World Summit on the Information Society

World Summit on the Information Society (French Sommet Mondial sur la Société de l' Information, Eng. World Summit on the Information Society) is sponsored by the United Nations World Summit on the topics of information and communication. He was carried out following a decision by the United Nations of the International Telecommunication Union ( ITU) and consisted of two parts.

The first part took place from 10th to 12th December 2003 in Geneva ( Switzerland ) instead and had about 12,000 visitors. The second part of 16 to 18 November 2005 in Tunis (Tunisia), about 17,000 delegates came from 175 countries.

Discussion topics

  • Common understanding of the information society
  • Ways to reduce the digital divide, especially between developed and developing countries, but also between rich and poor, between genders and between generations. Construction and financing of the technical infrastructure
  • Port authorities, hospitals, schools and other institutions of modern communication networks.
  • Construction and expansion of universal and equal access to information and knowledge

See also: World Information Order

Procedure and results

2002 and 2003

Preparations for the first part: International conferences was discussed on the practical implementation and content. Originally three committee (PrepCom 1 to 3) were planned, but as no agreement could be reached on whether the first part is to deliver concrete results in the form of a final document, found three additional conferences were held, with the agreement at the last emergency meeting only 19 hours before the summit beginning came about. In addition, regional preparatory conferences were organized: an African in Bamako, a pan-European in Bucharest, an eastern and a western Asian as well as a Latin American.

Geneva, 10 to 12 December 2003

The first part of the WSIS took place in Geneva. Here are the results of the first phase of the preparations were discussed and adopted two main documents:

  • Geneva Declaration of Principles ( Geneva Declaration of Principles )
  • Geneva Plan of Action ( Geneva Plan of Action )

2004 and 2005

Two subjects were excluded in Geneva, because they could not agree in the preliminary negotiations. These were the topics Internet governance and financing. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan was asked to set up two working groups should work out these issues and submit its report to the second part of the summit. Thereupon, the

  • Working Group on Internet Governance ( WGIG ) and the
  • Task Force on Financing Mechanisms ( TFFM )

Established that submitted their reports in the summer of 2005.

Tunis 16 to 18 November 2005

The second part took place in Tunis. There, the resolutions were confirmed from the first part and there were two other statements adopted:

  • Tunis Commitment ( Tunis Commitment )
  • Tunis Agenda for the Information Society ( Tunis Agenda for the Information Society).

A mandatory funding model to overcome the digital divide in terms of a Digital Solidarity Fund has been rejected by most states. Shortly before the official start of the summit, the participating States agreed on a compromise solution with regard to the future of Internet governance. Accordingly, the supervisory role of the United States over ICANN was not touched, but it is establishing an international Internet Governance Forum ( IGF), which is to discuss all matters of relevance to Internet governance, which are taken by other bodies.

The summit in Tunis was accompanied by attacks by the security forces on critical journalists, as well as organizers of parallel events.

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