[WSIS CS-Plenary] On openness of working groups (WG on internet governance)

[Bertrand de LA CHAPELLE]

Hi, follow-up on Chun's report

In the absence of any other active member of the civil 
society caucus on internet governance, and given the 
urgency, I indeed issued a statement in the name of civil 
society on two levels :

- lightly on the substance to remind present governments of 
what we had circulated before (ie : refusal of an 
intergovernmental process and insistence on dealing with 
this issue between Geneva and Tunis in a manner that 
associates all stakeholders)
- more precisely on the question of the openness of these 
working groups, to submit a proposal (see below) that had 
been informally discussed with some members of CS plenary 
and CS bureau; this proposal was distributed in writing to 
the chair (Kenya) and also - at their request - to the 
governments who had expressed their discontent with the fact 
that these meetings were going to be closed. 

Further discussions have taken place with Lindall Shope-
Mafole (chair of the drafting committee) and some friendly 
delegations. This issue is likely to be addressed in the 
governmental bureau this evening. 

Proposed formula is :

1 – these working groups should be as open as possible 

2 – their methodology may vary, depending on the issues 
adressed

3 – to facilitate the most efficient interaction between the 
different stakeholders, each chair / facilitator will have 
the responsibility to use in a balanced proportion the 
following three modes of interaction :
- observers will have the right to make short statements on 
the issue and to submit them in written form for all 
governmental delegations to take them into account as they 
see fit
- further interaction with observers will be possible at the 
discretion of the chair or at the request of one governement
- a “silent mode” will allow observers to remain in the room 
without being further allowed to participate in the 
discussion 

Bertrand


---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 21:57:33 +0900 (KST)
>From: Chun Eung Hwi <chun at peacenet.or.kr>  
>Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] 2nd Unofficial personal report 
of Government meeting  
>To: plenary at wsis-cs.org, <ct at wsis-cs.org>
>
>For the negotiation of conflicting views on some 
contentious issues, 
>governments decided to make six working group depending on 
those issues 
>such as Right to communicate, Internet Security, Internet 
Governance, 
>Enabling environment, Cultural identity, Media and Freedom 
of expression. 
>
>This afternoon, I attended to one working group of Internet 
Governance.  
>Then, there I heard that in the morning session, some 
countries raised
>questions on the attendance of civil society and private 
sector. So, they
>decided their policy to allow only five minutes for civil 
society and
>private sector to speak out their concerns and to make them 
leave from
>meeting place when governments begin to negotiate. Only two 
minutes was
>allowed to those groups. One person of Private sector spoke 
out the
>importance of private sector initiative and the cooperation 
between
>private sector and governments in internet governance. And 
nobody made a
>comment from civil society group.
>
>However, EU representative, Norway, Israel and the U.S 
expressed their
>uncomfortableness to that policy. But the chair said that 
he has no right
>to reverse that policy. So, I should have left out from the 
meeting place.  
>That's it.
>
>At the meeting place, I met Mr. Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, the 
chair of
>GAC(Government Advisory Committee) of ICANN and Paul 
Twomey, President/CEO
>of ICANN and Theresa Swinehart, Counsel of ICANN. But Paul 
and Theresa
>should also have left out.
>
>
>-- 
>------------------------------------------------------------
>Chun Eung Hwi
>General Secretary, PeaceNet | phone:     (+82)  2-2166-2205
>Seoul Yangchun P.O.Box 81   |   pcs:     (+82) 019-259-2667
>Seoul, 158-600, Korea  	    | eMail:   
chun at peacenet.or.kr
>------------------------------------------------------------
>
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