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Preparatory Committee The General Assembly of the
United Nations on 21 December 2001 adopted Resolution 56/183
concerning the organization of a World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS). That Resolution recommended creating an
intergovernmental Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), which would
be responsible for the preparations for WSIS. Its tasks would
include drawing up an agenda for the Summit, finalizing a draft
declaration and a draft action plan, and deciding on the
arrangements for participation by other stakeholders.
President of PrepCom
The first session of the Preparatory
Committee, convened by the Secretary-General of the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) from 1 to 5 July
2002 in Geneva, elected
Mr. Adama Samassékou, former Minister of Education of Mali, as
President of the Preparatory Committee for the Geneva phase of
WSIS. Mr Samassékou made it his mission to ensure that
information and communication technologies “be put into the
service of all people, regardless of language, culture, gender
or geographic location.”
For the Tunis Phase of the Summit, the Preparatory
Meeting that took place in Hammamet (Tunisia) from 24-26 June
2004, elected Ambassador
Janis Karklins, from Latvia, President of PrepCom.
Bureau
Furthermore, at its first session in July 2002, PrepCom elected
one President and fourteen Vice-Presidents (three
representatives from each of the UNGA regions), and two more
ex-officio from the host countries, Switzerland and Tunisia).
Together with Committee President Adama Samassékou, they
constituted the Bureau of PrepCom for the first phase of WSIS
with the mandate to give guidance to the Preparatory Committee
on procedural matters. The Bureau members were drawn from the
following countries: Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Dominican
Republic, Finland, France, Japan, Latvia, Libya, Mali, Mexico,
Pakistan, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland,
Tunisia, and United States of America.
For the Tunis phase, governments agreed on the composition of a
new Bureau and to raise the number of countries per region to
six. The following 32 countries constituted the Bureau of the
Tunis phase of the Summit:
- Asia Region: Bangladesh, China, Japan, Pakistan,
Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia
- Latin America and Caribbean Region: Argentina,
Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela
- Africa Region: Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Senegal,
Zambia
- Western Europe and North America Region: Canada,
France, Greece, Norway, Spain, United States
- Eastern Europe Region: Armenia, Belarus, Hungary,
Latvia, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro
- Ex-officio members (host countries): Switzerland and
Tunisia
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