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

["John Barker" <johnb@article19.org.za>]

ARTICLE 19 signs-on

John M Barker
Africa Programme Director
ARTICLE 19
PO Box 30942
Braamfontein 2017
South Africa
Tel. +27 11 403 1488
Fax. +27 11 403 1517
Email. johnb@article19.org.za
Web. http://www.article19.org

----- Original Message -----
From: "Meryem Marzouki" <marzouki@ras.eu.org>
To: <hr-wsis@iris.sgdg.org>
Cc: "Rik Panganiban" <rikp@bluewin.ch>
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 5:49 PM
Subject: [hr-wsis] Please sign-on - Letter to OHCHR


> 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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