UNITeS, UN Volunteers and the WSIS

UN Volunteers is taking an active role in prepatory meetings for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to take place December 10 - 12 in Geneva, Switzerland and again in 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia. The UNITeS team at UN Volunteers is closely supporting the organization´s involvement in the Summit process.

The contribution of UNV to the WSIS prepatory meetings centers around promoting the involvement of volunteers as essential to the successful achievement of fair and inclusive information societies. UNV was represented at both the Prepcom meeting in Geneva in February 2003, the Prepcom meeting in Paris in July 2003, and various regional WSIS meetings. The main objective of the official Prepcom meetings was to begin consideration of a draft Declaration of Principles and Action Plan, to be submitted eventually for the approval of Heads of State attending the Summit in December 2003.

UNV and UNITeS are also taking a leadership role in the WSIS working group "Volunteering and new technologies," which is composed of various key volunteering organizations, including CIVICUS, European Volunteer Centre (CEV), International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE), International Conference Volunteers (ICVolunteers), and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The working group brought forward suggestions to "integrate the language of volunteering" into both the final Declaration of Principles and the Action Plan of the WSIS. The suggestions of the Volunteer working group will be integrated with the WSIS’ Civil Society (CS) Bureau that facilitates civil society’s participation in the Summit.

The WSIS Civil Society Bureau also established a group called Volunteer Family in an attempt to bring together organizations working with information technology and with volunteers to provide input volunteers’ input to the Summit. It is one of the many "families" the Civil Society Bureau created to incorporate the various issues from different sectors. At the WSIS intersessional meetings in July 2003 in Paris, a "civil society priorities document" was presented, highlighting the importance of communication rights.

UNV and UNITeS will be represented at the first WSIS, December 10 - 12 in Geneva, as part of various events and with a display and information at the summit. The WSIS section of the UNITeS web site will feature updates about our participation.

More information about UNITeS, UNV and the WSIS