12 May : deadline for accreditation

[Meryem Marzouki <marzouki@ras.eu.org>]

Bonjour,

Il n'y a pas encore de version française de cette information envoyée  
par le secrétariat exécutif du SMSI. Noter surtout la date limite de  
demande d'accréditation pour cette première PrepCom : 12 mai 2004. Les  
dates d'inscription pour les entités accréditées seront annoncées plus  
tard.

Hi,

This is the latest information from WSIS executive secretariat. The  
deadline for accreditation for 1st PrepCom is May 12th (for those not  
yet accredited). Registration dates for accredited entities will be  
announced later.

Meryem

===========
  WSIS E-FLASH N°14,  21 APRIL 2004
http://www.itu.int/wsis/newsroom/eflash/latest.html

* The preparatory meeting for the Tunis phase will be held from 24 to  
26 June 2004
       The provisional Bureau of the WSIS Preparatory Committee  
(PrepCom) decided, at its 31 March 2004 meeting, that the first  
preparatory meeting for the Tunis phase is to be held in Hammamet  
(Tunisia) from 24 to 26 June 2004. The provisional Bureau confirmed  
that one of the meeting's tasks will be to specify the structure and  
mechanisms for the second phase of WSIS, as well as the expected  
outputs. All information concerning the preparatory meeting  
[http://www.itu.int/wsis/preparatory2/hammamet/index.html] will be  
published on the official WSIS web site..

* Deadline for accreditation: 12 May 2004
       Non-governmental organizations and civil society and  
private-sector entities who wish to participate in the preparatory  
meeting of June 2004 and who are not yet accredited to the PrepComs for  
the Geneva phase (see lists of accredited entities  
[http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/doc_multi.asp?lang=en&id=280|95]),  
should submit the accreditation request form  
[http://www.itu.int/wsis/participation/accreditation/index.html] to the  
Executive Secretariat by 12 May 2004 at the latest by fax (fax number  
00 41 22 730 63 93) or by mail  
[http://www.itu.int/wsis/contact/index.html].
       Requests submitted after the deadline can be considered only for  
the next WSIS Preparatory Meeting.
       Dates for registration of members of accredited organizations and  
entities will be provided as soon as possible.

* Informal preparatory meeting held in Tunis on 2 and 3 March 2004
       The Tunisian Government, in coordination with ITU, invited the  
members of the new intergovernmental
       PrepCom Bureau, the civil society Bureau, HLSOC (High-Level  
Summit Organizing Committee [http://www.itu.int/wsis/basic/roles.html])  
and CCBI (Coordination Committee of Business Interlocutors  
[http://www.businessatwsis.net/]) to attend an informal preparatory  
meeting in Tunis on 2 and 3 March 2004 for the purpose of launching  
discussions on the structure and mechanisms for the second phase of  
WSIS. Some 100 people took up the invitation and participated in the  
informal discussions on the
       preparatory process for the Tunis phase.
       In the course of the discussions, Tunisia stressed the importance  
of continuity and cohesion between
       the two phases of the Summit, as well as the need to be guided by  
the principle of "digital
       solidarity" with the objective of limiting the digital divide  
between the countries of the North and
       those of the South and of setting up an Action Plan extending,  
beyond the Tunis phase in 2005, to the
       year 2015. Tunisia proposed that the second phase of WSIS should  
be placed under the theme "
       Partnership for sustainable development based on solidarity". See  
the corresponding press release  
[http://www.smsitunis2005.org/plateforme/detail.php?id=207] from the  
Tunisian Government.

* Composition of the new WSIS PrepCom Bureau
       The governments participating in WSIS have agreed on the  
composition of the new Bureau of the
       Preparatory Committee for the Tunis phase. The provisional Bureau  
decided to raise the number of
       countries per region to six. Further to this decision and to  
regional consultations on the matter, the
       five regions designated their representatives to serve in the new  
provisional PrepCom Bureau  
[http://www.itu.int/wsis/preparatory2/bureau.html] for the
       Tunis phase. In its new composition, the provisional WSIS PrepCom  
Bureau met for the first time on 19 March 2004. The composition of the  
PrepCom Bureau for the Tunis phase, as well as its chairmanship, will  
be formally approved during the above mentioned preparatory meeting.

