[WSIS CS-Plenary] commentary UNESCO, Microsoft, convention
Meigs
meigs at wanadoo.fr
Thu Nov 18 08:42:54 GMT 2004
Hi, lisa, Djilali and all
Thank you for your very insightful responses. They confirm the fact that the
UN partnerships with the private sector have to be watched carefully, as
they may create precedents, within the WSIS framework. They may become
standard practice in the name of multistakeholder partnerships, even if the
other partners have not been consulted and have no public say in the matter
at work.
It is necessary to assess how Microsoft has framed its offer within the WSIS
goals and how Unesco deals with this and its other commitments (to open
software for instance). The actual text of the agreement is available on the
Unesco site, as Francis Muguet informs us, and it is worth checking on it,
so as to consider all the implications. We can then address crucial issues
of transparency, accountability, etc.
However, I still think it should be the task of the "content and themes "
group to draft a response document, but it doesn't prevent us to include it
within the positions of the Civil Society Finance Mechanism working group,
as suggested by Djilali. What do yo think, karen and Steve, as co-chairs of
the content and themes group?
Best
Divina,
Focal point, family of education, academia and research
>>>
> Hi all,
>
> I have been researching UN partnerships with the
> private sector for some time, most recently in
> respect to one of the great "successes" of the
> WSIS--the use of the WSIS as a venue for securing
> of partnerships with ICT giants such as Cisco
> Systems, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, and so on.
>
> As such, I think that it's important to point out
> that this recent UNESCO/Microsoft partnership
> does not represent a *new* dangerous position
> taken by UNESCO. For example, in 2000, UNESCO
> worked in partnership with McDonald's and Disney
> in sponsoring the "Millennium Dreamers" event,
> which "set out to find and celebrate the
> accomplishments of 2,000 young people ages 8-15
> from every corner of the globeŠwho are making a
> positive difference in their communities-and, at
> the same time, reinforce McDonald's long-standing
> heritage of giving back to the communities it
> serves." The event was capped off by a global
> youth summit event at Walt Disney World, attended
> by 2000 "Millennium Dreamers whose essays had
> been vetted by "an expert panel of judges."
> Representatives from over 700 media outlets also
> attended. The outcome of this initiative was
> "alliance enhancement," according to Golin/Harris
> International, the public relations firm that
> managed the event. Here's a quote from
> Golin/Harris's subsequent write-up of the event:
>
> "The McDonald's/Disney alliance was elevated to a
> new level of partnership, proving its ability to
> positively enhance the two brands and corporate
> reputations. It set the stage for future global
> programs to move beyond Happy Meal and movie
> promotions. Breakthrough events like having
> company icons Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse
> appear together for the first time in a public
> venue, company CEOs joining together for events
> and allowing Ronald McDonald inside a Disney
> theme park for the first time all add to the
> evidence of partnership growth."
> (Golin/Harris International)
>
> It would seem that UNESCO was a good brand with
> which to be associated at a time when McDonald's
> was under investigation (and later fined) for the
> illegal use of child labor in the UK and Disney
> had long been criticized for the abysmal labor
> conditions at its subcontractors' factories in
> Haiti, Indonesia, and China.
>
> Anyone who is interested in reading about
> corporate partnerships with the likes of UNESCO,
> UNDP, and UNICEF might want to look at the
> following web sites:
>
> http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/United_Nations/perilous_partnerships.html
>
> http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=996
>
> http://globalpolicy.org/reform/indxbizarch.htm
>
> Most of the best research on this subject has
> been done, not by academics, but by groups such
> as Corporate Watch (especially Kenny Bruno) and
> the Corporate European Observatory.
>
> I've been thinking that it might be good to
> create a collaborative international research
> network to study various dimensions of UN
> partnerships with the ICT sector, so if anyone is
> interested in discussing this further, please be
> in touch. I'd also be interested in helping to
> draft a position paper against the
> UNESCO/Microsoft position--I just think that we
> need to be aware that there are precedents to
> this recent dangerous partnership (all related to
> the "Global Compact," which does not allow for
> mandatory monitoring of partnership projects, for
> corporate accountability, for mandatory corporate
> reporting of their activities, for any
> transparency whatsoever).
>
> All the best,
>
> Lisa
>
>
> (Lisa McLaughlin)
>
>
>
>
>
>> 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
>>> „content and themes¾ 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), ä 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 ª 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 „content and themes¾ 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
>> TÈl/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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