Re: [Advisors] Re: [wsis20] Open for Endorsement – Joint Letter on Operationalising WSIS+20 Modalities
by Marita Moll
Thanks Garth, James and Chris for your positive responses. Still
waiting for a few more responses. I will wait till Saturday 22 to sign on.
Marita
On 2025-03-20 2:41 p.m., Garth Graham wrote:
> While it looks to me like this is an attempt to move the needle on the public participation spectrum from “involve” to “collaborate” that’s better than nothing. Nation States will never allow participation at the level of “decide.”
>
> GG
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>> On Mar 18, 2025, at 4:04 PM, Marita Moll <mmoll(a)ca.inter.net> wrote:
>>
>> Hello advisors. I am seeking your advice about add TC to the organizations endorsing this letter which is seeking a much more open process for the negotiations which will are about to commence:
>> [JOINT LETTER] Operationalising WSIS+20 Modalities_Draft March 13 - Google Docs
>> The goal of this document is to provide concise, principles-based, and practical recommendations to support an inclusive WSIS+20 review process. It is intended for key stakeholders responsible for operationalizing the modalities resolution, including the co-facilitators, the President of the General Assembly, and staff at UN DESA, who serve as the acting Secretariat. A tailored cover note will accompany the document to ensure clarity for different audiences.
>> DEADLINE FOR ENDORSEMENT: March 24
>> Marita
>>
>
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3 months, 2 weeks
Fwd: Fwd: [wsis20] Open for Endorsement – Joint Letter on Operationalising WSIS+20 Modalities
by Marita Moll
Hello advisors. I am seeking your advice about add TC to the
organizations endorsing this letter which is seeking a much more open
process for the negotiations which will are about to commence:
[JOINT LETTER] Operationalising WSIS+20 Modalities_Draft March 13 -
Google Docs
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MSxPHLqC18M5-u7H_1vNHMU_ls0fKFZ0_upZ1...>
The goal of this document is to provide *concise, principles-based, and
practical recommendations* to support an inclusive WSIS+20 review
process. It is intended for key stakeholders responsible for
operationalizing the modalities resolution, including the
*co-facilitators, the President of the General Assembly, and staff at UN
DESA*, who serve as the acting Secretariat. A tailored cover note will
accompany the document to ensure clarity for different audiences.
DEADLINE FOR ENDORSEMENT: March 24
Marita
More information about this activity in e-mail below:
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [wsis20] Open for Endorsement – Joint Letter on
Operationalising WSIS+20 Modalities
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2025 21:34:33 +0100
From: Lea Kaspar via wsis20 <wsis20(a)icann.org>
Reply-To: Lea Kaspar <lea(a)gp-digital.org>
To: ICANN wsis20 <wsis20(a)icann.org>
/[apologies for cross-posting]/
Hi everyone,
Following up on Jordan’s message (thank you, Jordan, for sharing this
initiative with the community), I want to extend my gratitude to all who
have provided valuable feedback and to those who have already endorsed
the document.
A few of us have worked to consolidate the input received, and you can
find the revised version [here
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MSxPHLqC18M5-u7H_1vNHMU_ls0fKFZ0_upZ1...>].
Below my signature, you’ll find an overview of the key changes.
*Next steps:*
* The letter is now open for endorsement until *Monday, 24 March*.
* *Publication is planned for Wednesday, 26 March, at noon UTC.*
* At this stage, we are seeking *endorsements rather than further
edits*. Any support in gathering endorsements by 24 March would be
greatly appreciated.
* After the endorsement period closes, we will circulate the final
version with the full list of endorsers, which can then be shared
publicly.
The goal of this document remains to provide *concise, principles-based,
and practical recommendations* to support an inclusive WSIS+20 review
process. It is intended for key stakeholders responsible for
operationalizing the modalities resolution, including the
*co-facilitators, the President of the General Assembly, and staff at UN
DESA*, who serve as the acting Secretariat. A tailored cover note will
accompany the document to ensure clarity for different audiences.
Thank you once again for your contributions—your insights have been
invaluable. I believe we now have a strong and practical document that
will be useful for the co-facilitators, DESA, and the PGA at this
critical stage of WSIS+20.
Best wishes,
Lea
---
*Summary of Key Changes Based on Community Input Received March 12-15*
_Level of Detail_
* To keep the document concise and practical for the intended audience
we did not include some detailed suggestions including explaining
the importance of principles of multistakeholderism, proposing
pre-review workshops on WSIS, and a list of different forums that
stakeholders should be included from.
* We did not include the suggestion for stakeholders to be given
speaking opportunities at the High-Level Meeting (HLM) as this is
already covered in the draft WSIS+20 modalities resolution (expected
to be adopted on 25th March).
* We opted not to include a suggestion to set up a MS oversight
mechanism to implement these modalities (this was suggested both in
the doc and separately on a few channels) as it was not feasible to
ascertain community support for this proposal in such a short
timeframe - _we encourage this is explored further, potentially via
this list or the IGF MAG_
_Transparency & Accountability_
* We renamed the section from “Transparency and Accessibility” to
“Transparency and Accountability” to better separate comments about
improving accessibility and comments on improving accountability and
to allow for more detailed discussion of accessibility in 3
incorporating some of the suggestions made.
* Comments including a request to ‘listen’ to intergovernmental
negotiations, have reports on discussions, to improve accountability
are already reflected in 2.
* We reinforced the request for live-streaming intergovernmental
negotiations by citing a precedent: the UN Convention on Cybercrime
(UNCC), which has done this before.
_Consultation Processes_
* The aim is to suggest that consultations must happen throughout the
process in a manner which supports equal participation virtually and
in-person at different forums - there were several suggested edits
we tried to address or felt were already reflected.
* We clarified that timelines for consultations should be updated in
good time to allow for meaningful stakeholder input.
* 3a was updated to explicitly state that governments and other
stakeholder groups should have equal participation rules, including
for submission procedures, to clarify language.
* The document now states that co-facilitators and DESA should
encourage national-level consultations and leverage existing events
for consultations to respond to a couple of comments.
_Inclusion & Accessibility_
* We moved all accessibility-related recommendations into one section
(Section 4) to consolidate points about:
o Time zones – ensuring scheduling accounts for non-working days
in different regions.
o Digital formats – allowing low-bandwidth options for participation.
o Languages – making key documents available in UN languages.
o We did not include some very specific suggestions on improving
accessibility (such as holding pre-review educational workshops)
to keep the document practical and focused on the current timeframe.
o We aimed to make it clear that this is not a comprehensive list
of ways to improve accessibility.
_Accreditation_
* Instead of listing multiple past forums, we chose to say that the
WSIS+20 should build on the WSIS+10 accreditation process, which
took into account ECOSOC accredited organisations and participation
in previous WSIS events as part of its eligibility criteria.
* To further broaden the group of eligible stakeholders, we’ve
recommended including participation in the IGF as part of the
accreditation criteria, as the most inclusive reference point for
accreditation.
---
3 months, 2 weeks