(EN) WSIS - The Human Rights Caucus stresses major advances despite attempts of blockage

[Meryem Marzouki <marzouki@ras.eu.org>]

Dear all,

Please find hereafter the human rights caucus communique, presenting 
its assessment of the PrepCom1 held in Hammamet June 24-26, 2004, in 
preparation of WSIS Tunis phase.

This communique will be available soon on the caucus website: 
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis

It is as for now accessible at: 
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/info-debat/comm-wsis0704.html

The communique is available in English and French. Any translation into 
other languages is welcome.

Meryem Marzouki, caucus co-coordinator.
==================
WSIS - The Human Rights Caucus stresses major advances despite attempts 
of blockage
WSIS Civil Society Human Rights Caucus Communique - July 2, 2004

After the conclusion of the first preparatory committee (PrepCom1) of 
the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), 
which took place in Hammamet (Tunisia) from 24 to 26 June, 2004, the 
Human Rights Caucus is pleased with the noteworthy advances which the 
starting of the Tunis phase has finally shown, despite unacceptable 
practices of a number of agent provocateurs who attempted to disrupt 
the work of civil society organizations and to discredit the Caucus and 
its members.

The Caucus, which includes 50 organizations from around the world, has 
been working since the first preparatory meeting of the first phase of 
the Summit, in July 2002, to ensure that human rights are not left off 
the WSIS agenda, neither off its process.

Major advances which confirm that participating has been the right 
choice

The first very positive sign was the accreditation of the 3 independent 
Tunisian NGOs which were able to meet the administrative requirements 
to attend the WSIS second phase as civil society. This way, the 
Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH), Amnesty International-Tunisia and 
the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD) are able to express 
themselves in their own names during the process.

Another major advance for the Caucus was the civil societye 
intervention by Souhayr Belhassen, the vice-president of the LTDH and 
vice-president of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues 
(FIDH), in which she addressed human rights in the information society 
on behalf of civil society. The Caucus wishes to thank the president of 
the Tunis preparatory process, the Latvian ambassador Janis Karklins, 
without whom this intervention could not have been presented in the 
government plenary on Saturday June 26, 2004. The Caucus also takes due 
note of the Tunisian authorities willingness to finally let Souhayr 
Belhassen present her  statement.

These important advances show that the Caucus has made the right choice 
by resolutely refusing the boycott of the preparation of the Tunis 
phase, as would have been the easy way out.

A petition initiated by the Caucus and signed by approximately 50 NGOs 
in September 2003 has identified the commitment to allow all civil 
society representatives from Tunisia and abroad to participate freely 
in the work of the Summit as one of the concrete signs expected from 
Tunisia in favor of the respect for human rights and fundamental 
freedoms. This will be one of the conditions subordinating the 
participation to the Summit itself, which is scheduled to take place in 
Tunis in November 2005.

Unacceptable attempts of blockage by agent provocateurs

Despite these first encouraging signs, the Caucus must deplore, 
together with the whole set of civil society organizations, the 
attempts of obstructing the work of the NGOs gathered in the civil 
society plenary session. An important number of people, presenting 
themselves as "the Tunisian civil society", seriously disrupted the 
process, until the announcement of ambassador Karklins decision. 
Systematic practices of disinformation, attempts to discredit the 
Caucus and its members, shameless room filling with people brought on 
site with buses, violent verbal aggressiveness against participants, 
hindrance to their simple expression by turning the meetings into 
chaos, were some of the means used by these agent provocateurs in order 
to forbid a representative of the LTDH from speaking in the name of the 
participating civil society organizations. By these means the agent 
provocateurs sought to prevent the statement, legitimately produced by 
the drafting committee mandated by the civil society plenary, according 
to the generally agreed rules and procedures since the beginning of the 
Geneva phase, be kept as written.

The Caucus particularly regrets that because of this situation civil 
society organizations have not been able to discuss under normal 
conditions the whole set of themes, which the WSIS second phase is 
dealing with, not least those related to Internet governance and to 
infrastructure financing.

The Human Rights Caucus participation has been crucial during the first 
phase of WSIS, by the number and the quality of its members as well as 
by the importance of its work. The Caucus organized a meeting on June 
24, 2004 in Hammamet, which was very well attended, including the 
representative from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human 
Rights. After the presentation of its composition, its missions and its 
past achievements, the Caucus encouraged new members to join, provided 
that they are organizations and not individuals and that they agree to 
the goal of protecting and promoting human rights standards in the WSIS 
process and in all countries of the world, not least the host country 
of the Summit. The Caucus will not allow a number of agent provocateurs 
to intimidate it with their attempts of discredit, just as it will not 
accept any takeover attempt by organizations or persons whose practices 
contradicts the least minimum of human rights standards.

