[WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Déclaration de la Société Civile SMSI - Version DRAFT en Français PROPOSITIONS DE CORRECTION

arne hintz arne.hintz at web.de
Wed Dec 14 18:15:41 GMT 2005


A few points on this discussion and in Djilali's objections, in 
particular...

1. The facts about the Citizens Summit have been made clear by Meryem 
and others, and there have been numerous reports about the activities 
by the Tunisian authorities against it.

2. If Djilali and others have not experienced the Citizens Summit and 
other civil society meetings in Tunis (and the related police 
repression) directly, and thus don't have all the relevant information, 
that's fair enough. The summit was a big event, with lots of official, 
side-, parallel-, etc events, and it was impossible to attend all these 
and to see all that has happened. But in that case we should listen to 
those who have actually been there and attended these events, and trust 
their words.

3. From the last mails, there could be the impression that there is a 
"North-South divide" on this topic. This would be a very wrong 
impression, in my view, as it was in fact local Tunisian civil society 
groups who were very active in the Citizens Summit and in other local 
civil society events. Their criticism has been much stronger than what 
has now appeared in the Civil Society Statement. (And, of course, this 
is not surprising -- just look at the critical role of Mexican 
activists in the protests against the WTO in Cancun, or of South 
African groups in the activities around the Johannesburg summit in 
2002...).

4. Having been involved with WSIS?WeSeize! in Geneva, I am happy that 
the events that happened outside the Geneva summit (and the hostile 
acts of the Swiss state against them) are also mentioned in the 
Statement. The Swiss authorities' reaction to protest (... taking in 
account also the police brutality against protesters and journalists 
around the G8 summit, 6 months before the Geneva WSIS summit...) 
certainly did not live up to the standards which they formulated in 
Tunis. Yet I am sure none of those involved in WSIS?WeSeize! would 
doubt that the situation in Tunisia has been far more serious, and that 
dissidents and civil society activists in Tunisia have been facing far 
more problems and repression than those in Switzerland.

5. Generally, I really don't see on what grounds the paragraph 
suggested by Rikke (as well as the latest version of the CS Statement) 
could be objected to. It simply "reminds" us all that human rights "can 
not be taken for granted". That's all. If we don't have consensus on 
that simple assertion, then I wonder what else the CS Plenary can agree 
on. This sentence is so basic that it seems strange that we need to 
discuss it. Furthermore, leaving that section out completely or 
watering it down any further would not anymore reflect the balance of 
civil society activities and views. And I, and I'm sure many others, 
would not agree to such a statement.

Best,
Arne

Am 14.12.2005 um 13:32 schrieb djilali benamrane:

