ICT Development Agenda

UN : Prepcom-3 Reconvenes on 5 - 6 December 2003 to Forge WSIS Outputs

Switzerland

01 December 2003

Delegates of the third Preparatory Conference (PrepCom-3) of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) will reconvene for a second time this weekend in Geneva (Switzerland) from 5 – 6 December 2003 to finalise negotiations ahead of the first stage of the WSIS which will be held from 10 – 12 December 2003. At PrepCom-3 held in Geneva from 15 - 26 September 2003, delegates were not able to agree on the final drafts of the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action that will be adopted by the Summit. At the suspension of the meeting, it was decided to reconvene the meeting on two occasions, both between 10 – 14 November 2003 and also on the eve of WSIS, originally scheduled for 7 – 9 December 2003.

At the first of these reconvened sessions, held from 10 – 14 November 2003, the key outcome was the publication of a revised version of the Declaration and Action Plan on 14 November (available at http://www.itu.int/wsis/preparatory/prepcom/pc3/index.html).

The search for consensus among all stakeholders on the precise wording of these documents has continued since Prepcom-2 held in February 2003 (see UN: Outcomes of WSIS Prepcom-2: Nearly, but not quite An Information Society for All), through the intersessional meeting held in Paris (France) during July 2003 (see UN: Intersessional WSIS Meeting Revises Draft Declaration of Principles and Action Plan), and a real sense of urgency developed during Prepcom-3 to find agreement before the first phase of the WSIS begins in December 2003 (see also UN: WSIS Prepcom 3: The Need for Political Will, and to Build Consensus Amongst All Stakeholders).