Letter
Mr Yoshio Utsumi, WSIS Secretary-General

Paris, October 12, 2005
 
Mr. Yoshio Utsumi
Secretary-General
World Summit on the Information Society

RE: Human Rights Caucus nomination of Shirin Ebadi for WSIS opening ceremony

Dear Mr. Utsumi,

The WSIS Civil Society Human Rights Caucus would like to submit to your consideration the proposal to have Ms. Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Peace Nobel Prize winner, as civil society speaker for the WSIS opening ceremony in Tunis.

Ms. Ebadi has welcomed this nomination from the Human Rights Caucus, and has committed to be present in Tunis to speak at the Summit opening ceremony, would she receive your agreement.

As soon as it received today Ms. Ebadi's confirmation of availability and willingness to accept the offer, the Human Rights Caucus has started collecting support to Ms. Ebadi's nomination among other civil society entities participating to the WSIS process. The list of these supports will be forwarded to you soon. We would also like to mention that Ms. Renata Bloem and Mr. Roberto Bissio, who both were on the list recommended to you, have announced that they would be happy to step aside to allow Ms. Ebadi be the civil society speaker proposed for the opening ceremony.

We are confident that you will share our conviction that having Ms. Shirin Ebadi selected as civil society speaker at WSIS opening ceremony would be the strongest symbol that the information society should be based on human rights and social justice foundations. This is exactly the issue Ms. Ebadi would like to address at the WSIS opening ceremony.

Sincerely,

Meryem Marzouki
Human Rights Caucus Co-chair
and
President, IRIS - Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire
294 rue de Charenton - 75012 Paris - France

Copies:
This letter is also being sent to Ambassador Janis Karklins, President of the WSIS process