[WSIS CS-Plenary] CS emergency plenary seen from fare

[djilali benamrane]

In french bellow Dear Andy,
Thanks for your update on CS emergency plenary.
As many i am following with great concern what it
seems as the Big Chaos of the CS. Thanks to the UN
procedures of agreement i could not attend your
Precom. I noted in other messages and press review the
lake of African CS society and its insuffisant level
of participation. Seen from Europe, it seems that the
Human right item is the mainly one adressed in
Hammamet, as if the impossible dialogue North South
has been solved... it seems from fare the the CS is
serving as alibi only for the North. I do note that
99.99% of message continue to be only in English so
non english speaking people cannot support you and
what is wonderfull to read your comment : 
"""Additionally, the attempt at a vote was conducted
without translation into English, which meant many
delegates were unable to participate""".
Those who participated at the CS meetings in Geneva
Summit can remember that it was the case of many
delagates who where unable to participate because of
discussion and decisions was only in english !
All the best for CS participants 
Djilali ! 

J'ai remercié Andy pour son compte rendu, il m'a fait
rappelé les rencontres à Genève où le SC débattait en
anglais et où les francophones passaient pour des
analphabètes, c'est merveilleux que nos amis
anglophones aient ressenti le même handicap
accidentèlement et furtivement à hammamet, peut-être
qu'ils finiront par comprendre mes complaintes.
J'ai aussi relevé que vu de loin, les discussions se
focalisent sur les droits de l'homme c'est certes un
enjeu de 1ère importance mais bien après le gouffre
d'incompréhension qui se consolide entre le Nord et le
sud et la société civile devient l'alibi du Nord...
Quant à la sous représentation de la SC africaine elle
était fatale et la Tunisie à mon humble avis n'a
aucune responsabilité, il aurait fallu que la SC
mondiale résolve ce pb en faisant pression sur les
pays riches !
Amitiés
Djilali
--- Andy Carvin <ACarvin at edc.org> wrote:
> Following the suspension of the plenary session,
> civil society delegates
> met in the Didon Theatre to try to solve the impasse
> that had been reached
> over the human rights caucus statement. Saida Agrebi
> of Tunisia said the
> statement should say that all participating
> countries respect human rights
> rather than singling out Tunisia, and emphasized the
> need for an African to
> represent the caucus during the plenary. Other
> Tunisians concurred, with
> many of them dominating the first half of the
> discussion.
> 
> Ambassador Karklins, president of the Prepcom,  then
> arrived and asked the
> group to resolve its differences. ?We will give 15
> minutes speaking time
> for NGOs. We cannot intervene in the decisionmaking
> process of NGOs, and we
> can give you time to sort out your internal
> questions, and I would ask
> Renate [Bloem] as your coordinator to give me a list
> of speakers at
> 12:40pm. The list should contain name, organization
> they represent, and
> speakers for their part should follow closely the
> rules of procedure? So
> therefore I will be very attentively following your
> intervention? and if I
> see that rules of procedure aren?t [followed] ? I
> will intervene.?
> 
> Several speakers then noted that there is ?extreme
> mistrust? between
> certain elements within the civil society family in
> terms of their position
> regarding the Tunisian government and human rights,
> and that it may be
> necessary to present both views, given them each
> time during the plenary
> speaking slot.  Others suggested that the divide
> that exists within civil
> society should be acknowledged in the plenary for
> the sake of openness.
> 
> Rikke Frank Joergensen, co-chair of the human rights
> caucus, defended the
> process to date. ?We followed the procedure that
> we?ve followed from the
> first phase of the summit,? she noted. She said that
> issues were discussed
> in yesterday?s civil society plenary, then people
> were invited to stay
> afterwards to help draft language.  ?The drafting
> group then decided on
> four speakers? including two African speakers, one
> on economic development
> and a woman from Tunisia on human rights.? Regarding
> the statement, she
> said it is consistent with statements the caucus had
> released in the past,
> and there is precedent to note any human rights
> issues in the host country,
> as had been the case in Geneva when there were
> problems with certain groups
> being allowed to speak and protest.
> 
> In the end, it appeared to be decided that there
> would be one speaker, a
> woman from Africa,  who would leave out the language
> singling out Tunisia.
> There was no actual vote; while one was attempted,
> the Tunisian delegation
> overwhelmed the room with shouting and clapping.
> Additionally, the attempt
> at a vote was conducted without translation into
> English, which meant many
> delegates were unable to participate.
> 
> As delegates left the room, a number of shouting
> matches broke out. The
> representative from the Tunisian Human Rights League
> called the apparent
> decision ?a scandal,? with others shouting their
> opinion back and forth.
> 
> But the question still remains open; when civil
> society representatives
> spoke during the late morning plenary, just before
> lunch, the human rights
> caucus did not present their remarks, because it was
> clear that no
> democratic consensus had been reached on the issue.
> They will continue the
> debate later today, and hopefully strike some kind
> of agreement so they may
> present first thing tomorrow morning during the
> plenary session.
> 
> -------------------------------------------------
> Andy Carvin
> Program Director
> EDC Center for Media & Community
> acarvin @ edc . org
> http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org
> -------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
> Plenary at wsis-cs.org
>
http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary
> 


=====
Djilali Benamrane : dbenamrane at yahoo.com
Tél/Fax : (331) 01 45 39 77 02 Paris - France
Page web sur l'Afrique et la globalisation : http://www.multimania.com/djilalibenamrane/
Groupe de discussion: http://www.egroups.com/list/afriqueglobalization


		
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