At the second Preparatory Committee (or Prepcom) of phase 2 of the World Summit on the Information Society, taking place in Geneva February 17-25, the different civil society thematic caucuses are developing content in response to a new phase of governmental negotiations on the Summit documents. The documents to come out of the official process in Tunis next November include, among others, a political umbrella statement (known as the political chapeau), and an operational chapter, intended to lay out the mechanisms and organizational responsibilities, to ensure follow-up and implementation of the agreements from the 1st phase of WSIS, concluded in Geneva at the end of 2003. Two issues will receive special attention: financing mechanisms for ICT and development, and ICT global governance, on both of which, multistakeholder working groups were set up last year. As the first Prepcom of this phase of the Summit, held last June in Tunis, was largely taken up by the polemics around the human rights situation in the host country, - a theme that is still very present- most of civil society has only now, during these last few days in Geneva, begun to reorganize around content issues, through the dozen or more thematic caucuses that have reconvened here. There has not, for the moment, been an attempt to consolidate common positions overall, which was one of the strengths of phase 1, where civil society produced a number of consensus statements and a final declaration. On the other hand, the results of phase one are clearly visible in terms of the greater openness of the official intergovernmental process to receive and consider civil society input. Many government delegations have actually been requesting civil society contributions to improve quality of the documents, the first drafts of which are extremely vague and general. In these circumstances, it makes sense to give priority to developing the input and getting it to governments in time. Broader consensus is likely to be needed further down the line as it becomes evident what the critical issues and areas of blockage are. Among the proposals that have been taken up for consideration in the official documents (still under discussion tonight), are those on financing put forward by the CRIS campaign jointly with other organizations. These are based on the principles: that information and communications and networks are a global public good, -in particular the extension of network infrastructure in developing countries and to all excluded populations everywhere-; the centrality of the role of public finance in the area of Information and Communications for Development; and the role of community driven and owned initiatives, in contributing to sustainable development and social empowerment. The group has put forward a proposal for the formation of a Global ICD Policy and Financing Facility, designed to: -assist developing countries utilise existing financial mechanisms for ICD more effectively -provide policy information, advice and capacity building to developing countries without conditionality -explore new financial mechanisms to support ICD; mechanisms that avoid diversion of existing funds (e.g. ODA). Such mechanisms could consist of a global tax, voluntary or compulsory, and contributions from commercial internet domain name holders. Tunisia under observation: Tunisia was again on the civil society agenda today, when the freedom of expression network, IFEX, presented a report on its recent fact-finding mission to Tunisia. The results contained in a report of almost 60 pages can be found on the IFEX website (see www.ifex.org) The main findings of the mission include: - Imprisonment of individuals related to their opinions or media activities. - Blocking of websites and police surveillance of e-mails and Internet cafes. - Restrictions on distribution of books and publications. - Restrictions on the freedom of association. - Restricted movement of human rights defenders and political dissidents. - Lack of pluralism in broadcast ownership. - Press censorship and lack of diversity of content in newspapers. - Regular use of torture by the security services. The mission has made several recommendations to the Tunisian authorities. The paradox of holding a Summit on the Information Society in a country where several young people are serving 13-year prison sentences, under anti- terrorist measures, for simply surfing the Internet, was underlined. Tunisian human rights defenders welcome the Summit being held in Tunisia, however, as an opportunity to bring these issues to international attention. Concerns about the conditions in Tunisia were also brought up in an exchange this morning at the civil society plenary, with the head of the WSIS Executive Secretariat, Charles Geiger. Geiger responded to allegations that some NGOs had been denied accreditation, by clarifying that all those rejected or postponed were due either to their not being legal entities, or to having presented incomplete documentation. He declined, however, to comment on the fact that a number of Tunisian associations are unable to register legally. He guaranteed that all organizations accredited to the conference would be allowed visas to enter the country. He also informed that all accredited participants will have immunities and privileges, as set out in the host country agreement. While government delegations have specific privileges and immunities that are part of international law, for civil society and the private sector, ad hoc "functional immunity" will apply, although these apply differently on the UN conference facilities or in Tunis proper. Geiger admitted that there could be some ambiguity as to what is considered UN territory. * Sally Burch, ALAI/CRIS February 22 2005