Creating spaces for civil society in the WSIS – a reply to Michael

Prior to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), UN Summits were largely closed spaces for inter-governmental debate and negotiation on issues of global public policy such as sustainable development or the position of women. Civil society summits ran in parallel to those of governments and usually at some distance. So during the UN Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002, governments met in the elite business zone of Sandton, while civil society met in the black township of Soweto.