[WSIS CS-Plenary] Fwd: PrepCom-3 Highlights: 22-23 September 2005

[Tracey Naughton]

 	PrepCom-3 Highlights

Telephone:	 +41 22 730 6039
Fax:	 +41 22 730 5201
E-mail:	 wsismedia at itu.int
Website:	 www.itu.int/wsis/newsroom/2/

PrepCom-3 Highlights: 22-23 September 2005

Too fast - or too slow?
Delegations at odds on pace of decision-making


With discussions in Sub-Committee A on Internet governance continuing  
at a snail's pace, Thursday morning saw delegates' focus turn to the  
pressing need to move ahead with drafting text for consideration by  
the next meeting of the Plenary, scheduled for Thursday 29 September.

On Thursday, Chairman Masood Khan presented delegates with a new  
working document (DT/8) which set out a proposed structure of "issue  
clusters" for discussion under five main headings: introductory text  
(definitions, Geneva Principles), roles of stakeholders, public  
policy issues (management of critical Internet resources, consumer  
rights, spam, cybercrime), development issues (capacity building,  
multilingualism etc), and future governance arrangements (four models  
proposed in WGIG report, possible creation of a governance forum etc).

The US, EU and Russia all expressed the view that the definition of  
Internet governance contained in the WGIG report and the proposed  
models for governance are starting points only, and do not represent  
a finite range of choices. Others, including Honduras, Egypt and the  
Internet Society, stressed the importance of equitable and affordable  
access to Internet resources, and of capacity building.

Speaking for the private sector, CCBI voiced the opinion that  
existing organizations already provide a sufficient framework for  
governance discussions, rejecting the idea of "increased  
centralization" of governance mechanisms.

Striving to put pen to paper

General discussion ensued as to the best way to tackle the drafting  
process. On the whole, delegations broadly supported the idea of  
breaking Sub-Committee A into separate drafting groups, as long as  
the number of groups could be limited so as not to disadvantage small  
delegations, which lack expert personnel in sufficient numbers.

There followed a lengthy discussion on the role of stakeholder  
organizations in such drafting groups, with many delegations  
expressing support for the participation of stakeholders as observers  
but not according them the right to draft text. Failing to arrive at  
a consensus despite a short suspension by Chairman Khan to allow for  
discussion between dissenting groups, the Chairman circulated a new  
non-status document (DT/10) that aimed to clarify and structure  
discussion.

Talks conducted by Singapore and Sri Lanka indicated that most  
delegations could favour allowing initial interventions by  
stakeholders, who would then leave the room when the drafting process  
began. This proposal met with stiff opposition from the US and EU,  
however, and the matter was finally referred to PrepCom-3 Chairman,  
Ambassador Janis Karklins, who will conduct negotiations outside the  
Committee room with a view to building sufficient consensus to move  
forward.

Although designed as a working framework only, Document DT/10 also  
provoked controversy, with delegations complaining that the most  
contested issues, such as future oversight, were still too vaguely  
spelled out. For some, the document seemed too slanted towards  
solutions that had yet to garner any consensus in the room. The fact  
that the document was not presented in all six official languages  
also prompted complaints that many delegations had not had sufficient  
time to study and comprehend the text.

The meeting ended on a note of frustration, with Brazil noting that  
the Sub-Committee had now used up almost 50% its available time, yet  
had still not managed to move beyond general statements.

Implementation mechanisms

Sub-Committee B, which deals with the final documents of WSIS other  
than Internet Governance, sent out a signal of goodwill and  
accommodation towards non-governmental observers, with Chairman  
Lyndall Shope-Mafole accepting their plea for more flexible speaking  
slots.

ITU Deputy Secretary-General Roberto Blois called for closer  
association with civil society and the private sector and a  
strengthening of the synergies between international organizations,  
to avoid duplication of efforts. He said, "The impetus of the World  
Summit on the Information Society has opened the way for an  
innovative implementation mechanism in which all stakeholders have a  
role to play in a complementary manner."

Mr Blois noted that ITU Council had recently recognized the need for  
the Union to take an active role, along with other UN agencies and  
international organizations, in the implementation and follow-up  
process of WSIS, while possibly playing a coordinating role for  
specific action lines. In this respect, he said the ITU-UNESCO joint  
proposal calls for strong collective work between UN agencies "to  
keep the issue of ICTs for development at the top of the UN agenda."

Ambassador Khan of Pakistan called for an open and transparent forum  
for all stakeholders that would ensure a substantive link between  
WSIS aims and the Millennium Development Goals. The European Union  
made it clear that it would not support a new organization to  
coordinate implementation of the WSIS Plan of Action, preferring to  
rely on existing institutions.

By the end of Week 1, Sub-Committee B had succeeded completing a  
first reading of the chapter on Implementation Mechanisms. Having  
finished their work ahead of time, the Chairman took the opportunity  
to introduce a new proposal by Spain to commemorate World Internet  
Day as a means of raising awareness of the forthcoming Information  
Society.


Political component


The week's work was appropriately topped off by the political  
component of the Tunis document. While reaffirming the resolutions in  
the WSIS Declaration of Principles adopted in Geneva in 2003, new  
text will focus on implementation and follow-up of the Tunis phase.

