[WSIS CS-Plenary] commentary UNESCO, Microsoft, convention

[djilali benamrane]

Meigs,
as Civile Society Finance Mechanism List we are very
interested by your proposal to draft a position paper
against the dangerous approach adopted by UNESCO vis a
vis Microsoft.
I forward this message to my List and hope that you
will propose a concertation process to draft together
the paper.
All the best
Djilali
--- Meigs <meigs at wanadoo.fr> wrote:

>   
> Dear all,
>  
> I have been following the exchanges on the general
> list and they have
> convinced me that Civil Society needs to take action
> in a more concerted
> manner, beyond the two issues that have been the
> major focus of these last
> few months, namely internet governance  and
> financing mechanisms. Other
> major problems are persistent and they are connected
>  with education,
> culture and human rights.  As a result they tend to
> revolve around Unesco
> issues, in the last month, in relation to the
> agreement with Microsoft and
> the Convention on cultural diversity.
>  
> ABOUT MICROSOFT:
>             If corporations are going to make
> agreements with Unesco, they
> have to maintain the minimum standards and means of
> corporate governance,
> i.e. a sense of competition, and open checks and
> balances. Two dimensions to
> that:
> - There are well-respected models in the industrial
> sector that can serve
> public service, or respect public service
> obligations, especially with the
> foundation system. Well-respected foundations have
> maintained a healthy and
> efficient separation between charity and commerce.
> This model should be
> explored more and one can only be sorry that
> foundations have not been more
> active inWSIS. Unesco has had agreements with other
> brandnames in the
> information industry, but via their non-profit
> foundations, and as a result
> there has been no outcry and no blatant recuperation
> of the logo.
>             -There should be provisions in any
> agreement of that kind for
> self-improving and self-regulating dynamics to kick
> in. This call for a
> transparent mechanism  such that the best service
> and the product best
> adapted to local needs can evolve outside the
> agreement process.  A real
> multistakeholder partnership could achieve just
> that. It could also enforce
> a principle that has already been experimented
> elsewhere: any direct,
> proprietary gift from any corporation has to be
> balanced or matched by a
> non-proprietary gift.
>  
> WHAT ACTION?
> So we should issue a general statement from Civil
> society in WSIS, via the
> ³content and themes² group maybe,  and put pressure
> on nation-states and
> Unesco so that two clear and transparent procedures
> be implemented:
> -      If dealing with business and private sector,
> Unesco should create a
> system of checks and balances, around bids on clear
> projects to fulfill its
> mandate, the millennium goals, the WSIS goals
> (related to education, science
> and culture), Š An overseeing board, composed of
> multi-stakeholders should
> be put in place, and evaluate the process
> throughout;
> -      If a corporation decides to make an offer or
> a gift to Unesco, it has
> to be established so that the receiving party has to
> be able to develop
> beyond the agreement process. No strings can be
> attached;
> -      If a proprietary gift is made , a non-profit
> matching gift should be
> made, either by other private-public foundations or
> by nation-states or
> other acceptable donors.
>  
>  
> ABOUT CONVENTION ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY
> This Convention follows up on the declaration on
> Cultural Diversity, signed
> unanimously by the nation-states of Unesco in 2001
> (before the US return to
> Unesco). It is supposed to turn the idea of cultural
> diversity into a new
> right, alongside other human rights. So it  posits
> that cultural goods like
> media productions and other content productions are
> not a service just like
> any other but are part of culture and cannot be
> treated as a mere commodity.
> As such governements are given certain
> responsibilities and means of
> sanction to protect that new emerging right.
> But  the recent draft of the convention seems to
> make some provisions that
> curtail the proper development  of this right,
> tilting the balance towards
> general trade agreements and very proprietary
> intellectual ownership rights.
>  
> WHAT ACTION ?
>             We should issue a general statement from
> Civil Society in WSIS,
> via the « content and themes » group, and put
> pressure on nation-states and
> Unesco, so that some points are carefully
> reconsidered in the Convention :
> -      the cultural diversity right should not be
> made subordinate to trade
> and existing trade agreements, nor should it be
> disconnected from public
> service, public goods and public commons (regional,
> national, international)
> ;
> -      the cultural diversity right should apply to
> all media and technical
> supports and not exclude any, especially the future
> technological
> developments related to networks of distributed
> intelligence and immaterial
> goods ;
> -      the cultural diversity right should not be
> considered just at the
> international level but also at the regional and
> local level, within
> nation-states, in a true spirit of diversity,
> pluralism and balance.
>  
>  
> So this is a call for the ³content and themes² group
> to take up business
> again, and not wait for prepcom 2, where it might be
> too late and when other
> imperatives will take up all our energy.
>  
> Best
> Divina Frau-Meigs 
> Focal point, family of education, academia and
> research
>  
>  I would be grateful if some translation in French
> and Spanish could be
> provided.
> 
>  
> > _______________________________________________
> > Educal mailing list
> > Educal at wsis-cs.org
> >
>
http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/educal
> 
> 


=====
Djilali Benamrane : dbenamrane at yahoo.com
Tel/fax : (227) 75 35 09 BP 11207 - Niamey - Niger
Tél/Fax : (331) 01 45 39 77 02 Paris - France
Page web sur le SMSI (mecanismes de financement) : en cours de construction 
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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