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<font size=3>Friends and colleagues,<br><br>
This report is germane to our discussion about the role of
telecentres<br>
and civil society initiatives inside the WSIS II process.<br><br>
Scott Robinson<br>
<a href="http://www.uam-antropologia.info/" eudora="autourl">www.uam-antropologia.info<br>
</a>Mexico, D.F.<br><br>
***************************************************************************************<br><br>
From: plenary-admin@wsis-cs.org
[<a href="mailto:plenary-admin@wsis-cs.org" eudora="autourl">mailto:plenary-admin@wsis-cs.org</a>]
On<br>
Behalf Of Ralf Bendrath<br>
Sent: October 22, 2004 11:49 PM<br>
To: wsis-cs-plenary<br>
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Group of the Friends of the Chair meeting
/<br>
overall summit drafting process<br><br>
fresh on
<a href="http://www.worldsummit2005.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.worldsummit2005.org</a>:
<br><br>
Some news I got this evening from the "Group of the Friends of
the<br>
Chair" meeting in Geneva today, and based on that and other info
an<br>
analysis of the overall drafting process, especially its lack of<br>
multistakeholderism. I included some links, so you might want to read
it<br>
online (and the visits help us keep the funding...).<br><br>
I heard that Renata and Viola will also write about this over the<br>
weekend. We obviously need some discussion on our further engagement
in<br>
this process. This will also be a topic at the CS workshops around
the<br>
UN ICT Task Force in Berlin in November. See our website for the
latest<br>
updates on this.<br><br>
Best, Ralf<br><br>
------------------------<br><br>
Drafting Process for Tunis Summit Declaration is Starting "Group
of<br>
Friends of the Chair" met today, civil society mostly locked
out<br><br>
21 October 2004. In order to avoid another long and exhausting
political<br>
battle, the governmental delegates at PrepCom I in June had agreed
to<br>
form a "Group of the Friends of the Chair" that will draft the
summit<br>
declaration for WSIS 2005. Today, the group met for the first time
in<br>
Geneva. All stakeholders are invited to submit written input to<br>
wsis@itu.int for the draft summit declaration by 2 November 2004.
Civil<br>
society participation is significantly lower than in the PrepCom<br>
drafting process in the first phase of WSIS.<br><br>
Structure of the drafting group<br><br>
At the intergovernmental bureau meeting on 30 September, the
governments<br>
had agreed that the "Group of the Friends of the Chair" (GFC)
will be<br>
composed of 6 governments per UN region plus regional coordinators.
The<br>
two host countries (Switzerland and Tunisia) and the Secretary
General<br>
of the ITU will be ex officio members. Other governments will be<br>
admitted as observers at all meetings. <br><br>
Already there, the discussion focused on the participation of the<br>
observers, including civil society organizations. Today, the usual<br>
suspects like Egypt, Pakistan and other less democratic governments<br>
again stressed the need for discussion and negotiations only among<br>
governments. Others, like the Dutch EU presidency, insisted on having
at<br>
least meaningful options for civil society organizations to give
their<br>
"important and valuable input". The chairman of the
preparatory<br>
committee and of the GFC, ambassador Janis Karklins from Latvia, is
also<br>
obviously trying to facilitate as much observer participation as<br>
possible.<br><br>
The intergovernmental bureau had already agreed to invite observers
to<br>
"special sessions" of the GFC. The first meeting of the GFC
today was<br>
announced as such a "special session", giving civil society
the<br>
opportunity to voice their views of the drafting process.<br><br>
Structure of WSIS 2005 summit declaration, input sought from<br>
stakeholders<br><br>
The "non-paper" provided by chairman Karklins for today's
meeting<br>
already outlines the final summit declaration document. <br><br>
It will probably start with a "political chapeau" that will
state "the<br>
determination of member states and other stakeholders in the WSIS<br>
process" for implementation of the political goals agreed at the
first<br>
part of WSIS. Realistically, it will be mostly backslapping with no<br>
references to the still existing conflicts (think WIPO and WTO for
a<br>
second) or underlying political and economic questions.<br><br>
Following will be an operational part with four chapters:
"Solutions" /<br>
implementation, financial mechanisms, Internet governance, and the
way<br>
ahead from Tunis. The parts on finance and Internet governance will<br>
consider the outcomes and reports of the respective working groups
set<br>
up by WSIS I.<br><br>
All stakeholders, including civil society, are asked to submit
written<br>
input for the draft summit declaration until 2 November to
wsis@itu.int.<br>
Chairman Karklins will then draft a first version for the next
(closed)<br>
meeting of the GFC in mid-November.<br><br>
Civil Society participation: One step forward, two steps back<br><br>
This development is somewhat better than the usual diplomatic
practice<br>
of groups of the friends of the chair, which are normally<br>
governmental-only at all meetings. At the meeting of the<br>
intergovernmental bureau with the civil society bureau during PrepCom
I<br>
in June, chairman Karklins had even said that he could envisage
having<br>
civil society and private sector representatives as normal members
in<br>
the group of friends of the President. But some governments still
want<br>
to keep observers out of the process, so this far-reaching proposal
did<br>
not get through. <br><br>
So, compared to the much more open and inclusive drafting process in
the<br>
first phase of WSIS, it means a huge step back. <br><br>
The next two meetings of the GFC in November and December are
almost<br>
completely governments-only (except for one afternoon). This is
where<br>
the important deals will be made and the whole direction and message
for<br>
the WSIS 2005 declaration will be structured and mostly agreed upon.
