After the second phase of the World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
ended in Tunis on 18. November 2005 and
the follow up and implementation process
on its way it is time to assess the
progress made by the Indigenous Peoples
during the WSIS process 2002-2005.
Thanks to continuous involvement by the
Indigenous Caucus in the WSIS much was
gained during the past three years.
The WSIS process for
establishing foundations for
Information Society for all was
launched in 2002. From the
beginning the WSIS process aimed
at establishing an innovative
multistakeholder approach to
negotiations. In order to work
efficiently in this rather new
environment the civil society,
being one of the four main WSIS
stakeholders besides private
sector, governments and
international organisations,
decided to organize itself into
thematic caucuses. Thematic
caucuses were an efficient way
to facilitate the work of the
vastly heterogenous groupings
the civil society consists of.
One of the new caucuses that
sprang to life was the
Indigenous Caucus established
and headed by Indigenous Media
Network members Ann-Kristin
Håkansson (Saami) and Kenneth
Deer (Mohawk). They and later
other Indigenous representatives
taking part in the work of the
caucus were able to participate
in the entire WSIS process as a
result of the project Indigenous
Peoples at the World Summit on
the Information Society financed
by Swiss Agency for Development
and Cooperation (SDC) and
co-ordinated by Indigenous Media
Network and Swiss based human
rights organization Incomindios
Switzerland.
The Indigenous Caucus was
working for the recognition of
the special situation of
Indigenous Peoples in the
Information Society for three
years by attending the two WSIS
Summits, almost all of the
preparation meetings (PrepComs)
and consultations, writing background
and position papers, making statements
and generally lobbying the
different stakeholders. The
Indigenous Caucus also worked
parallel with the Cultural
Diversity Caucus and in the
latter phase of the WSIS with
the Disability Caucus to make
the indigenous issues like
protection of traditional
knowledge and the incorrect
standardization of many
Indigenous languages to be heard
in prevailingly technologically
oriented discourse.
The work of the caucus was
successful: Indigenous Peoples
are mentioned in all of the four
WSIS end documents and all the
statements and recommendations
made were published as part of
official WSIS
documents. This would not
have been possible without
Indigenous presence throughout
the whole process to the extent
of the heads of the Indigenous
Caucus being one of the most
visible members of the Civil
Society Bureau (CSB), which
was one of the civil society
structures that had emerged from
the WSIS process.
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