Bonjour,

On en avait entendu parler, mais le texte sur sa création n’avait guère circulé. Je vous le reproduis ci-dessous. Ce texte a été envoyé sur la liste de la société civile par nos amis allemands.

Bruno Oudet

Group of the Friends of the Chair

Outline of composition of group and planned activities

Composition

  The Chair, in close consultations with regional groups, would nominate up to 4 delegations per region. Not more than half of the nominees would be simultaneously members of the Bureau. Rotation of the members of the group would be allowed in reasonable proportions.

  Coordinators would be invited to join the group in order to insure an interface with other members of the regional group.

  Each member of the group would have a place at the table and would act in his/her national capacity. Regional coordinators would have a place at the table and, apart from their national positions, they would flag the majority views of their respective groups.

  Each member of the group would be entitled to bring another person who would be granted a seat behind a member of the group.

  The WSIS ES would be present at the table and would provide technical and logistical support. An UN ICT Task Force representative would consult the group on the use of UN legal language while drafting the text.

  Representatives of civil society and business community would be invited to participate

The final composition of the GFC will be announced in (approved by) the Bureau.

Tentative schedule of activities

  The group would be convened at the end of October to discuss the structure and outline of the Final Document(s).

  By mid-November, the members would be asked to submit drafting suggestions for the political part of the document, as well as proposals on implementation mechanism.

  In function of the appearance of other relevant documents (final documents of WSIS regional, thematic and other related meetings), as well as the Report of the TFFM, appropriate elements would be examined and possibly incorporated in the draft text.

  The group would break for the end of the year holidays from December 22 until January 5.

  The group would finish drafting on January 14 and translations of the draft document would be made into other UN languages. The draft document would then be posted on the WSIS ES website on January 20 (4 weeks prior the second prepcom).

Other provisions

  The group would work in English only.

  The group, in principle, would work in the Palais des Nations (Chair would make necessary reservations).

  The results would be submitted to the second prepcom as the Chair’s proposal and would serve as a basis for negotiations.

Draft: 31.08.2004