15-25 February 2005, Geneva, Switzerland
By Rik Panganiban, Communications Coordinator, CONGO
From 16-25 February 2005, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, approximately 1,700 participants, including about 500 civil society representatives, gathered for the second Preparatory Committee of the World Summit on the Information Society Phase II.
Many civil society organizations arrived early for a series of information and orientation sessions held on 14 February. Organized by the Conference of NGOs in cooperation with the WSIS executive secretariat, the event brought together about 150-some civil society representatives as well as Charles Geiger, head of the WSIS Executive Secretariat, Ambassador Janis Karklins, president of the Prepcom, and Markus Kummer, secretariat of the Working Group on Internet Governance.
In addition, there were three days of public meetings of the Working Group on Internet Governance from 14-16 February. This was followed by private meetings of the WGIG to complete drafting of the interim report of the WGIG to be presented at Prepcom II. Several observers noted the collaborative and congenial nature of the discussions within the WGIG, which is composed of members from government, the private sector and civil society.
Civil society met throughout the Prepcom during morning plenary sessions, civil society bureau meetings, content and themes strategy sessions, and various working group and caucus meetings. More than 100 civil society meetings were scheduled during the two-week period, including a number of meetings with governments and the private sector.
Civil society was given the opportunity to address governments during a number of 15-minute periods of interventions, alongside representatives of the private sector and inter-governmental organizations. Civil society speakers addressed important issues such as internet governance, ICT financing, human rights, gender equity, indigenous peoples concerns, disabled people's access and implementation and follow-up to the WSIS. One World South Asia brought several “grassroots woman” from rural villages in India to share their experiences and concerns about ICTs in their communities.
A Working Methods Working Group began meeting at Prepcom II, under the co-facilitation of Rik Panganiban of CONGO and Ramin Kaweh of NGLS, to discuss and recommend processes and procedures for civil society to work more effectively and democratically together.
Within civil society, there was much less discord than at the previous Prepcom in Hammamet in June 2004. Human rights in Tunisia continued to be a controversial subject, but was not the only area addressed by civil society at Prepcom II. Indeed, most of the Prepcom was devoted to discussing and drafting text related to ICT financing, which was the main subject of the Prepcom's work. The new Working Group on ICT Financing held a number meetings and brought together groups with particular concerns about financing issues.
That said, human rights in the Information Society was still an area of controversy. There were a number of debates that took place at different human rights and freedom of the press side events organized by civil society. A report issued by a number of accredited civil society groups that was critical of Tunisia's human rights record was not allowed by the WSIS secretariat to be put out on the documentation table in front of the official plenary room. However the report was available outside of the civil society meeting room. Rapporteurs sans Frontieres reportedly demanded to be allowed a speaking slot in the official plenary to address their concerns about freedom of expression on the internet, but were denied.
In terms of inclusion and participation, several civil society groups were encouraged by the inclusion of their proposals in compilations of proposals submitted by various sources. In the past this had to be done by having an official government delegation take civil society language and submit it as their own, but at Prepcom II groups were often able to directly submit proposed text. Some groups, such as the women's caucus, noted that while there texts were submitted and included, they were ultimately not accepted by the Prepcom in the final agreed texts.
All plenaries, sub-committee and drafting group sessions by governments were open to civil society to observe. All documents made available to governments were also made available to civil society at the same document tables.
Governments had some difficulties finding consensus on some of the ICT financing issues. Some debates took place related to references to open source software, debt cancellation and most conteniously the voluntary Digital Solidarity Fund. There was a definite North-South split on the necessity and viability of establishing and supporting a Digital Solidarity Fund for ICT development. But in the end a consensus text on ICT financing was agreed at Prepcom II.
The basic organization of the Tunis Summit was fixed at Prepcom II. Notable in the decision, there was a large increase in the number of speaking slots allocated to civil society for the official plenaries – approximately 27 different speaking slots of three minutes each. While the Secretary-General of the Summit will have the final say, selection of the civil society speakers will be done in conjunction with our own “self-organizing mechanisms.” Several civil society groups were extremely upset at the Geneva WSIS Summit when our own laborious and time-consuming efforts to select a speaker from civil society were totally ignored by the WSIS secretariat.
The draft operational document considered by the Prepcom also has provisions for the implementation and follow-up of the WSIS after November. The draft calls for “teams of stakeholders” to work together on the implementation of the WSIS declaration and plan of action, under the coordination of a UN agency. Overall coordination of all the UN agencies and teams would be conducted by some as-of-yet undecided global body. Among the options on the table for the main implementing and monitoring body are the ITU, a super-committee of several UN agencies, and a proposed “Global Alliance on ICT Policy Development.”
The latter proposal for a “Global Alliance” was the subject of an open consultation that took place on 21 February, under the auspices of the UN ICT Task Force. The Task Force is seeking to coordinate an open-ended series of consultations on the idea of a Global Alliance on ICT Policy Development, receiving ideas and proposals from all stakeholders.
The third and final Preparatory Committee will take place from 19-30 September 2005 in Geneva. The main subject of Prepcom III will be internet governance, with the final report of the Working Group on Internet Governance being made available on July 18.
For more information and documents from Prepcom II, see the official WSIS website: http://www.itu.int/wsis/preparatory2/pc2 . Or see CONGO's WSIS page at ngonew/wsis.htm .
– Report by Rik Panganiban, Communications Coordinator, CONGO