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
--
Working List of the WSIS Human Rights Caucus
Web site : http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis
Public Archives: http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis/list
To post a message to the list, send an email to: hr-wsis@iris.sgdg.org
To subscribe/unsubscribe, send an email to:
Meryem.Marzouki@iris.sgdg.org
