[ga] WSIS - Paving the Way to Democratic Communication?

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All former DNSO GA members or other interested stakeholders/users,

  From our fellow stakeholders in Africa.
I *Guess* This news agency is akin to CNN in Africa..  ???
Seems to me it is good journalism with a twist of marketing
spin a la "Ubang - Gee" drum beating to Internet news flavor...
I had to laugh at the last sentence though...  It's as if they are
about 4 - 5 years behind the curve...  None the less a good
and interesting read/take...

February 24, 2005
Posted to the web February 25, 2005

By Roland Stanbridge, Highway Africa News Agency (hana)
Geneva

Will history recognize the WSIS process as the first step in creating an

entirely new model of international negotiation? One of many who believe

so is Professor Wolfgang Kleinwächter of Aarhus University in Denmark.

Kleinwächter, professor for International Communication Policy and
Regulation at Aarhus University in Denmark, says WSIS has become a
laboratory for future forms of multi-stakeholder governance.

The world summit is held in two phases. The first phase took place in
Geneva in December 2003. It produced a Declaration of Principles and a
Plan of Action. The second phase will take place in Tunis this November.

WSIS is the first major world conference where decisions are not being
made by governments only. Civil society organisations from around the
world and the business sector are also key participants in the
multi-stakeholder WSIS process.

The idea of multi-stakeholder negotiation and decision making was
articulated in the Millennium Development Goals which the United Nations

system is supposed to be implementing. WSIS however, is the first forum
where it is actually being put into practice - and at the WSIS Prepcom
taking place in Geneva this week, it can be seen to be working.

"This is a new beginning. WSIS is a forerunner -- an early bird in the
new diplomacy of the 21st century" Kleinwächter told HANA.

However, when all parties gathered at the first WSIS Prepcom in mid 2002

no one was prepared for the new ways of doing things. Apart from a few
sophisticated NGOs with international experience such as the Association

for Progressive Communication APC, the CRIS Campaign (Communications
Rights in the Information Society) and One World, the wide range of
civil society organisations came largely unprepared.

They had no experience of speaking with one voice, little understanding
of inter-governmental negotiation procedures, and many made sweeping
rhetorical statements at WSIS meetings that were often not pertinent to
the subject under discussion.

Governments were shocked by the noisy intrusion and 'colourful'
interjections of the civil society brigade, and after the first 2002
plenary session in the Geneva Convention centre the civil society
representatives were ordered out of the room, and the doors were closed
on them.

Civil society responded angrily, banging on the doors and demanding to
be re-admitted.

"What we were seeing was a clash of two different cultures -- the top
down heirarchical culture of the last two hundred years, and the new
bottom up multi-stakeholder approach" says Kleinwächter.

Tracey Naughton, currently co-convenor of the WSIS civil society bureau
says it was a new process for all involved, but as the first 2002
Prepcom unfolded it became clear to government representatives that a
lot of expertise was located within civil society.

"As we went along there developed more and more regard for our
interventions - with exceptions like the governments of China and Egypt
who staunchly wanted to block civil society - but several governments
began to defer decisions until they had some input from civil society."

"Learning to speak with one voice was not easy. It is not a natural
thing for civil society because it consists of hundreds of diverse
organisations and individuals

However through our very clear headed drafting group we were able to
agree on a civil society declaration at the 2003 Geneva summit"

Despite the increasing rapprochement, governments at Geneva were not
prepared to integrate the civil society text into the final conference
declaration, and the final solution negotiated was that the Civil
Society declaration was attached to the Geneva summit declaration.

Prof Kleinwächter, who is also a member of the WSIS Working Group on
Internet Governance, says much has changed in the two years of
preparation for the Tunis summit.

"We have moved step by step from turmoil to trust. There has grown an
understanding that building a people-centred Information Society is a
joint effort which requires cooperation and partnership. The
multi-stakeholder principle has been accepted by everybody.

"Now civil society representatives have access to the large majority of
all WSIS meetings. There are very few closed meetings. Otherwise civil
society can observe and make input to all meetings in which the
governments are talking together. They have secure speaking rights.

"In the early Prepcom meetings it was totally unclear whether civil
society could speak in working group sessions... They could make
statements in writing to the plenary sessions, but then they had to
leave the room. If they sat in a working group session they had to
remain silent.

