WORLD SUMMIT ON INFORMATION SOCIETY (WSIS)
A platform for Communication Rights that seeks to facilitate a coordinated response among civil society and NGOs to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), particularly around issues related to communication rights. The crisInfo@comunica.org list has been set up to support this work.
Background
The World Summit on the Information Society is a two-phase UN summit scheduled
for December 2003 in Geneva and 2005 in Tunis. The International Telecommunications
Union (ITU) has the lead role as organiser of the Summit (see http://www.itu.int/wsis).
The aim of the WSIS is "to develop a common vision and understanding of
the Information Society, to better understand its scope and dimensions and to
draw up a strategic plan of action for successfully adapting to the new society".
While it is yet to be determined what role civil society will actually have
in the process, the WSIS's proposal is to involve government, industry and civil
society in both the preparations and in the conference itself. This is to include
involvement in determining the conference agenda and participation in the drafting
of the Declaration and Action Plan. The WSIS executive secretariat in Geneva
has separate divisions for government, industry and civil society. The civil
society secretariat has a website at http://www.geneva2003.org.
We have set up an electronic list to facilitate communication about the WSIS among NGOs and to offer news and other information related to our efforts to ensure that human rights, and especially communication rights, are fully incorporated into the WSIS process, agenda and output.
Subscribe to CrisInfo here or send a blank message to crisinfo-request@comunica.org with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
Communication Rights in the Information Society cris@comunica.org