There is agreement on the idea of drawing up an
"alternative declaration" or "civil society statement",
based on the wealth of proposals and content we have
produced over the past year. The following is a
proposal for how this could be produced, as discussed in
a first working group meeting on Friday. It will be
presented to the CT group for further discussion.
Comments from outside are welcome.

Criteria:

The document will draw on and enrich the content produced
by civil society in the WSIS process, with the different
consensus documents as a basis, but also drawing on
caucus documents and other input.

It will attempt to reflect an overall consensus position,
rather than a juxta position of diverse input on
different issues, which will require further debate on
some issues. Where consensus is hard to reach, it may
not be forced, but reference could be made (inside or
outside the main text) to "challenges" that will need
further debate in the next phase of the WSIS process.

The document will not try to mimic the structure of the
official declaration nor will be a comment on it as such
(although reference can be made). It will state the
issues as civil society envisions them.

The document will be conceived as both a contribution to
the debate within the WSIS process and for raising
awareness on the issues among a broader group of
organizations and individuals. It must therefore help
to frame the issues and use lay language.

Length will not necessarily be restricted, though if
appropriate a summarized version could also be produced.

Drafting Process:

A compilation is being made of previous civil society
consensus documents, which will also be summarized in an
index of themes. A working group has been set up
(participation is open to others, including those not in
Geneva) that will first discuss the structure of the
document (using the index as a basis). Sections will
then be assigned to different people and a first draft
will be produced this week (as far as possible) based on
our previous documents. Towards the end of the week a
meeting will be held to read the first draft, suggest
how to edit and identify potentially difficult issues.
Hopefully there will be time for a first debate on these
issues this week.

Work will continue on-line with two successive versions
being circulated for input and a final version for
endorsements before December.

We will need to see how to resolve the question of
translation for the consultation process and of the
final document, and printing costs.

September 20