Dear all
I have also spoken to a number of people about this issue, and in general I agree that it would be usefull and interesting to have sessions on the situation in a number of countries. I normally work mostly on Europe, and there are tons of HR / IS issues to raise also in this context.
The only problem is time ! We are very few people from the HR Caucus present at the prepcoms, and a substantive amount of time goes into commenting on the WSIS docs, and relating to the WSIS process. Plus the issue of Tunisia, which is necessary to adress given it is the host country of the Summit, and which has also taken up much time. But if anybody from the Caucus has time / resources to set up a session on HR / IS in 2-3 different regions, I would be happy to speak on the European issues.
best
rikke
Fra: Rik Panganiban [mailto:rikp@earthlink.net]
Sendt: là 24-09-2005 11:38
Til: hr-wsis@iris.sgdg.org
Emne: [hr-wsis] Human rights beyond Tunis
Dear Friends,
I wanted to express a general concern that I have been hearing from
several people about how the human rights caucus has been going on
about its work.
The Caucus has chosen, I think rightly, to draw attention to the
situation of human rights in the host country. I think it would be
helpful to explain that at all UN summits it is normal and correct
for civil society to examine the situation of the host country in
respect to the issue at hand. For example during the Beijing Women's
Conference, many women's groups organized meetings on the situation
of women's rights in China. During the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in South Africa, environment groups drew attention to the
pollution and environmental problems in South Africa. Etc.
However I have heard several people ask why the Human Rights Caucus
does not devote much work to shedding light on other countries with
questionable human rights records. I think for the future that it
would be beneficial to the caucus to have a session discussing the
human rights situation in many countries, particularly developed
countries, i.e. the US, France, Germany, Australia, etc. I am sure
we could find activists in Geneva and in Tunis who would be happy to
discuss these issues. (And I know our colleague from Nepal would
love to have the opportunity to present the situation in her country.)
This would go a far ways towards diminishing the impression that the
caucus is only interested in criticizing the host country. And I
think lead to very interesting discussions as well.
Respectfully,
Rik Panganiban
CONGO
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