“The World Summit on the Information Society” WSIS

Crucial to this is that civil society organisation come together to help build an information society based on principles of transparency. Diversity, participation and social and economic justice, and inspired by equitable gender, cultural and regional perspectives.

The World Summit on the Information Society offers an important forum to promote this objective. We aim to broaden the WSIS agenda and goals especially in relation to media and communication issues, and to encourage the participation of a wide spectrum of civil society groups in this process.

You are welcome to join and share your ideas and proposal with us! As we depend mainly on voluntary work, any contribution – active participation in our mailing list and preparatory meetings, translation in other languages, financial aid, distribution of leaflets etc – is welcome.

You may subscribe to the public mailing lists of CRIS, called CRIS info, from the web
(or via Email by sending a blank message to: crisinfo-request@communica.orgwith the word “subscribe” in the subject line). Or contact the co-ordinator of the campaign directly, Seán O’ Siochrú (sean@nexus.ie) or the Secretariat of the Platform for Communication Rights (Pradip Thomas, pt@wacc.org.uk)

As briefly reported in previous issues, the United Nations has announced the World Summit on the Information Society to be held in December, 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis. This article gives an overview on the basic aims and activities in the framework of this summit and invites church and NGO communicators to actively participate in the preparatory phase.

When and where?
The first phase of the World Summit will take place in Geneva, hosted by the government of Switzerland, from December 10-12, 2003. It will address a broad range of themes concerning the Information Society and adopt a Declaration of Principles and an Action Plan. The second phase of the World Summit will take place in Tunis, hosted by the government of Tunisia, in 2005. Development themes will be a key focus in this second meeting and it will assess the progress made since the first phase and adopt any further Action Plan to be taken.
What are the objectives?

The Summit plans to adopt:

1. A declaration embodying a set of principles and rules of conduct aimed at establishing a more inclusive and equitable Information Society; and
2. A Plan of Action formulating operation proposals and concrete measures to be taken so that people all over the world will benefit more equitably from the opportunities presented by the Information Society
Which themes are proposed for handling?

Building the infrastructure

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The role of telecommunications, investment and technology in creating the “Information Society” infrastructure and bridging the “Digital Divide”
Opening the gates
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Achieving universal and equitable access to the “Information Society”
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Meeting the needs of the developing world
Service and Applications
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The implications of the “Information Society” for economic, social and cultural development
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The implications of the “Information Society” for sciences

The needs of users
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Consumer protection, privacy and security
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Relevant content, reflecting cultural diversity and the right to communicate
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Ethics of the information society
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Worker protection and the workplace privacy

Developing a framework
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The role of governments, the private sector and civil society in shaping the “Information Society”
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Information as a common good (public domain information)
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Intellectual property rights and legal exception
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Freedom of expression
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Telecommunication and Internet access tariff policies

ICT and Education
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ICT as a lever for education change
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The learning environment: ICT, teachers, learners and content
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The needs of current workers

The Summit’s High-Level Organising committee will propose a draft agenda at the preparation meeting (PrepCom1) to be held on July 1-5, 2002. The PrepCom2 (Spring 2003) will examine the draft document to be presented at the Summit, and the PrepCom3 (Autumn 2003) is planned to develop a Declaration of Principles and a Plan of Action.
Who will participate?

For the first time this Summit will bring together heads of states, representatives of government, parliament, international organizations, local authorities, public service broadcasters, the private sector and civil society. In former World Summits – on Gender, Environment, Population etc – governments were mainly involved in the official events. Currently the United Nations is seeks for mechanisms on how to establish the direct participation of civil society as well as the private sector. In this way, the Summit wishes to act as a testing ground for future negotiations on a global level as well as to pave new ways of governance in the Information Society. However at the moment there seems to be some difficulties regarding a full participation of civil society organizations, due to the interventions of some governments.

Who organises the WSIS?
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is being organized by the United Nations system under the high patronage of Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, with the International Telecommunication Union taking the leading role, in cooperation with other interested UN agencies. The idea of the Summit took root at a Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 1998. A High Level Summit Organising Committee (HLSOC) composed of Executive Heads of UN agencies interested in the WSIS and led by the ITU General-Secretary was set up, with a mandate to launch the activities related to the preparation of the Summit and in particular to define its themes and outcome. A series of regional preparatory meetings are being planned for the year 2002. It is also expected that other meetings and initiatives on the Information Society, including actions by governments , the UN system, private sector and civil society, will provide an input to the preparation of the Summit.
Why participate?

The WSIS is the first world-wide summit on media and information technologies. It offers NGOs and churches the opportunity to be actively involved and to share experiences. It is of vital importance that the Summit puts special emphasis on the social cultural and education aspects of communication and not so much on technical questions – however, without the active participation of civil society actors this aspect will probably not be handled accordingly. Also there should be more emphasis on “information society citizenship” than on only the “needs of users”. Of special relevance for community media and public service broadcasting are the questions of governance, public domain, and legislation. Finally the Summit offers a good opportunity to sensitise the general public regarding the importance of transparency, diversity, participation and justice in the media.
What is the purpose of the CCR rights?

One way to participate in the preparation of the summit is to join the campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS). The objectives are as follows:

CRIS plans to:
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Focus on “information society citizenship” and communication rights in public campaigns;
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Organize preparatory seminars and discussion groups to influence the agenda of WSIS and to elaborate common positions of civil society organizations;
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Present proposals to be presented at the WSIS with the purpose of fostering civil society and public service media
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At the moment more concrete stops are being taken

CRIS was established in October 2001 by the Platform for Communication Rights. The Platform for Communication Rights is a world-wide network of NGOs working in the field of communication. It is constituted by about twenty non-governmental organizations active in the field of communication such as WACC, the Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC), the Latin American Association for Educational Broadcasting (ALER), the Association for Progressive Communication (APC), the PANOS Institute, the Catholic Media Council (CAMECO) and the Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (EED).

Where can you find information on the Summit?
At the Civil Society Division of the WSIS Executive Secretariat: This division was created to facilitate the participation of civil society in the preparatory process leading up to the Summit. It is an administrative and support team. Its mandate is to provide civil society participants with the information and working materials necessary for their full inclusion in the preparatory process; to facilitated workshops and seminars on key issues affecting civil society; to guide on-line discussion groups of civil society participants; and to work closely with the media to ensure that the issues of civil society will be heard. Further information:
http://www/geneva2003.org

The official website of the World Summit

International Telecommunications Union (ITU)

Simple one color single-sided flyers in U.S. letter size and international A4 size are available in two versions. one with and one without the Paris 68 graphic. Each PDF file contains versions in three languages.
Go here.