The Impact Of Civil Society On The United Nations World Summit On The Information Society PDF Download

The idea for this thesis arose during my participation in the "United Nations World Summit on the Information Society" (WSIS), which was held in Geneva, December 10-12, 2003. The aim of the thesis is threefold: it describes the mechanisms needed for a non-governmental organization to be successful in lobbying its own interests at a United Nations Summit; it presents a case study of an effective non-governmental organization (NGO), which participated at the Summit; and third, it submits a model roadmap for other NGOs to empower them to attend a United Nations Summit, preferably the second phase of WSIS in Tunis, 2005. This thesis seeks to answer the following questions: What are the factors that enable a non-governmental organization to influence decisions at a United Nations Summit like the World Summit on the Information Society? What are the special requirements for Civil Society members regarding their use of Information and Communication Technology to successfully engage in the decision process of global policy-making? The research is designed around two scientific methods. On the one hand the qualitative analysis of scientific literature was carried out to explore concepts and theories on this subject; on the other hand content analysis was performed to specifically evaluate the broad spectrum of WSIS and the case study. The collection of data was achieved through offline and online literature research and analysis of secondary literature, and analysis of documents and triage of publications ("grey literature") gathered at WSIS.