WSIS Civil Society Statement on WSIS: "Much more could have been achieved" (December 2005)

Civil Society entered the
Tunis Phase of WSIS with these major goals:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·
<!--[endif]-->Agreement on financing
mechanisms and models that will close the growing gaps in access to information
and communication tools, capacities and infrastructure that exist between
countries, and in many cases within countries and that will enable
opportunities for effective ICT uses.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·
<!--[endif]-->Agreement on a
substantively broad and procedurally inclusive approach to Internet governance,
the reform of existing governance mechanisms in accordance with the Geneva
principles, and the creation of a new forum to promote multi-stakeholder
dialogue, analysis, trend monitoring, and capacity building in the field of Internet
governance.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·
<!--[endif]-->Ensuring that our human-centred
vision of the ‘Information Society’, framed by a global commitment to human
rights, social justice and inclusive and sustainable development, is present
throughout the implementation phase.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·
<!--[endif]-->Achieving a change of
tide in perceptions and practices of participatory decision-making. We saw the
WSIS as a milestone from which the voluntary and transparent participation of Civil
Society would become more comprehensive and integrated at local, national,
regional and global levels of governance and decision making.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·
<!--[endif]-->Agreement on strong
commitment to the centrality of human rights, especially the right to access
and impart information and to individual privacy.

Civil Society affirms
that, facing very limited resources, it has contributed positively to the WSIS
process, a contribution that could have been even greater had the opportunity
been made available for an even more comprehensive participation on our part. Our
contribution will continue beyond the Summit.
It is a contribution that is made both through constructive engagement and
through challenge and critique.

While we value the
process and the outcomes, we are convinced much more could have been achieved. We
have taken a month after the closure of the Tunis Summit to discuss the
outcomes and the process of WSIS. We built on our Geneva 2003 Civil Society Summit
Declaration “Shaping Information Societies for Human Needs”, and we evaluated
the experiences and lessons learned in the four years of WSIS I and WSIS II.
This statement was developed in a global online consultation process. It is
presented as Civil Society’s official contribution to the Summit outcomes. (see weblink for entire statement-pdf download)