[WSIS CS-Plenary] comments on a European Parliament member's wsis manifesto

[Frannie Wellings]

Hi everyone!
Marco Cappato, an Italian member of European Parliament and a good 
ally, is drafting an appeal regarding WSIS '05 and is asking for 
comments. The text is below. His e-mail address is Mcappato (at) 
europarl.eu.int - please send comments by April 7th.  - Frannie

>Dear friend,
>
>with my friend and fellow radical member Marco Perduca we have 
>drafted the following appeal/manifesto to mobilize all those who 
>care about freedom within and outside the net, in view of the 2nd 
>phase of the World Summit of the Information Society that will be 
>convened in Tunis in November 2005.
>
>It is still a draft, on which we have been working for a while, 
>organizing also an event in Geneva last December, and we need to 
>negotiated the part on Tunis with our Tunisian friends and 
>colleagues, who don't favor a boycott. So, I would be extremely 
>thankful if, within April 7, you could have a look at it and email 
>me your comments - contents, form, English, tech stuff, privacy 
>matters etc. (anything you believe should be added) - and 
>endorsement (of course), so that in a few weeks we could plan a 
>worldwide launch and prepare some actions.
>
>With my very best wishes,
>
>Marco Cappato
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>THE TUNIX.05 APPEAL/MANIFESTO
>
>
>We firmly believe in the principles contained in the Universal 
>Declaration of Human Rights, and therefore are convinced that there 
>can only be a free, open and accountable Information Society as 
>foreseen in the Declaration of Principle of the World Summit on 
>Information Society.
>
>Free: free as in freedom of speech, freedom to share knowledge, 
>ideas and creativity in mutual respect, and through peaceful 
>manners, without pervasive or violent restrictions, limitations or 
>control; free like the ideas that have allowed the development of 
>programs and systems that can be shared and improved by anybody, 
>facilitating a variegated  and cooperative human progress.
>
>Open: open to the multilingual and multicultural contribution of 
>everybody. Open to the scrutiny of the public through policies that 
>regulate the abuse of dominant positions by governmental or private 
>entities, and that also contribute to the elimination of new digital 
>barriers against people with disabilities; open to the development 
>of programs and applications that guarantee the participation of 
>every individual in the democratic process, and ultimately the 
>enjoyment of civil and political rights, including the right to 
>privacy.
>
>Accountable: rights, namely those enshrined in the International 
>Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by over 140 nations, 
>should be fully enjoyed regardless of the political regime that 
>govern a country. No special, let alone emergency laws or 
>regulations should be adopted to govern the Information Society.
>
>Whereas the United Nations has launched the laudable initiative to 
>address the needs and constraints of world communication
>
>We launch this TUNIX.05 APPEAL/MANIFESTO to decision makers charged 
>with the implementation of the plan of action adopted at the 1st 
>session of the WSIS, held in Geneva in December 2003 and to all 
>concerned parties.
>
>The TUNIX.05 APPEAL/MANIFESTO aims at supporting:
>
>  E-democracy vs. e-government: New technologies should serve as 
>another medium to facilitate and enlarge participatory democracy 
>rather than strengthening, or rendering more efficient, the ways in 
>which a government - too often not freely and fairly elected - 
>governs  its citizens.
>
>  No money without democracy:  International aid should not be 
>disbursed for the sake of the mere promotion of ITs: new 
>technologies are a means, not an end. Aid programs without specific 
>"human right protection/enjoyment/promotion" clauses to bind 
>suppliers and donors of money and technologies to accountable 
>mechanisms for the implementation of the Geneva Plan of Action,, and 
>recipient countries to account for their advancement towards free, 
>open and democratic societies
>
>  Non-discrimination against free/open software. The UN should serve 
>as a facilitator in the endeavour assisting developing nations in 
>bridging the digital divide. To this end legal and economic barriers 
>for those operative systems that are free, affordable and open 
>should be eliminated. The needs of an information society are not 
>compatible with the rules and regulations that, through legal or 
>economic monopolies (e.g. software patents, excessive copyright 
>enforcement) limit the circulation of ideas and creativity.
>
>In particular we appeal to the Secretary-General and those Member 
>States of the United Nations that adhere to, and are guided by, the 
>principles contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 
>to facilitate the development of a free, open and accountable 
>Information Society for the benefit of mankind.
>
>  Tunis 2005
>
>we believe that in order for this scenario become a reality, the 
>decision to convene the second phase of the WSIS in Tunisia should 
>be paralleled with a firm pressure from the international community 
>on the host country towards freedom, democracy and rule of law.
>
>We believe that the current political situation in Tunisia cannot be 
>considered a credible environment for the promotion of information 
>technologies. The Tunisian Government cannot be regarded as a 
>credible supporter of IT as it systematically intervenes in the ways 
>in which the Internet can be accessed, organized and used. The 
>State's monopoly of the connectivity, its strict and pervasive 
>regulations on who can use new technologies, and the total control 
>on the content of the messages that circulate, go in the opposite 
>direction of a free, open and accountable information society 
>negating its core subject matter: freedom.
>
>  Tunis should take the opportunity of the final phase of the WSIS to 
>open up to reforms, otherwise, the WSIS will become, from a great 
>opportunity to seize, a counter-productive event to oppose.
>
>  With this TUNIX.05 APPEAL/MANIFESTO, we urge democratic governments 
>to exert their political and diplomatic pressure on Tunisia so that 
>laws restricting freedoms are changed and all journalists, 
>web-masters, and web-editors, but also dissidents and human rights 
>advocates and activists are released and allowed to work freely, in 
>accordance with international norms that guarantee freedom of speech 
>and information sharing. We urge them to apply the same pressure to 
>all those regimes that systematically curb freedom.
>
  Should the international community decide to turn a blind eye on 
this worrying situation, each and every person, and ourselves among 
them, should reserve their inalienable right to nonviolent actions of 
direct and cyber civil disobedience in order to activate goodwill 
citizens the world over to reverse this course of events.
-- 

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Frannie Wellings
Policy Fellow, Electronic Privacy Information Center
Coordinator, The Public Voice
1718 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Suite 200 
Washington, D.C.  20009   USA 
wellings at epic.org
+1 202 483 1140 extension 107 (telephone)
+1 202 483 1248 (fax)
http://www.epic.org
http://www.thepublicvoice.org
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