Proposal - Speakers list for the summit

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

Dear all,

Those of you who are subscribers to the CS plenary list may have noted 
that the proposed list of speakers for the summit is currently under 
hot discussion: not only the nomination process is at stake (specially 
since CS hasn't had enough time to propose speakers, see a very 
interesting note from Robert Guerra on this issue), but the result 
isn't really agreed by all, to say the least. I share these many 
concerns.

One speaker has been proposed by the caucus (Bruna Faidutti, from the 
Geneva office of the WFUNA, proposed by Jane and Ginger), and her name 
hasn't been selected.
Another speaker (myself) has also been proposed by the caucus, but 
apparently too late to be taken into account in the list of proposed 
speakers.
I would like to thank Rikke, who proposed my name, and all of you who 
supported this proposal. However, I have no intention to speak at the 
summit (not to mention the fact that I would never be selected, being 
confident that there would be many objections, specially from the 
Tunisian side, as well as from some CSB members side (as attacks 
directed towards the caucus have shown during prepcom1 - Hammamet - 
prepcom2 and prepcom3. Rikke and myself have personnaly been the 
targets of such unacceptable attacks).

I have another idea, that I would like to share with you, so that it 
could become an HR caucus proposal if no objections are risen 
(otherwise, it would be a proposal from some members of our caucus). 
Some of us are trying to check with Shirin Ebadi, a woman, Iranian, 
human rights defender, 2003 peace Nobel prize winner, if she would be 
available for the summit. We would hopefully hear from her tomorrow. 
Some of you may remember that Shirin has been an option considered for 
the Geneva summit by CS as a whole. But she was unavailable at that 
time for a very good reason, i.e. she was in Oslo to receive her prize !
More info at: http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/2003/index.html

Again, provided that she could go to Tunis for the Summit, having 
Shirin Ebadi speaking (she would be proposed for the opening ceremony, 
of course) would be the strongest symbol of the importance of human 
rights in the information society.

FYI, current selection for the opening ceremony is: Adama Samassekou 
(this raised many concerns w.r.t. CS proposing the president of phase 1 
process, i.e. governement representative. this selection is indeed 
quite surprising, leaving aside Adama's many qualities) and... Renata 
Bloem (CONGO), which also appears quite a strange choice.

Please let us know on this list if there are any objections to Shirin 
Ebadi proposal. In the mean time, we're trying to get her answer on her 
availability.

Best,
Meryem