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The World Summit on the Information Society is being held under the patronage of Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) and is being organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN specialized agency for telecommunications. This was stated by Dr A Moyeen Khan, MP, Minister for Science & Information & Communication Technology Minister who returned from Geneva after the recently concluded session of the PrepCom3 after hectic discussion on the 2 Documents related to Declaration of Principles and Programme of Action (PoA) to be adopted by the Heads of States and Heads of Governments at the Geneva Summit on WSIS. Dr Khan however said that unlike in Cancun, the environment in Geneva was that of an converging Dialogue rather than a diverging one, and that significant progress had been made in the weeklong meeting although there were stiff differences of opinion between the North and the South countries, the tough negotiations continuing until almost midnight every night in the Working Committee 2 as well as in the open ended group meetings. Dr Khan cautioned however saying that the Developed countries seems extremely reluctant on contribution to the “Solidarity Fund”, and actually suggested that the phrase be re-designated as the “Solidarity Agenda”.
The mood amongst the Developing countries were high, even suggesting that we should go alone in building our own infrastructure if the rich countries are not prepared to extend their support in respect of promotion of ICT in poorer countries of the world. Dr Khan further said that Honourable Prime Minister begum Khaleda Zia had been invited to address the Summit on the 11th of December where she is expected to highlight the recent advances of the ICT Sector in Bangladesh during her government.
The Third Resumed Session of the Preparatory Committee met in Geneva from 10 to 14 November 2003 to bring countries' positions closer on a Declaration and Action Plan to build an Information Society for the benefit of humanity to be tabled for endorsement by Heads of States and Governments next month. The draft Declaration of Principles articulates a common vision of the key values that should serve as the foundation for the emerging Information Society. The draft Plan of Action sets out time-bound development targets aimed at extending access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) to all.
WORK IN PROGRESS
There has been considerable progress in substance on the items below but agreed language to encapsulate the spirit of the agreement is yet to be fully crafted. In a number of cases, this boils down to only a few words or parts of sentences in an entire paragraph or series of paragraphs.
Ċ Intellectual Property (striking a balance between ensuring freedom of access to information, and protecting and stimulating innovation).
Ċ Ethical dimensions (call on all actors to prevent abusive uses of ICTs, such as racism, intolerance, hatred, violence, pornography and child abuse).
Ċ Connectivity (infrastructure development to expand access to ICTs for all people everywhere).
ISSUES YET TO BE RESOLVED
Finally, there are issues that require further negotiations and where consultation and negotiation is to take place in the period leading to a final meeting of PrepCom on 5 and 6 December. This final round of negotiations will be facilitated by the host country, Switzerland. These issues are:
Ċ Security. This encompasses privacy, consumer protection and protection of data including the control of spam as well as integrity and protection of networks.
ƒä Internet governance ¡X the role of all stakeholders in the management of the Internet at both the technical and public policy levels and the balance between them.
Ċ Financing of ICT for development : Digital Solidarity Agenda (that puts the conditions for mobilizing financial and technological resources for improved ICT access) and Digital Solidarity Fund (to channel financing to ICT for development. A consensus is emerging on the need to undertake a thorough review of the existing funding mechanisms to take account of the imperatives of the information society with the possible creation of a Digital Solidarity Fund to be created if needed based on the results of this review.)
ƒä Role of media and human rights issues ¡X the importance of the role of media in the Information Society including whether the media should be considered as a separate stakeholder and whether references to the freedom of expression and opinion embodied in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) should be linked those of Article 29 of the UDHR on the duties to the community and to the limitation of one¡¦s rights and obligations in relation to the rights and freedom of others.
THE ROAD AHEAD
The PrepCom will reconvene, at a high-level, on 5-6 December with consultations to be undertaken by the Host Country in the interim.
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A K Zaman
Hello, This is Md. Akteruzzaman, you can simply call me "zaman". I involve in Bangladesh as Multimedia Professional and also work with youth community of Bangladesh. Currently I am running a TIG projects "Bangladesh Youth Forum" as Founder President.I also selected grand jury of world wide UN World Summit Award (on e-content & Creativity) www.wsis-award.org Besides I am the president of Bangladesh Multimedia Association (BMA) www.bmabd.org and also involved with ICT media (Tutorial & Feature writer) in Bangladesh. On 2001, I first introduced multimedia digital magazine in Bangladesh. Now I am working for ICT4D and as a multimedia consultant I am working with several national and international projects. And will happy...if I can contribute any project required multimedia consultancy specially related to TIG or youth. After attending WSIS Geneva event, I start Bangladesh Youth Forum to represent Bangladeshi Youth Globally.We alreay enlisted 2000 youth member and hosting many youth activities locally. I attend and speak several international eventsincluding UN WSIS Phase I, Global ICT Summit, International Youth Summit etc.
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