[WSIS CS-Plenary] RE: Response to Jean-Pierre Pinet on document

[Jean-Pierre Pinet]

Hello,
Thanks for your reaction. I have had a talk with my collegues. We agree with
your remarks and we propose to change :

1.
>the WSIS Declaration should therefore affirm that Article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) must be not only adhered to but
also actively enforced

to

"the WSIS Declaration should therefore NOT ONLY REAFFIRM Article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), but commit to its active
enforcement."

2.

>"Development cooperation in the area of sustainable development should
reaffirm the principle of solidarity between richer and poorer areas of the
world."

to

Sustainable democratic development should include the poorest (in the North
and the South) in the development process and take account of their
knowledge to eradicate poverty"

[See: http://www.atd-quartmonde.org/intern/docu_intern/johoctbEn.pdf ]

3.

>The Declaration should include, as a principle and theme, the maintenance
and growth of the commonwealth of human knowledge as a means of reducing
global inequality and of providing the conditions for intellectual
creativity, sustainable development and respect for human rights.

and add just after:

"People living in extreme poverty must be pivotal in the dialogue between
all parties, contribuing their experience and knowledge."

[see: http://www.atd-quartmonde.org/intern/wsis/atd_smsi-contrib_en.pdf ]


There are also other points we cannot agree but the time is too short to
react on this.
thanks
Jean-Pierre Pinet
ATD Fourth World Movement.
-----Message d'origine-----
De : Sally Burch - ALAI [mailto:sburch at alainet.org]
Envoyé : vendredi 11 juillet 2003 03:04
À : Plenary at wsis-cs.org
Cc : Jean-Pierre Pinet
Objet : Response to Jean-Pierre Pinet on document


In reply to Jean-Pierre Pinet

Thanks for commenting on the text.  Obviously in a text that is
trying to be as short as possible some things are not developed as
fully as they might be; we could only underline a few key issues
that are not in the draft documents, or are inadequately expressed.


>- Information Society must not only respect article 19 of Human >Rights
Declaration but the whole Declaration. Not only principles >but all the
actions must be in this cadre. When you take only one >article, the poorest
are always the looser.

>see: "An information and communication society that has people >and human
needs at its centre implies underlining the importance >of human rights
standards as the core set of principles guiding its >development"

You are right, of course.  But the first article of the WSIS draft
declaration already refers to the UDHR and article 10 says:

"The essential requirements for development of an equitable
information society include: The respect for all internationally
recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms.  Notably the
right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to
hold opinions without interference and seek to receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers
in accordance with article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and to unhindered access by individuals to communication
and media information sources".

The phrase in our priorities document was taken, precisely, from
the Human Rights caucus document, refering to the fat that it in
not sufficient to be "in accordance with article 19...", but to insist
that we need to go further and ensure the conditions for freedom of
information and expression to be truly in force.

May be to make this clearer we could change the phrase to:

"the WSIS Declaration should therefore NOT ONLY REAFFIRM
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR),
but commit to its active enforcement."

>- It is a little simple to just reafirm the solidarity between richer
>and poorer areas of the world (why not between the rich and the
>poor ?). But poorest people want now acts. With Internet Society,
>we have now more skills to fight poverty. My organisation think
>that I.S. have to take real commitments to be credible to the
>eyes of the poorest.

>"Development cooperation in the area of sustainable development
>should reaffirm the principle of solidarity between richer and
>poorer areas of the world."

Yes, but the point of including this is an allusion to the implicit
understanding among most Northern governments that
"development" is now a taboo word in the UN (because it implies
transferring public resources from North to South); and that it is
only acceptable to talk about "multistakeholder agreements" (ie.
The private sector puts up the money for development initiatives,
and expects to make a profit out of it).  If you can suggest a clearer
way of stating this then please suggest it.  Your point is also
important but addresses a different issue and might dilute this idea.

>- we agree to this :"The Declaration should include, as a principle
>and theme, the maintenance and growth of the commonwealth of
>human knowledge as a means of reducing global inequality and of
>providing the conditions for intellectual creativity, sustainable
>development and respect for human rights" but sharing knowledge
>is a commitment, specialy when you will share it with the poorest
>AND receive from them their own knowledge.

Can you suggest specific language to include this idea?

Sally Burch


---------------------------------
Sally Burch - Directora Ejecutiva
Agencia Latinoamericana de Información - ALAI
Casilla 17-12-877, Quito, Ecuador
sburch at alainet.org      http://alainet.org
Tel: (593 2) 250 5074  222 1570  Fax: (593 2) 250 5073