RE: [hr-wsis] Re: Criticism of Tunisia Not Allowed At UN Meeting

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

Hi all,

After some more discussion, it seems that:

1. first the Akkr. Rule was used for not distributing the report outside the NGO conference room during the report launch. As explained by Antoine this is standard UN meeting procedure rules, however inappropriate they might be.

2. the argument used subsequently is that the IFEX Report is not directly related to the documents under discussion at PrepCom-2, and is therefore not "an contribution" to be put on the WSIS website. 
This is of course a political decision, and the margin of appreciation as to which documents are relevant for Prepcom2 have been interpreted ridiculously narrow to suit the case. I am sure there is a rule providing for only contributions relating to the topic of the meeting may be made available on the official websites etc.. the catch is of course how you interpret that rule.

Rikke

-----Original Message-----
From: karen banks [mailto:karenb@gn.apc.org] 
Sent: 25. februar 2005 16:43
To: hr-wsis@iris.sgdg.org
Cc: steve@gn.apc.org; rik Panganiban
Subject: [hr-wsis] Re: Criticism of Tunisia Not Allowed At UN Meeting

hi meryem

thanks for this.. something i think that should go into the press release.. 
(assuming one is being done?)

karen

At 14:34 25/02/2005, Meryem Marzouki wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>When I've expressed my concerns that IFEX report has not been distributed, 
>I got the answer that "exactly the same rules as for HRIC has been 
>applied". It's hard to argue on a legal basis against that. You may 
>remember how dfficult it was to get Human rights in China reports inside 
>the UN premises, and that Antoine had to remind all of us during the HR 
>caucus panel that these are the UN rules, and that a UN legal adviser was 
>in the room. Antoine also had to kindly ask the attendance not to 
>disseminate these documents outside of the panel room, until they have 
>left the UN premises.
>
>We all know that UN rules are strict, and that they are used, as all 
>rules, when a problem appears, i.e. when protests are issued by a given 
>governement.
>In such a situation, what we can only do is both raising our concerns, as 
>CS, with regard to UN rules in general and both criticize at the political 
>level how these rules are used by some governements to silence critical voices.
>
>Meryem
>
>Le vendredi, 25 fév 2005, à 15:16 Europe/Paris, Rikke Frank Joergensen a 
>écrit :
>
>>My understanding is, that it was UN rules concerning 'only material from 
>>accredited entities can be circulated on the premises'. Which is also 
>>strange.. what if i wanted to bring in materials/reserach/analysis from a 
>>partner org that was not accredited (= participating) to this meeting. 
>>Then i could not do this..
>>
>>Rik, can you tjek w Renata what exactly are the rules that were referred 
>>to.. ?
>>
>>Rikke
>
>
>--
>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



--
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