[Chapter-delegates] [Fwd: [picisoc] Re-WSIS exclusion]

[Franck Martin]

FYI,

I'm interested to get comments on this situation at WSIS. Any other 
experiences like this?

Cheers


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[picisoc] Re-WSIS exclusion
Date: 	Fri, 28 Oct 2005 02:26:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: 	'Apisake Soakai <apisake_soakai at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: 	Pacific Islands Chapter of ISOC <picisoc at lyris.spc.int>
To: 	Pacific Islands Chapter of ISOC <picisoc at lyris.spc.int>
CC: 	wsis pacific <wsis-pacific at list.sopac.org.fj>



Franck 

After witnessing other non-government delegates being
kicked out on Monday and Tuesday I decided to save
myself the humiliation and embarrassment of being
evicted like the others by moving upstairs to the
public gallery (which had its own story). 

Apparently at the briefing with the President of
PrepCom (which I missed) after Tuesday's incident ,
non-government delegations were told they should not
be seen upstairs at the public gallery at all. Members
of the Intercessional committee will be very upset if
they found out non government delegations were lurking
around. 

President told the group if they wished to listen in
to the debate from public gallery he will turn a blind
eye so long as heads are not popping up when & where
they should not be. 

Most decided to continue with daily occupation of the
public gallery to follow the negotiation. So to be
invisible we had to sit on the floor and walking into
the public gallery we almost have to crawl in. 

The whole notion of sneaking into the gallery, keeping
heads down, listening through the headphones in
silence to the discussion downstairs is the sort of
stuff spy movies are made of. But in this case there
is no secret - documents are not classified, members
of the committee are not secret agents etc etc. There
is just no logic to exclusions of other stakeholders
from this event.  

I find it hypocritical that badges are issued to non
government delegations when there is no intention of
letting them Observe quietly at the back. And what is
wrong with following an open discussion? I wish this
whole issue of issuing badges to non government
delegations to keep up appearances should stop - its
double standard. 

This week's experience is a first for me and I often
wonder if this is normal in every other UN global
event or just WSIS process. I fail to appreciate the
logic for locking out other stakeholders in this
Intercessional meeting. It makes no sense at all.   

It seems that civil society has been pushed around too
much in the process that they have decided not to take
it anymore. Some groups have annouced their departure
from the WSIS process and will host a Citizens' summit
in Tunis for civil society. 

Whether the Tunisian authority will allow this summit
to take place is another question. Check out
www.worldsummit2005.com for more details on CSIS
event. 

It is interesting to witness that even at the global
level, principles of democracy, transparency,
multistakeholder participation, cannot be applied and
we are bombarded regularly with such rhetorics from
our global leaders?  

Apart from me (wearing ISOC/PICISOC/WSIS-pacific hat)
other non government delegations were reps of CCBI,
CONGO, Pan Pacific & SE Asia Women Assoc
(PPSEAWA)-Geneva based, ISOC/PICISOC/WSIS, and a few
others I am not sure of. 

One other Pacific Islander in the Intercessional this
week was Mr. James Naich, Deputy Chief of Mission,
Embassy of FSM in NY. 

Cheers. 

'Apisake. 


	
		
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-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Franck Martin
franck at sopac.org
"Toute connaissance est une réponse à une question"
G. Bachelard

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