A proposal from Norway to bring the WSIS document in line with the  
wording used in the outcome of the recent Summit in New York was  
unanimously accepted. Disagreement arose, however, concerning the  
number and nature of new proposals. The US, Canada, and the European  
Union all called for a brief Political statement, while others  
proposed a number of changes.

After some deliberation, the Sub-Committee decided to leave most  
paragraphs as they had been after PrepCom-2. Building on this spirit  
of common responsibility, Switzerland presented the concept of ICT  
for peace to identify potential outbreaks [of hostilities] through  
early warning systems, to facilitate the adoption of preventive  
measures and promote the peaceful resolution of disputes, to mitigate  
the consequences of conflicts and support humanitarian action and  
peacekeeping missions, and to assist post-conflict peace-building and  
reconstruction towards open, inclusive, and just societies.


Parallel Events

Women and Media
Association Tunisienne des Femmes Démocrates

While progress has been made on many issues related to women's  
rights, a lot more remains to be done in a multitude of areas, both  
in developed and developing countries.

This lively debate ranged far beyond the topic of "women and media",  
with a vigorous exchange between a host of civil society interest  
groups. Participants shared experiences from their own countries as  
they considered women's place in the Information Society, in the  
media and, more generally, in the Arab world. There was general  
agreement on the need for women to take a more active role as  
creators of content shared through media, instead of being merely  
passive consumers of information.

Developing a Digital Opportunity Index (DOI)
International Telecommunication Union

The WSIS Plan of Action directive to develop a composite ICT index to  
measure the magnitude of the digital divide has seen ITU develop a  
methodology for the creation of a Digital Opportunity Index (DOI),  
and test it on 40 economies around the world.

Tim Kelly, Head of Strategy and Policy at ITU, presented the proposed  
methodology and its initial results, and sought feedback from WSIS  
stakeholders. He said development of a DOI should be part of a multi- 
stakeholder process that involves existing experts and statistical  
centres around the world. The subsequent panel discussion included  
representatives from ITU , UNCTAD and the Korea Agency for Digital  
Opportunity and Promotion.

The session highlighted the strengths of the proposed methodology  
with respect to existing ICT indices - simplicity, versatility, and  
inclusion of a mobile telephony component, which allows for  
comparisons with number of fixed lines. Kelly stressed the fact that  
the DOI is based on a set of core ICT indicators generally  
acknowledged to best reflect the current state of development of the  
information society. These indicators were agreed on by the  
Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, a group of  
international organizations and statistical centres from around the  
world, including ITU, UNCTAD, OECD, World Bank, Eurostat, UIS, UN ICT  
Task Force and the UN regional offices.

W3C, Multilinguism and Accessibility
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

W3C's Daniel Dardailler, Richard Ishida and Judy Brewer shared  
insights with PrepCom-3 participants on how to make information on  
the web more accessible to all people, regardless of their native  
language or even physical disability. Participants learned about  
W3C's Mobile Web Project, which aims to ensure access to information  
on the Web through mobile phones.

The use of local languages and progress in accommodating different  
language requirements, characters and script was also discussed,  
along with W3C's web accessibility initiative, which is working to  
create guidelines for disabilities and needs that will allow people  
to control how information available on the web is displayed.  
"Effective disability support", W3C's Judy Brewer said, "includes  
ensuring subtitles for audio-casts, descriptions for videos streamed  
over the Internet, and strategies to deal with low-bandwidth,  
especially in developing countries". Since the needs of people with  
disabilities are similar worldwide, accessibility would improve  
remarkably if all countries immediately adopted the same  
accessibility guidelines.

Internet Governance and Gender
APC-NSP/FEMNET/WSIS Gender Caucus

Gender is an issue that cuts across many areas of the Internet  
governance debate. This panel discussion, organized by the  
Association for Progressive Communications, the African Women's  
Development and Communication Network-FEMNET, members of the Working  
Group on Internet Governance (WGIG), and the WSIS Gender Caucus  
looked at areas where the Gender Caucus and other organizations could  
work together to respond to the non-status document on Internet  
governance issued by the Chair of Sub-Committee A (DT/10).

The panel organized drafting groups for different parts of the  
discussion paper, encouraging participants to collaborate on language  
on gender issues that could be added to the Internet Governance  
chapter of the final Tunis documents.

Panellists also emphasized the need to collect gender disaggregated  
data on ICT access to identify gender inequalities, and stressed the  
importance of promoting capacity building for women in specialized  
technical and legal areas, to ensure their active participation in  
decision making processes and increase their access to ICTs.

Impact of the Millennium+5 Summit on WSIS
Council of Non-Governmental Organizations (CONGO)

World leaders meeting in New York in mid-September emphasized the  
importance of science and technology in the building of "a people- 
centred and inclusive Information Society".

To discuss the impact of this clear reference to WSIS, the Conference  
of Non-Governmental Organizations (CONGO) organized a parallel event.  
While many commentators have branded the New York Summit outcome  
document a failure, others cited a number of important achievements  
and emphasized the key role civil society will play in helping link  
the Millennium Development Goals Declaration and the outcome of WSIS.  
"You are our eyes and ears on the ground," said Saburland Khan of the  
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.



-------------- next part --------------
Skipped content of type multipart/related