The<br>
observers will only be allowed to participate on the first day of
the<br>
GFC meeting in January. <br><br>
This is not a level of inclusiveness that many civil society members
had<br>
envisaged, and that has already been and will be practiced in the
WSIS<br>
Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). Even the much less<br>
transparently formed WSIS Task Force on Financial Mechanisms (TFFM)
has<br>
civil society delegates as full members. <br><br>
Some hopes had been raised in earlier discussions around the GFC<br>
mechanism, because the draft summit declaration would also
incorporate<br>
the results of various "WSIS-related" meetings. Here, a
broad<br>
understanding of "WSIS-related" could have helped to channel
the<br>
outcomes of civil society meetings into the draft declaration. But
as<br>
the intergovernmental bureau has also agreed in its 30 September<br>
meeting, civil society can not organize WSIS thematic or regional<br>
events. Only events sponsored by a UN agency or a government can
qualify<br>
for being an official side event. So don't put the WSIS logo on
your<br>
event flyers if you are an NGO. And don't hope its outcomes will end
up<br>
in the official WSIS process unless you have very receptive
government<br>
representatives as your guests.<br><br>
Civil Society: Stay in or get out?<br><br>
These developments are even more disappointing if you consider the<br>
overall discussion on stronger involvement of civil society in UN
policy<br>
processes. An important document in this field - the Cardoso Report
from<br>
June 2004 - suggests even more substantial participation than during
the<br>
first phase of WSIS. <br><br>
By the way: It is really ironic that the "non-paper" prepared
by<br>
chairman Karklins for today's GFC meeting mentions the
"determination of<br>
member states and other stakeholders in the WSIS process" when at
the<br>
same time the "other stakeholders" do not really have a voice
in the<br>
drafting of the summit outcomes.<br><br>
Civil society clearly will have to discuss the consequences from
this.<br>
At PrepCom I, the civil society plenary has officially stated among
its<br>
conditions for further participation in the official WSIS
process<br><br>
"We insist that we don't fall back behind the highest levels
of<br>
inclusiveness and participation from the first phase. Instead, we
even<br>
want to improve them. (.)Whatever Political Declaration is to be
adopted<br>
in Tunis, appropriate mechanisms have to guarantee that civil society
is<br>
truly involved in any drafting process and supported in commenting
and<br>
proposing amendments in a timely manner."<br><br>
The civil society plenary also had made clear in the same
declaration<br>
that "we are not willing to play an alibi role or lend our
legitimacy to<br>
a process that excludes us from true meaningful participation."
<br><br>
The debate on how to deal with this situation now has to be held
across<br>
civil society. <br><br>
It seems clear that the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) is
a<br>
space where meaningful participation of civil society is assured. It
is<br>
less clear if this really is the case for the Task Force on
Financial<br>
Mechanisms (TFFM), where the drafting of the final report had
already<br>
started before the TFFM has been set up, civil society participation
is<br>
much smaller than in the WGIG, and the selection process for civil<br>
society members completely lacked transparency and representativeness.
<br><br>
If there is any chance to make the Group of the Friends of the
Chair<br>
(GFC) a more inclusive space for drafting the final summit
declaration<br>
is far from sure. At the moment, it seems more discouraging. So
maybe<br>
civil society should again start working on its own WSIS summit<br>
declaration for 2005.
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