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MISTICA: El papel de la sociedad civil en el WSIS

From: Michel J. Menou ([email protected])
Date: Mon May 27 2002 - 21:42:48 AST

CC: [email protected]

Compas
Mismo en Ingles, ojala este intercambio puede "aclarar" unos desafios y
presupuestos ocultos en el debate sobre abertura de la "techno-estructura" para
la sociedad civil y la responsabilidad de la misma.
Michel

Nota de la moderaci�n: para hacer mas leible el intercambios lo hemos
reconstituido
en el orden cronol�gico y editado (quitando el "ruido" para permitir
enfocar los contenidos).

===1
From: "Charles Geiger" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
This is to inform you that the Accreditation and Registration forms
for PrepCom-1 of WSIS are now on the website of WSIS.
  Accreditation for PrepCom-1 is on a provisional basis (explained on the
  website http://www.itu.int/wsis), as there are no Rules of Procedure
  and no accepted accreditation rules at the present stage (The PrepCom
  will have to decide on these rules during during PrepCom-1).
  PrepCom-1 will deal to some extent with procedural matters, but (probably
from
  day 3 onwards) also with first ideas on content and the question how
  the process for gathering content will be organised.
  Charles Geiger, Executive Secretariat, WSIS

===2
From: "Peter A. Sy" <[email protected]>
Hello Charles,
Perhaps some guidelines for accreditation would help. Our group
(mainit.org) already went through the form but weren't quite sure about
some fields and the standard by which an a civil society organization
would be deemed qualified for accreditation..
thanks.
Peter A. Sy - Mainit Dot Org

===3
From: "Michel J. Menou" <[email protected]>
May I respectfully ask, further to Charles Geiger's message in reply to
Peter A. Sy:
> Standard is that the organisation has to have a legal basis
> (e.g. a charter) and has to exist for at least 2-3 years.
Does that mean that the many virtual organizations which populate the
cyberspace at this time, often far more actively than the formal ones, are
not eligible?

> Secondly the organisation has to have a stake/interest in the
Information Society.
Is there any aspect of society that has no link with the "information society"
especially if societies in general are supposed to already be or become
"information societies"?
Is there any civil society organization which has no stake/interest in the
information society?
Michel Menou

===4
From: "Charles Geiger" <[email protected]>
I try to give some answers to the questions of Dr. Menou:
As per the today's standard rules for civil society participation in UN
Summits, the organisations has to be formally established (for at least two
years). We know that this is a problem for many vitual networks. The civil
society division of the Executive Secretariat is working on this. The
informal networks may surely participate in all "parallel" informal events,
where you do not need "delegate" status. Several such events will probably
take place during PrepCom-2. PrepCom-3 and the Summit. Otherwise some
established organisations may be spokespersons for these vitual networks.

In my personal view, it is not very probable that Governments will basically
change the established rules mentioned above. I would suggest to Dr. Menou
to take the question up with the civil society division. They will be back
from Bamako on Monday 3 June at the latest.

With regard to "stakes" in the Information Society, I think it is a question
of degree of involvement. It is true that a lot of civil society
organisations have some stake or other in the Information Society. But is it
their core issue? In case of doubt, one could have a look at the Mission
Statement. A lot of NGOs accredited with ECOSOC have their main stakes in
the field of Environment, Ecology and Human Rights. All of this got
influenced by the new ICTs. But are ICTs and the Information Society their
core issue? I think there is a lot of difference between, for example, the
Association for Progressive Communications, the EFF or CPSR, and Greenpeace,
the WWF or Amnesty International. At the actual stage, we may have to see
how the accreditation matter is decided by the PrepCom before being able to
answer the question.
Charles Geiger, Executive Secretariat WSIS, Governments Division

===5
From: Michel J. Menou <[email protected]>
I'd like to thank Mr. Geiger for his most helpful and clear answer to the
questions I raised.
I'd like to urge all those organizations that find themselves in the twillight
zone to pursue with the civil society division clarification of their
particular
case.
My personal view, as Mr. Geiger's one, is that we are basically in a
process of a governmental conference, within an intergovernmental organization
and that established rules and criteria will to a large extent apply.
Those who cultivate the hope of some kind of open and unconstrained
participation of "civil society" may be taken taking their dreams for reality.
Selected civil society organizations will be invited and expected to behave as
well educated guests do.
The issue wether ICT could be considered part of the core business of an
organization like Amnesty International is, I must say, quite interesting. I
loook forward to seeing the final decision.
Furthermore the option of having organizations with etablished consultative
status speak for the others, while certainly feasible, do call for civil
society
organizations to organize among themselves a process that will ensure truly
democratic representativity. We may be far from this.
Michel J. Menou

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