[WSIS CS-Plenary] CSDPTT proposals to Tunis documents

[Wolfgang Kleinwächter]

ITU was the first UN organisation (next to ILO, which has a different model of trilateral partnership) which changed its constiution (in 1994) to open the organisation for non governmental members (it was called the small members in contrast to the big Ms / member states). ITU has now several hundreds of small Ms, mainly from the business sector. ITU people always argue that this is also open for NGOs and CS, but the high annual fee is prohibitive for 99 per cent of NGOs. 

Another argument ITU is using is that a number of WSIS related events - workshops, symposia etc. - are open to everybody and , mainly, free of charge. 

If ITU would get a greater role in the follow up of WSIS, one could consider to ask ITU to amend its constitution. Such an amendement could offer a third membership categorie for non-profits etc. with no membership fee but same rights as business members in Study Groups the key policy development and negotiation groups in the ITU structure.  Voting rights will remain with big Ms, but to have involved in the bottom up policy development process has some merits. 

Constitutional changes can be made by the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference only. Such PPCs take plavce very four years (94: Kyodo, 1998: Minneapolis, 02: Marrakesh) The next one will be in October 2006 in Antalya, Turkey. In case WSIS adopts a recommendation that ITU should play a central role in WSIS follow up, such a recommendation should be linked to a duty to guarantee the "full involvment of all stakeholders" (agreed WSIS language) .  Furthermore, some governments should be approached to figure out how a  draft recommendation could be prepared for Antalaya. The problem here is that governmental ITU people are mainly from the former PTTs and telephone people, with only little involvment (and understandimg) of WSIS issues. 

Best

wolfgang



----Original Message-----
From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org on behalf of Robert Guerra
Sent: Tue 9/6/2005 1:44 AM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
Cc: WSIS-EU; wsis-finance at yahoogroupes.fr; WSIS Internet Governance Caucus
Subject: Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] CSDPTT proposals to Tunis documents
 
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Jean-Louis:

thanks for your comments. much appreciated.


Given the long standing vis-a-vis the ITU, I - personally, wouldn't  
support the call for giving a prominent role to the ITU. Then again,  
it's just my personal view. I'm keen to hear what others think...

I'll put forward a suggestion - get CS to first see if the ITU is  
willing to reform certain of it's practices vis-a-vis Civil Society -  
- There's much people have written about this already, especially  
those on the governance list...

I'll just point out one issue that is always raised - that being the  
terribly expensive pricing they put on reports and documents they  
produce. If we want the ITU to change then,let's propose a position  
that civil society has already articulated - than being that   
creative commons license or even better a GNU type license be  
adopted. Would the ITU go for it? we should try..



regards,

Robert

--
Robert Guerra <rguerra at privaterra.org>
Managing Director, Privaterra <http://www.privaterra.org>





On 5-Sep-05, at 10:26 AM, Jean-Louis FULLSACK wrote:

> Dear all
>
> You'll find attached the English version of the 3 proposals  
> submitted by CSDPTT to WSIS CSD on August 30.
>
> I do hope a wide support of the CS represntatives and organizations  
> for these proposals, as well as I'm looking for some comments about  
> them; during our next meetings,as soon as to morrow at Geneva for  
> those who will attend.
>
> Many thaks in advance and best regards
>
> Jean-Louis Fullsack
>
> President CSDPTT
> <CSDPTT Proposals to the WSIS Tunis documents.doc>

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