* WSIS fundraising campaign launched
       On 5 April 2004, the ITU Secretary-General launched a fundraising  
campaign for WSIS 2005 to support
       the preparatory process for the Tunis phase of the World Summit  
on the Information Society. The
       campaign marked its first success with a donation of CHF 386 300  
from the Government of Japan. Several
       Member States and other players announced, moreover, that they  
would be supporting WSIS by seconding
       experts to the Executive Secretariat. Costs in respect of the  
preparatory process for the Tunis phase
       are expected to amount to CHF 15 million. The goal of this  
campaign is to raise at least CHF 5
       million, to be paid into the WSIS Special Fund, with the  
remaining amount to be covered by in-kind
       contributions from various partners. For more information, please  
consult the WSIS website [http://www.itu.int/wsis].

* ITU Workshop on Internet Governance. Results
       ITU has just published the detailed Report on the Workshop on  
Internet governance organized on 26 and 27 February 2004 in Geneva,  
together with the Report from President Shyamal Ghosh.
       The Workshop organized by ITU was held as a follow-up to the  
first phase of the World Summit on the
       Information Society (Geneva, 10-12 December). The workshop  
highlighted participants’ views that the
       scope of governance activities should be articulated in a neutral  
and systematic ways and should make
       the difference between "hard" forms of governance, which involve  
laws, regulations or standards, and
       "soft" forms, such as cooperation and coordination. This approach  
would make it possible to map big-
       picture issues such as development of technology for equitable  
and sustainable global development and
       more narrow-focused issues such as the use of common resources  
and the exchange of specific services
       and products between nations. Other key components of governance  
issues that were highlighted included
       information and network security, protection of citizens’ rights  
and consumer interests, support for
       cultural and linguistic diversity, and measures to deal with spam.
       See also the ITU press release  
[http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2004/NP02.html].


* ITU Working Group on WSIS. Results of the fifth meeting
       The fifth meeting of the ITU Council WG-WSIS, open to all Member  
States and Sector Members, took place
       in Geneva on 25 February 2004, in order to discuss the output  
from the Geneva Phase of the Summit, and
       evaluate the possible role ITU could play in the implementation  
of the Declaration and Action Plan,
       and on the organization of the Tunis phase of the Summit.
       Participants noted that in the WSIS Declaration of Principles  
(Para 64), ITU’s core competencies are
       considered of crucial importance for building the Information  
Society, and that some 8 of the 11 key
       principles in the Declaration relate to the mandate of ITU and  
most of them require that ITU play a
       leading role in implementation
       In order to prepare the final report to Council 2004, the sixth  
meeting of the Council WG-WSIS will be
       held at ITU Headquarters in Geneva from 7 to 8 June 2004.
       Further information and meeting documents are available at the  
ITU Council website [ITU Council website].

* ITU-D activities relating to WSIS
       Given the major synergies that exist between the outputs of the  
Geneva Summit and ITU's Istanbul
       Action Plan, the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) is in  
no small way concerned with the
       implementation of the WSIS Action Plan. See the List of BDT  
activities [http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/docs/WSIS_ISAP_2004.doc] planned  
for 2004.


* Global Forum on Internet Governance
       The UN ICT Task Force Global Forum on Internet Governance that  
was held on 25 and 26 March 2004 at United Nations headquarters in New  
York brought together leading players and stakeholders interested in  
Internet
       governance, including United Nations Member States, civil  
society, the private sector and
       intergovernmental organizations, including ITU. The Global Forum,  
organized by the United Nations
       Information and Communication Technologies Task Force, enabled  
the United Nations Secretary-General to
       lay emphasis on the need to create new, inclusive and  
partnership-based models for Internet regulation
       that would allow for the needs of all the peoples of the world to  
be taken into consideration. See the corresponding United Nations press  
release [http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2004/internetpc.doc.htm].

* A Swiss diplomat appointed to head the Internet Governance secretariat
       United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Swiss  
diplomat Mr Markus Kummer to head the
       Internet Governance secretariat. This secretariat is to be  
established in Geneva at the Palais des
       Nations with the task of assisting the Secretary-General in  
setting up the Working Group on Internet
       Governance. The establishment of the working group was decided by  
WSIS in December 2003 in Geneva, the
       participating governments having at that time requested the  
United Nations to set up a working group
       on Internet governance to study, during the run-up to the 2005  
Summit and within the framework of an
       open and inclusive process, issues relating to Internet  
governance, and to formulate proposals with
       regard to the measures to be taken. See the corresponding United  
Nations press release  
[http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10228&Cr=internet&Cr1=].


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With best regards,

WSIS EXECUTIVE SECRETARIAT
HTTP://WWW.ITU.INT/WSIS/