is a society-wide phenomenon, and advocacy on Information society issues need to include every interest and every group. We therefore commit ourselves in the post-WSIS period to work to broaden our reach to different civil society constituencies that for various reasons have not been active in the WSIS process, may have shown scepticism over the role of ICTs in their core areas of activity, or for other reasons have remained disengaged from the information society discourse.
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<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></font></p></div></blockquote></div><br>