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The beginning of the beginning
From 10 to 12 December 2003 the Geneva phase of the Summit brought together more than 13,000 people. After some
five years of preparations, it fully achieved its goal by adopting the Declaration of Principles and the Plan
of Action. It is the end of a long road which now opens the way to Tunis; in other words "it is the beginning
of the beginning" as the General Secretary of the ITU made a point of stressing on completion of the work,
noting that "the Summit is a process, not a product".
A solid compromise
Through the participation of civil society in WSIS, a major innovation made its mark in the political process
for the first time in the history of the United Nations, stressed the President of the Swiss Confederation,
who chaired phase 1 of WSIS. In his closing speech, Pascal Couchepin also pointed out that Geneva 2003
launched a new political dialogue and a new political concept, that of digital solidarity.
"The Geneva Declaration and the Plan of Action are good documents", said the Swiss chairman of the Summit. We
have reached a solid compromise. The Declaration represents a kind of "constitution" which must include a social
dimension and which must promote development. This constitution is based on the Charter of the United Nations and
the universal Declaration of Human Rights. The right to freedom of thought and expression is its essential component.
The Geneva Declaration shows the path which must be followed to ensure that the information society is accessible
to all and based on the sharing of knowledge. As regards the financing and governance of the internet, a mandate
was entrusted to the UN Secretary-General and these two major topics will be on the agenda for the Tunis Summit,
said President Couchepin.
The contribution of the cities
As a footnote to the World Summit of Cities which had just ended in Lyons, Gérard Collomb, senator and mayor
of Lyons, and Christian Ferrazino, mayor of Geneva, issued a call for close cooperation between the cities and
local authorities of the world to combat the growing divide which separates the cities of the North and those of
the South in terms of access to the information society. They did this before the WSIS delegates, committing themselves
to develop digital solidarity in three areas: development of free software, an increase in programs of decentralized
cooperation and the establishment of a digital solidarity fund.
"With the contributions of the Republic of Senegal and the cities of Geneva and Lyons, this fund is now in excess of
one million euros", said Gérard Collomb. "We not only call upon other cities and local authorities to take part in this
united effort, but we also hope to be joined by many other States, as well as by many companies and members of civil
society." Geneva offered to host the headquarters of this fund.
The second phase
With reference to phase 2 in Tunis, the Plan of Action in fact calls upon the Secretary-General of the UN to set
up a working group to study the governance of the internet within the framework of an open and inclusive process
involving intergovernmental and international organizations as well as the forums concerned, in order make it possible
to formulate proposals on the measures to be taken. As regards financing, the Plan of Action envisages a thorough
examination of the existing mechanisms, which should be concluded before the end of December 2004, by an Action Group,
under the aegis of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The results of this examination will be presented to
the participants at the second phase of the Summit. Finally, a preparatory meeting will be held in the first half of
2004 to consider the questions relating to the information society on which the Tunis phase of WSIS should focus, and
to determine the structure of the process of preparation for the second phase.
wsis-online
An interactive seminar was held during WSIS in the presence of or with the support of representatives of governments,
civil society, the private sector and international organizations. It showed how launching the wsis-online.net platform
will meet the needs of the consultation process for implementing the Plan of Action between the Geneva phase and the
Tunis phase.
For each of the 60 to 70 topics identified by WSIS, the parties involved are now being invited to indicate via the
wsis-online.net platform the working groups or networks which they have already set up or to which they belong, the
events that they are organizing during the period 2004-2005, as well as the key documents or projects which in their
eyes illustrate the different facets of the question.
This abstract process of identifying resources will catalyze the formation of thematic networks and will facilitate
preparation of the second phase of the Summit. Facilitated by a small support group, it is at the service of all
WSIS participants and all members of their networks.
This step was initiated by the host country with the support in particular of Ambassador Daniel Stauffacher, the Swiss
Federal Council's delegate to WSIS, and of Walter Fust, Director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
Link to the site of wsis-online.net
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