From 15 to 26 September 2003 governments and civil society assembled in Geneva for the third preparatory conference for the World Summit on the Information Society. The two weeks ended with many key issues still unresolved, and with a last-minute proposal to reconvene for an extra session from 10 to 14 November.

EDRI members IRIS (FR) and Digital Rights (DK) participated as co-ordinators of the Human Rights caucus, currently made up of 32 organisations. EDRI-member EFFI also participated, as part of the Finish delegation.

Reporters Sans Frontieres, a non-governmental organisation fighting for freedom of the press, was banned from further participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). According to a letter from the Executive Director of the Summit, RSF was excluded for 'administrative reasons'. The exclusion is in fact a direct result of a protest RSF staged in March, when Libya was appointed as chair of the UN Human Rights Commission. After that protest, the UN banned RSF from all meetings for a year.

Earlier, the organisation Human Rights in China was excluded from WSIS for similarly suspect administrative reasons as well. The WSIS Human Rights Caucus is very upset about these exclusions.

Between 15 and 18 July an inter-sessional meeting for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) took place in Paris, with a special focus on human rights in the information society. In this Human Rights caucus, made up of 25 organizations, 2 EDRI-members participated, the French IRIS and the Danish Digital Rights. The HR group presented 2 oral statements to different plenary government meetings and an alternative to the first paragraph of the draft Declaration of Principles.

The first oral statement was entitled 'Back to the Basics, WSIS and Human Rights', and argued for stronger protection of privacy and security of cultural rights instead of the culture of security.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the first part of which will be held in Geneva from 10 to 12 December this year, tries to involve governments, the private sector and the civil society in its process. Intergovernmental organizations and various UN Agencies are also part of the WSIS, with the International Telecommunications Union being the organizer of the whole event. But so far, the absence of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has been remarkable.

43 International non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have signed an open letter to Mr Bertrand Ramcharan, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, calling for his active participation.