[WSIS CS-Plenary] paralysis in civil society meeting

[Robert Guerra]

Andy:

thanks for this - sigh! looks like the # of tunsians in the CS 
discussions has changed from the usual 25% to 75%.

If indeed the next prepcom will be in Geneva - we must make sure that 
our structures, procedures, facilitation and conflict resolution 
abilities are much improved.

What the Tunisian's don't seem to realize is that  by their actions - 
the so called Paralysis - that Freedom of expression and diversity of 
views are rights not common place in Tunisia. For if the WSIS Civil 
Society is treated so - how must the local "real" civil society be 
treated? Again, something to think about.

The opportunity existed for Tunisia to prove it's claims that it is 
in fact  a democracy, open to dissenting views and respectful of 
norms of procedure, and capable of hosting all the stakeholders 
involved in the WSIS. However, but it did no such thing.

Let's not forget that all this (and far worse) has been reported for 
years  in reports by Amnesty International Human Rights Watch,  OMCT, 
and others.

So we should be cautious - paralysis is what's occuring inside the 
confines of the conference centre, an area covered by a UN/Host 
country agreement. let's  start thinking about what  very likely will 
occur when CS "protestors" come to the country for the summit in Nov. 
it won't be pretty . I would suggest an idea that came up at the CS 
meeting in Berlin - let's  form a CS planning committee which works 
on logistical and other arrangements to help CS be as ready and 
prepared as possible for the meetings ahead.

The said working/group committee would only deal with issues related 
to coordination and logistics to make sure that CS basic needs are 
through of, planned and ready for meetings to come. For example, it 
could  make sure our IT needs are taken care of, so that we can 
inform the our collegues around the world who can virtually 
participate.

comments?


regards

Robert



>Paralysis
>
>This evening?s content and themes meeting of the civil society caucus
>degenerated into  chaos, as some Tunisian and African NGO representatives
>overwhelmed the session, preventing chairs Karen Banks and Steve Buckley
>from leading a discussion on tomorrow?s various civil society speeches to
>the government plenary. With probably seven or eight Tunisians for every
>non-Tunisian in the room, they demanded that civil society take an
>immediate vote on whether language critical of the Tunisian government
>would be excised from the human rights caucus text.

-- 
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Robert Guerra <rguerra at privaterra.org>
Privaterra - <http://www.privaterra.org>