14 January 2003

Report from Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, Isis International-Manila

Just when NGOs participating in the Asian Regional Meeting for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) currently being held in Tokyo thought they had scored a landmark victory for getting two seats in the Drafting Committee of this intergovernmental meeting, government delegates from China, India, and Iran, questioned their representation in this important committee.

The questions raised by the government representatives led to a number of changes including the decision to reduce the status of the Drafting Committee from that of being in-charge of preparing the Tokyo Declaration, the official outcome document of the meeting, to that of an Informal Consultation Group (ICG) that will be responsible for preparing the non-paper on substantive issues.

NGOs attending this meeting expressed disappointment with this development. Robert Francis Garcia, representative of the Asia-South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE) believes that the Tokyo Declaration lost its force. It just goes to show how countries with very strong political leverage can dilute the impact of the outcomes of an important meeting. These countries can also sway otherwise independent-minded government representatives.

The other change that resulted from the governments' deliberation on the representation of NGOs is the inclusion of representatives of the governments of Iran, India and China in the ICG.

At yesterday's opening of this intergovernmental meeting, Arthur Levin, Deputy Executive Director of the WSIS Executive Secretariat, was asked to explain the rules and procedures in terms of NGO participation. He informed the body that the African Regional Meeting and the Pan-European Meeting that were held in May and November 2002 respectively, did not observe the rules of procedure followed in the Preparatory Committee Meetings for the WSIS. Levinâ's reply was interpreted as leaving the discretion regarding NGO participation to the organisers of the meeting, that is the Japanese government and its co-organisers. However, the Chinese government delegation invoked the UN ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) provision that states that: while accredited NGOs are allowed to participate in intergovernmental processes, the decision lies on the participating governments and not on the organisers.

The Drafting Committee or the Informal Consultation Group is composed of representatives from participating countries such as Australia, China, India, Iran, Japan, and Malaysia; and international organisations including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations University; and two civil society representatives Izumi Aizu of the Center for Global Communication (Glocom) and Jaba Menon of One World-South Asia. The ICG is chaired by Seiji Morimoto, Deputy Director-General of the Multilateral Cooperation Department of Japanâ's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The draft declaration will be deliberated on in today's open meeting wherein NGOs will have their final chance to lobby for their inputs into this non-paper.