[WSIS CS-Plenary] Fwd: [hr-wsis] [English] Quick report on 1st week activities of HR caucus

Sat Feb 19 16:14:22 GMT 2005

Hi all,

This report was mainly intended for HR caucus members, but could be of 
interest to other CS participants.
Best,
Meryem

Début du message réexpédié :

> Resent-From: hr-wsis at iris.sgdg.org
> De: Meryem Marzouki <marzouki at ras.eu.org>
> Date: Sam 19 fév 2005  17:09:44 Europe/Paris
> À: hr-wsis at iris.sgdg.org
> Objet: [hr-wsis] [English] Quick report on 1st week activities of HR 
> caucus
> Répondre à: hr-wsis at iris.sgdg.org
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> Here is a very quick report of HR caucus activities at this step of 
> prepcom2, so that those who couldn't make it to attend may keep aware 
> of what's going on from our side.
> The caucus website will be updated with information and documents, 
> check it at:
> http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis
>
> This first week has mainly been devoted to 'communication' activities 
> on HR caucus concerns, with regards to both WSIS process and WSIS 
> issues and documents. These activities have been:
>
> - Feb. 14. During the CS briefing session organized by CONGO with the 
> participation of Mr Geiger, Executive Director of WSIS and head of 
> Exec Secretariat, and Ambassador Karklins, president of WSIS 2nd phase 
> process, we raised the issue of accreditation, both the one of our 
> member HRIC (see below) and the one of Tunisian independent CS 
> organizations, which are not legally recognized. Both Mr Geiger and Mr 
> Karklins seem very supportive and have given, during the meeting and 
> through private discussions I had with them, some guidance to advance 
> these issues.
>
> - Feb. 16. Participation to a press conference organized at the Swiss 
> Press Club in Geneva, by HR caucus member Amnesty International, Swiss 
> section and by Communica-CH, the Swiss CS coordination. The title of 
> the press conf was: "WSIS in Tunis: a Summit on information under 
> repression?". Participants spoke in French and German. I'll send to 
> the list my own presentation soon, in French and English, as soon as I 
> find time to sort out my notes and translate them into English. It 
> resulted in good press coverage, mainly in the Swiss press.
>
> - Feb. 16. Participation to the WSIS CS press conference at the Palais 
> des Nations, through a speaking slot we have asked for, arguing that, 
> while we understand governance, financing, and WSIS follow-up 
> activities are indeed central issues in the 2nd phase, human rights 
> and social justice still are crucial and transverse concerns that 
> should be raised, specially since CS as a whole have strongly fought 
> in order to have them included in WSIS. Rikke has already posted to 
> the list her draft speech.
>
> - Feb. 17. Organization of a 3 hours panel on "Information society and 
> Human Rights", with the participation of 5 members of the caucus 
> (DIHR, IRIS, FIDH, HRIC, LTDH), plus an introduction from Walther 
> Lichem, Austrian ambassador, in his capacity of member of PDHRE 
> (People's Decade for Human Rights Education). The programme has 
> already been posted to the list, and Rikke has also sent her own 
> presentation at this panel. The panel was very well attended (120 to 
> 150 persons), with representatives from governements (Canada, at the 
> ambassador level, and Denmark, Swiss, France, etc.) as well as Osamu 
> Shiraishi, representing the OHCHR. The panel ended with a bit of chaos 
> in the last minutes of discussions, as unfortunately usual each time 
> we talk about Tunisia (some of us already experienced that in Hammamet 
> prepcom), but, all in all, I think it went well, and attendees has 
> appreciated the presentations.
>
> - Feb. 18. A caucus member, Human Rights in China (HRIC), has once 
> again been denied accreditation to WSIS, following China's 
> intervention, and is calling for support. At the request of HRIC, we 
> decided to initiate a petition calling for support (this would 
> certainly help the Executive Secretariat in its task for HRIC 
> accreditation to next PrepCom). This petition and the call for support 
> has been announced during the morning CS plenary by Sharon Hom, 
> Executive director of HRIC, and will be sent in some minutes to the 
> plenary list as well as to this list.
>
> Apart from these specific activities, the usual networking is going 
> on. As just announced, the caucus has now 2 new members : MISA (Media 
> Institute of Southern Africa) has been participating to WSIS since the 
> first phase, but Ambedkar Center for Justice and Peace is new to it. 
> This organization is based in India and has international offices in 
> the US and Canada, and deals, inter alia, with the human rights of the 
> Dalits, which are violated by the cast system in India. Yogesh 
> Varhade, the president of this organization who we met in Geneva, is 
> now on the list and would be interested in getting in touch with 
> caucus members dealing with minorities and indigeneous peoples issues 
> (e.g. INCOMINDIOS). I would also like to mention that some HR caucus 
> members are also participating to other caucuses, or even coordinating 
> them, and that it is very important that this way they can bridge 
> between HR issues and other, more specific issues, relevant to WSIS : 
> education, cultural diversity, privacy and security, etc., not to 
> mention the link with regional caucuses.
>
> As next week will see intensive discussions of official documents 
> (political chapeau and operational part, financing mechanisms report, 
> internet governance report), we will mainly be working on comments and 
> inputs to these documents. To this end, a caucus meeting has been 
> announced for Monday, Feb. 21 at 13:00. As for now, the meeting place 
> is the Serpentine bar, but new place would be announced in case a room 
> is found available.
> Again, if any caucus member may provide comments or even short 
> paragraphs to be included in a HR caucus written contribution, it is 
> most welcome to do so. We already have as a start Rikke's proposal on 
> governance and HR issues and Ginger's comments on financing and HR.
>
> Best regards,
> Meryem
> HR caucus co-chair
>
> --
> Meryem Marzouki - http://www.iris.sgdg.org
> IRIS - Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire
> 294 rue de Charenton - 75012 Paris
> Tel/Fax. +33(0)144749239
>
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