On a similar note, the Caucus will, together with civil society as a 
whole, take measures to ensure that such outburst of abuses are 
prevented in the future. It encourages the authorities of the Summit 
host country, together with all the organizers, to make sure that the 
work may proceed in a calm and mutual respectful atmosphere, so that 
the progress reached after the Hammamet meeting may be pursued and 
acknowledged by all.

Encouraging future progress

As goals for future progress, the Caucus hopes that many independent 
Tunisian NGOs finally receive the legal recognition they have been 
deprived of up to now, in general without any explanation, while some 
of them have been openly active for many years. The lack of recognition 
of their legitimate right to freedom of association prevents them from 
officially participating in the WSIS process. This is for instance the 
case of the National Council for Freedoms in Tunisia (CNLT), the Union 
for a Development Alternative (RAID, ATTAC-Tunisia), the International 
Association for Supporting Political Prisoners (AISPP), the Association 
for Fighting Torture in Tunisia (ALTT), the Observatory for the Defense 
of Press Freedom, Publishing and Creation (OLPEC), and many others. 
While WSIS claims exemplarity in opening United Nations activities to a 
stronger civil society participation, going as far as officially 
recognizing a "civil society bureau", the Caucus expects from the host 
country authorities that they locally translate this discourse into 
concrete measures by officially recognizing the legal existence of 
these groups.

In addition, the Caucus would like to restate its concern related to 
the exclusion of one of its members, Human Rights in China, the only 
organization for the defense of human rights in China. Human Rights in 
China has been excluded since the first phase of the Summit without any 
official explanation from the organizers.

The issue of accreditation is not the only concern of the Caucus and of 
the signatories of the September 2003 petition. The freeing of 
prisoners of opinion is one of the others. This PrepCom1 has been held 
less than a week after the postponement of the judgment in appeal in 
the case known as "the Zarzis Internet users" (les internautes de 
Zarzis), where persons, less than 20-years old, have been sentenced the 
very heavy penalty of 20 years jail. The evidence held against them are 
mainly documents which would have been downloaded from the Internet. If 
the Tunisian authorities have tangible elements of evidence justifying 
that Zarzis Internet users are charged with terrorism accusations, they 
should exhibit them publicly in the framework of a fair trial. 
Otherwise, the Caucus, like all international observers, would be 
obliged to consider, and to widely inform in the WSIS context and 
beyond, that the sole consultation of the Internet may cost 20 years 
jail in the host country of the WSIS second phase.

The Caucus will pursue its mission

The Caucus has been created to put human rights on the WSIS agenda, 
with full respect of their universality and their indivisibility. Since 
there can be no democracy without fair development, the Human Rights 
Caucus is fully conscious of the fundamental importance of holding WSIS 
in Tunis, for the Tunisian people as well as for all the peoples of the 
global South countries, and thus, wishes its success. But since there 
can be no development without democracy, the Caucus will, during the 
Tunis process monitor the conditions in which this process is 
proceeding, and will report on obstacles to the exercise of human 
rights and fundamental freedoms in the host country. In light of the 
general human rights assessment made in 2005, all the participants to 
the process, governments, international organizations, private sector 
and civil society, will be called for making their decision.

Representatives of the Human Rights Caucus in Hammamet:
 - Rikke Frank Jorgensen, DIHR - Danish Institute for Human Rights (DK) 
- Coordinator
 - Antoine Madelin, FIDH - Fédération internationale des Ligues des 
droits de l'homme
 - Meryem Marzouki, IRIS - Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire (FR) 
- Coordinator

Press contacts:
 - Rikke Frank Jorgensen - rfj@humanrights.dk
 - Antoine Madelin - amadelin@fidh.org, + 32 2 209 62 89
 - Meryem Marzouki - Meryem.Marzouki@iris.sgdg.org

Activities and documents of the Caucus during WSIS first phase:
 http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis


--
Meryem Marzouki - http://www.iris.sgdg.org
IRIS - Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire
294 rue de Charenton - 75012 Paris
Tel/Fax. +33(0)144749239