"Now it is totally different. Civil society has the direct possibility
to influence the negotiation by providing real input and language. The
stakeholders are learning how to work together -- and this has great
importance for the future. We are moving to a new model of
co-regulation, co-policy development, and WSIS is a fascinating test
case for how this can be further developed.

"Civil society has developed a gigantic mechanism over the last two to
three years and there is a sophisticated rhythm of work going on now.
During these current two weeks we have 164 different meetings of
different groups of civil society. If you compare the atmosphere in the
main plenary where the governments are sitting, delivering bureaucratic
or technocratic official speeches, to the civil society meetings, then
you see where the real life of the conference is taking place.

Civil society at WSIS is now organised into 15 caucuses - thematic ones
on e.g. youth, media, academia & education, local authorities, gender
and others, regional caucuses for Asia, Africa, Latin America and so on,

and there is also a working group on internet governance, a task force
on financing mechanisms, and Tunisia, host country for the final summit,

has its own caucus. Each caucus has a member on the civil society
bureau, which is responsible for liaison with the government bureau.

The experience of working together in the WSIS process has led to much
increased networking between civil society organisations around the
world. Africa has seen the birth of African Civil Society for
Information Society (ACSIS), a continent wide civil society organisation

with representatives in nearly every African country. It is having a
clear impact on national governmental delegations at WSIS, in terms of
successful lobbying and having success in getting civil society
representatives appointed to national delegations. ACSIS has a strong
online network.

Kleinwächter says the multi-stakeholderism is fast becoming the modus
operandi of WSIS:

"More and more governmental representatives leave the plenaries and
attend the meetings of civil society. We saw this yesterday in the
Global Alliance debate where the Russian and Finnish government
representatives suddenly showed up and the representative of the US
government came and explained the position of the US.

"So not only have the governments have opened the doors to civil society

speakers, but they have come to understand the value of working together

with civil society. The challenge is not to decide who is in charge or
who should take over but the challenge is to bring the different
stakeholders into a mechanism for meeting the demands of the information

age - to find a just arrangement for working in a constructive dialogue
and avoiding a destructive battle." he said

Prof Kleinwächter said if one compared WSIS with other intergovernmental

organisations such as WIPO or WTO it came clear that radically new
practices were emerging.

"In WTO for instance there is no civil society participation whatsoever.

WIPO has recently invited civil society organisations as observers, but
they exclude them from programme meetings. In the ITU a private entity
can become a member by paying an extravagant membership fee which is not

affordable for civil society organisations. And this only permits
observer status.

"The principle of multi-stakeholderism just does not exist among the
traditional intergovernmental organisations. WSIS is unique in this
regard.

"Of course WSIS does not operate on the basis of a treaty. So it can
only make recommendations and rely on political good will.

"Now it remains to be seen how much the WSIS example will influence the
other organisations. Already one can see changes emerging. The UNCTAD
meeting in Sao Paulo last September opened its doors to civil society.
They organised hearings where they asked civil society to make
representations. Civil society was also asked to make substantial
contributions to a number of UNCTAD projects.

"WIPO has moved a little bit. Yesterday in the Canadian embassy a
spokesman from WTO said the WTO and the World Bank were the only
organisations which had no channels whatsoever for engaging with civil
society. My reading of that statement was that it was done in a sense of

self criticism.

"So what I see is the start of a process, but it will take a lot of time

because some governments fear that they will lose some power. It is a
real fear, because what we are seeing are the beginnings of a power
shift.

"Mostly it is not the strong governments in the north that block civil
society involvement, but rather those of the south who fear that civil
society organisations are used by the north as Trojan horses. There is a

lot of mistrust. So the challenge for civil society, particularly in the

south, is to demonstrate that they can be constructive partners.

"This will open the way for development of new democratic communication,

diplomacy and negotiation processes for the 21st century. And WSIS is
leading the way"

Tracey Naughton comments that the idea of a multi-stakeholder process,
discussed for many years, has finally become a reality here in Geneva.

"This is now the way forward. The multi-stakeholder process will almost
certainly become upheld in the UN set of rules for holding international

conferences

"If this is challenged, civil society will in future be able to refer to

the WSIS process as an established modality. International diplomacy and

negotiation is entering a new era."

Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 134k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Be precise in the use of words and expect precision from others" -
    Pierre Abelard

"If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B;
liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
United States v. Carroll Towing  (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947]
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