[WSIS CS-Plenary] CS comments on non-paper - final

[Sally Burch - ALAI]

Friends,

Under the most impossible conditions and with very little time for 
consultation we have sent the following letter and adjoined 
compilation text (English only, as you can imagine) to Mr. 
Samassekou.  Thanks to all who made input.

Those comments received today could only be included if they 
were short and simple and not contradictory with other proposals.  I 
am sorry there wasn't time to process it all.  We can continue work 
on this for the November meeting.

Sally Burch

------------------------------------------
Quito, October 30, 2003

Mr. Adama Samassékou
President of Prepcom
WSIS

Dear Mr. Samassékou,

We appreciate your concern to receive feedback from civil 
society concerning the non-paper you have produced for the 
intergovernmental negotiations on the draft Declaration for 
WSIS.

Despite the difficulties in undertaking consultations in such 
a short timeframe, we have produced the adjoined document, 
which is a compilation of proposals received from civil 
society caucuses on the October 24 version of the non-paper, 
that reflect the consensus reached among a broad range of 
civil society organizations on many issues during the WSIS 
preparatory process.  However, given the short time-line, it 
does not include all the comments civil society may wish to 
make on the document.

As a general comment on the document, I will summarize here a 
few of the overriding concerns that have been expressed during 
the past weeks by a number of civil society caucuses.

We appreciate the inclusion of several civil society proposals 
into this latest version of the document. In particular we 
recognize that since July there has been an openness to 
strengthening references among other things, to human rights, 
social inclusion, education and sustainable development.  

We also welcome your stated commitment to a participative 
approach and to seek out a satisfactory balance between 
technological and societal issues. Nonetheless, we are 
concerned that the declaration as a whole fails to adequately 
address some fundamental issues of the information society and 
still has an excessive bias towards technological and market 
solutions.  

Some issues of major concern are:

The "Information Society" on which the World Summit is 
premised continues to reflect, to a large extent, a narrow 
understanding in which ICTs are generally taken to mean 
telecommunications and the Internet. This approach tends to 
marginalise some key issues relating to the development 
potential inherent in the combination of knowledge and 
technology on which the WSIS was premised in UNGA Resolution 
56/183.

A commitment to a people-centred, inclusive and development-
oriented Information Society based on respect for human rights 
should be embedded throughout the Declaration of Principles 
and the Action Plan.

In our view the key challenges of the Information Society are 
to maintain and extend the global knowledge commons and the 
public domain and to ensure better access for all to 
information and communication. 

Limitations on free access and fair use of knowledge and 
communication systems imposed by legal and technical means 
must remain the exception, to be applied only where strictly 
necessary.  In this context, free software and open standards 
in the technical infrastructure are essential components not 
adequately reflected in this document, which also ignores 
fundamental differences between intellectual and physical 
products.

The Declaration mentions the need to address geographical and 
social divides, but falls short of expressing a strong 
commitment to creating the mechanisms for redressing them.  It 
also fails to emphasize and express support for the key role 
of community initiatives and people's involvement in the 
decisions that control their lives in the information society. 
There should be much stronger commitment to community driven 
solutions.

Nor does the draft Declaration give sufficient recognition to 
the dangers ICTs can pose to civil rights and liberties and 
the need for a strong international commitment to reaffirming 
and protecting those rights.

Yours truly, 

Sally Burch
Civil Society Content and Themes joint-coordinator



__________________________________________________________
Sally Burch - Directora Ejecutiva
Agencia Latinomericana de Informacion - 
INTERNET: sburch at alainet.org
Direccion:  Casilla 17-12-877, Quito-Ecuador
Telefono: (593 2) 250 5074 / 222 1570  / 252 8716
Fax: (593 2) 250 5073    URL:  http://alainet.org
__________________________________________________________
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