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> _______________________________________
>
> Dear Pierre,
> Thanks for your message,
> I wonder South Civile Society members becoming more
> active in discussions, regardless items and
> proposals....
> African Causus did a real and huge progress
> participating actively to various WSIS debates... We
> do must improve our visibility, our effectiveness, our
> agreement and desagrement with any proposal. Where are
> colleagues from Asia, Arab countries and or from
> Latino America ???????
> I personnaly have a great admiration regarding what
> Meriem, Jean Louis, Francis and others colleagues did
> and are doing to give credibility and effectiveness to
> the Civile society general status, but if some among
> us desagree with some position (and it is normal in
> Democracy) we have to say it, to write it, to explain
> and reexplain and somewhere the truth must be between
> different positions and we have to accept it in the
> end.
> In one of the last Rikk's proposal of the draft :
> experiencies, difficulties and insufficiencies lived
> in Geneva and Tunis Summits have been related and
> somewhere compared to underline that even if the
> background and expectations are totally different in
> the two countries, it has not been easy to do
> everything in Geneva and somewhere it has not been
> easy to do every thing in Tunis (i remember for
> example that Young protest the last day against the
> Summit in Geneva, which can be considered as a Side
> Event, has been forbiden and discrashed by Geneva
> Security authorities and as i remeber this Event has
> not been mentionned in the CS Statement). I said in
> our last Geneva meeting to the colleagues let's
> remember what we are living here and how we are
> reacting because in Tunis we shall be there and we
> have to be fair in our positions, actions and
> reactions.
> Tunisians, with all difficulties of an underdeveloped
> country did their best to organize as well as they can
> the Summit and we have not to underline only bad
> aspect, human right insuficiencies...
> Everybody can draft complementary documents on his own
> behalf or on behalf of his organization and develop
> discussions and lobbying arround his own feeling but
> an offical statement must be consensual.
> I propose to delete non consensual componient of the
> statement and let colleagues who want to express their
> point of view to do it in other documents.
> Best regards
> Djilali
>
> --- bapdem pierre <partners95 at yahoo.fr> wrote:
>
>> from: Pierre Chekem
>>   Partnership Coordinator
>>   P.O.Box 7124 Doula, Cameroon
>>   tel(237)7779962
>>   http://www.wagne.net/partners
>>
>>   Douala, 13thDecember 2005.
>>
>>   As participant to the Tunis Summit and member of
>> the African civil
>>   society, may I recall that we were very surprised
>> by the propaganda
>>   organised by many non African media against the
>> summit.
>>
>>   Despite the efforts deployed to make the summit
>> fail, we know that
>>   this summit was one of the UN most successful one
>> organised.
>>
>>   I understand that men and women can disagree even
>> on human
>>   rights issues since the priorities of Africa
>> maynot be the priorities
>>   of other continents. But as civil society
>> organisations, we must
>>   reach a fair consensus and generally agree on our
>> differences
>>   when they arise. Publishing as consensus a
>> unilateral position
>>   may not be fair.
>>
>>   Somebody should care somewhere on the false image
>> of Africa
>>   portrayed by the majority of western media and
>> fair communication
>>   and consensus among civil society organisations
>> can help in this.
>>
>>   I wish to thank all those who don't  only keep a
>> false image of
>>   what happen in the Tunis summit.
>>
>>   Yours sincerely,
>>
>>   Pierre Chekem
>>   Partnership Coordinator,
>>
>>   ================================================
>>
>>
>>
>> djilali benamrane <dbenamrane at yahoo.com> a écrit :
>>   Click http://wsis.funredes.org/acsis/ to access
>> automatic translation of this message!
>> _______________________________________
>>
>> Dear Rikke,
>> Sorry, i red your message after sending mine,
>> calling
>> colleagues to stop if possible this debate.
>> I do not agree with your explanation and as long as
>> we
>> dont agree on a commun version you cannot consider
>> it
>> as a consensual one.
>> You can if you want propose a new text indicating
>> that
>> the CS has been divided and report on the two
>> versions, but please don't take an unilateral
>> position....
>> best regards
>>
>> Je ne partage pas la proposition de Rikke et je
>> préfère personnellement que dans le texte il y ait
>> une
>> indication sur les deux positions et interprétations
>> de la société civile en la matière. Sinon nous
>> tirerons les conséquences d'une disposition prise
>> unilatéralement.
>> Amitiés
>>
>> --- Rikke Frank Joergensen wrote:
>>
>>> Dear nana and all
>>>
>>> The CSIS was not a parallel event to WSIS (the
>> ones
>>> which took place at the official space as part of
>>> the official agenda), but a side event. Its normal
>>> procedure at UN Summits to hold side events,
>> outside
>>> the official summit space and open to the general
>>> public, incl. non accredited entities. CSIS was
>> such
>>> an event and was publicly announced and recognised
>>> by the WSIS secretariat and govn. delegations
>>> several weeks before the summit. We even had
>> formal
>>> correspondence with diplomates who wanted to
>> attend
>>> CSIS as speakers or audience.
>>>
>>> I believe its important to flag in a
>>> "fair-to-the-facts way" the obstacles which CS met
>>> in holding the side events both in Geneve (We
>> Seize)
>>> and in Tunis (CSIS). I actually think it would be
>>> unfair to ask us to delete such important
>>> information. To my mind, the formulations in the
>>> current draft by ralf are as diplomatic as we can
>>> reasonably expect to be. I hope we can agree to
>> this
>>> language.
>>>
>>> best
>>> Rikke
>>>
>>> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
>>> Fra: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org på vegne af NANA
>>> Delphine
>>> Sendt: lø 10-12-2005 23:18
>>> Til: africa at wsis-cs.org
>>> Cc: plenary at wsis-cs.org;
>>> wsis-finance at yahoogroupes.fr; bureau at wsis.cs.org;
>>> wsis at iprolink.ch; wsis at ngocongo.org
>>> Emne: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Déclaration de la Société
>>> Civile SMSI - Version DRAFT en Français
>> PROPOSITIONS
>>> DE CORRECTION
>>>
>>> click http://wsis.funredes.org/acsis/ to access
>>> automatic translation of this message
>>>
>>>
>>> Chers Tous,
>>>
>>> En la lisant, le draft de la déclaration de la
>>> Société Civile SMSI, beaucoup des membres de la
>>> société civile africaine ont remarqué que dans
>>> l'avant dernier paragraphe du chapitre sur les
>>> droits de l'homme, il est dit que le Sommet
>> Citoyen
>>> qui est un évenement parallele a été empeché de se
>>> tenir. En consultant par la suite la liste des
>>> évenements parrallèles "side events" sur le site
>> du
>>> sommet), cela ne semble pas être le cas.
>>>
>>> En plus, il a été convenu dans la reunion de la
>>> plenière de la societe civile du Vendredi 18
>>> Novembre 2005 que le contenu de cette declaration
>>> doit faire l'objet du consensus général au sein de
>>> la societe civile, et la question du Sommet
>> Citoyen
>>> ne rentre pas dans le
>>> consensus.
>>> Par conséquent, la société civile africaine par
>>> ma voix, se désolidarise de ce point qui ne
>>> correspond pas à sa position et demande son
>>> annulation.
>>>
>>> Delphine NANA MEKOUNTE
>>> Présidente ACSIS ( African Civil Society for the
>>> Information Society)
>>> Coordinatrice Générale CEFEPROD
>>> Statut Consultatif Spécial ECOSOC
>>> Tél (237) 231 13 17/ 999 86 16
>>> YAOUNDE- Cameroun
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------------------------------
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>>
>>
>> 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 Sommet Mondial sur la Societe de
>> l'Information (SMSI) (mecanismes de financement)
>> http://www.wsis-finance.org et groupe de discussion
>> : http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/
>> 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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> === message truncated ===
>
>
> 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 Sommet Mondial sur la Societe de l'Information (SMSI) 
> (mecanismes de financement) http://www.wsis-finance.org et groupe de 
> discussion : http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/
> 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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