[eccr] NGO Consultation on WSIS at Unesco, April 22-23, 2002

This is from UNESCO's website at
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/news/2002/020326_wsis.shtml

New Round for NGO Consultation on the World Summit on the Information
Society 
Organized by UNESCO, ITU

March 26, 2002 - Representatives of more than one hundred and fifty non-
governmental organizations are expected at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on
22 
April 2002 for a two-day consultation on their involvement in the
preparation of the 
World Summit on the information Society (WSIS). The meeting will provide a
platform 
for NGOs to discuss their role and place in the Summit and to formulate
proposals to 
be included in the Summit's Declaration of Principles and the Plan of
Action.

UNESCO's round of consultations with NGOs on the Summit in February 2002,
when 
the Organization organized four consultative meetings. The participants of
all four 
groups wished to meet all together to continue discussions.

In taking up this suggestion, UNESCO organizes, in close cooperation with
the Civil 
Society Division of the WSIS Executive Secretariat in Geneva, a fifth
meeting in April 
2002 enlarging the number of NGOs involved in order to allow for a more
general 
discussion on the aim of the Summit and the way NGOs wish to be involved in
its 
preparation. 

The April meeting will have two main items of its agenda: first the
discussion of the role
and place of NGOs and Civil Society in the preparation and the holding of
the Summit 
and second, the formulation of proposals to be included in the Declaration
of Principles 
and the Plan of Action to be adopted by the Summit.

Under the first item, participants will discuss the possibilities of their
organizations to 
ensure that their concerns are reflected in the agenda of the Summit and how
they can 
concretely participate in the work of the Summit. Under the second item, the
participants will be requested to formulate, on behalf of the professional
communities 
which they represent, a set of proposals to be included in the Declaration
of Principles 
and the Plan of Action that the WSIS is expected to adopt. These proposals
will be 
consolidated by UNESCO and forwarded to the WSIS organizers.

The results of the consultative meeting will be transmitted to the first
session of the 
WSIS Preparatory Committee (PrepCom I, Geneva, 1-5 July 2002), which is
expected 
to set the rules and framework of the Summit, to consider its agenda, themes
and 
substance, as well as to determine the modalities of participation of
stakeholders.

In order to develop a common vision of the information society, the United
Nations 
system, under ITU's leadership, is organizing the World Summit on the
Information 
Society (WSIS) that will take place in December 2003 in Geneva (Switzerland)
and in 
2005 in Tunis (Tunisia).

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