RE: [hr-wsis] Re: Please sign-on - Letter to OHCHR

["Frank Joergensen, Rikke" <rfj@humanrights.dk>]

I support Dianas suggestion, 
 
Rikke

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: dbronson@ichrdd.ca [mailto:dbronson@ichrdd.ca] 
	Sent: Tue 6/3/2003 6:10 PM 
	To: hr-wsis@iris.sgdg.org; rikp@bluewin.ch 
	Cc: 
	Subject: [hr-wsis] Re: Please sign-on - Letter to OHCHR
	
	


	Hi Meryem et al
	
	The letter is good except there is a typo in Ramcharan's  spelling in first
	line and I find the throw away "see you in September" a bit inadequate for
	someone at this level.
	
	How about
	
	We hope the Office of the High Commissioner will become involved in this
	event and we look forward to our ongoing collaboration in ensuring that the
	World Summit on the Information Society has a strong human rights focus.
	In particular we are hoping that you personally will be able to attend the
	Third Prep Com, to take place in Geneva from September 15-27, and we look
	forward to meeting with you at that time.    We also hope that the Office
	of the High Commissioner will be prominent in the deliberations of the
	Summit in December, and that we will harness the potential of information
	technology to serve the cause of human rights to the summit in Tunisia and
	beyond.
	
	We look forward to your reply.
	
	Sorry to arribve at the last minute with this....but let,s be precise in
	what we ask
	
	db
	
	
	Diana Bronson
	Coordinator/Coordonnatrice
	Globalization and Human Rights Programme
	Programme mondialisation et droits humains
	Rights and Democracy/Droits et Démocratie
	1001, boul. de Maisonneuve est, Bureau 1100
	Montréal, Québec
	H2L 4P9
	tel:  514 283 6073
	fax:  514 283 3792
	www.ichrdd.ca
	dbronson@ichrdd.ca
	
	
	                                                                                                          
	                      Meryem Marzouki                                                                     
	                      <marzouki@ras.eu         To:      hr-wsis@iris.sgdg.org                             
	                      .org>                    cc:      Rik Panganiban <rikp@bluewin.ch>                  
	                                               Subject: [hr-wsis] Please sign-on - Letter to OHCHR        
	                      2003-06-03 11:49                                                                    
	                      AM                                                                                  
	                      Please respond                                                                      
	                      to hr-wsis                                                                          
	                                                                                                          
	                                                                                                          
	
	
	
	
	Please sign-on the letter to the OHCHR, now that we all agreed that:
	1/ The letter would be sent to Deputy High Commission
	2/ The sentence "Like all scientific innovations, information
	communications technologies in themselves are value-neutral" would be
	removed
	3/ The reference to repression would be added, following the remark by
	Christine (OMCT) which nobody seemed to disagree with
	
	In case we gathered enough signatures from the Hr caucus members, I
	propose that this letter be presented as a common initiative from the
	WFM and the HR caucus.
	
	Members of the HR caucus who already signed:
	- CMIC
	- Danish Institute for Human Rights
	- Digital Rights Denmark
	- IRIS
	- OMCT
	
	Please other members tell us if your organization would sign, and
	please gather other organizations signatures by, let's say, June 12.
	I'll circulate the text of this letter to the WSIS plenary list, and to
	other organizations. Please also try to get other signatures with name
	of the org, web site if any, contact person name and email.
	
	Final text of the letter:
	June 2003
	
	Bertrand Ramcharan
	Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights
	United Nations
	Geneva, Switzerland
	
	RE: Human Rights and the World Summit on the Information Society
	
	
	Your Excellency Mr. Bertrand Ramchara:
	
	The under-signed civil society organizations strongly encourage your
	active participation in the preparatory committee and summit meeting of
	the World Summit on the Information Society, taking place in September
	and December 2003, respectively.  Human rights are an essential
	requirement of the Information Society, as elaborated in the draft
	declaration of the WSIS (WSIS/PCIP/DT/1-E):
	
	10. The essential requirements for the development of an equitable
	Information Society include: The respect for all internationally
	recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms. Notably the right to
	freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to hold opinions
	without interference and seek to, receive and impart information and
	ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers in accordance with
	article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to
	unhindered access by individuals to communication media and information
	sources?
	
	As the United Nations highest human rights official, your good offices
	are needed to ensure that human rights language in the WSIS process is
	comprehensive, strong and consistent with resolutions and decisions
	adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and build upon human rights
	language developed through the various UN world summits and conferences.
	
	Civil society organizations view ICTs as having both tremendous
	applications that enhance human rights, such as through the rapid
	dissemination of action alerts and instant access to human rights
	information, and disturbing capacities to greatly diminish human
	rights, such as by providing governments with means enabling intrusive
	surveillance and monitoring and therefore, repression.
	
	Only through the active participation of governments, civil society,
	and international human rights institutions such as your Office can
	these ICTs be best harnessed to maximize the protection of human rights
	worldwide.
	
	We thank you for your consideration of this request and look forward to
	seeing you in September.
	
	Sincerely,
	
	
	[under-signed NGOs]
	
	
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