[WSIS CS-Plenary] Should Canada go to Wsis 2 in Tunis?

[Jean-Louis FULLSACK]

Hello Liss and all
I fully agree the viewpoint expressed in your message about freedom and democraty issues in the WSIS Summit hosting country, and even the relative silence we notice on our mailing list. 
Unless CS is schizophrenic, it will be difficult for us to stay in the middle of this dramatic (for the tunesian population) environment, just because we are supposed to be protected by the UN status of the WSIS Site. 
I thaught naively that the tunesian gouvernement will "do something" for downshift its beheaviour, but the conditions that prevailed during the campaign of the last local elections (even the "official" opposition was prevented to present a common list) and the figure of the votes (95% for the president's party) has made me "come back to the hard reality. This is a likely provocation or I dream. 
As far as we were personnally committed since the very beginning in this WSIS process and spent a good piece of time to it, we'll be faced to a dramatic choice. And meanwhile the tunesian gouvernment is playng with our nerves !  
That's why at PrepCom-3, the CS must be firm and as much as possible be united for taking our decision collectively, and tell the WSIS Executives the line we don't pass. Furthermore, a Press conference should express clearly this strong position (or the threat) of the CS at the very beginning of the PrepCom. But please : dont leave that to CONGO nor to the "good will" of the CS Secretariat !  
Best regards
Jean-Louis Fullsack
CSDPTT- France


> Message du 12/05/05 03:33
> De : lissjeffrey at sympatico.ca
> A : plenary at wsis-cs.org
> Copie à : ecadmin at ecommons.net, wsis-smsi at ecommons.net
> Objet : [WSIS CS-Plenary] Should Canada go to Wsis 2 in Tunis?
> 
> hello all:
> 
> The C2C Canadian civil society public web space is raising questions about 
> Canada's role in Wsis 2, given the escalating recent reports on human rights 
> violations.
> < http://wsis.ecommons.ca/ >
> 
> I am posting these concerns to this list, because this seems to me a matter 
> that we are going to need to confront sooner rather than later. Under what 
> conditions are we as civil society members willing to overlook the human 
> rights violations in Tunis that are being called to our attention by various 
> journalist and human rights organizations?
> 
> When will we become more vocal regarding the problematic condition of human 
> rights and freedom of expression and of the press in Tunisia? Am I missing 
> something that you are all up on? Is this the time to hold our noses and 
> take advantage of what can be gained in such an arena?
> 
> When will we decide -- or rather, start again on the discussion, as I am not 
> suggesting this has not come up before -- that the time has come to warn 
> our own national governments that the situation is unacceptable, and does 
> not appear to be improving, and that the question of the legitimacy of 
> participation in Wsis 2 in Tunis must be on the agenda, now on the ground as 
> we make our preparations, now at the national level, and now at the UN and 
> international agency level?
> 
> We have started this discussion for Canada, on the basis of reports from 
> others who are specialized in human rights. We see this as a fundamental 
> question that must be faced by all who are concerned with the Wsis process 
> and substance.
> More on my take:
> < http://wsis.ecommons.ca/node/view/558 >
> 
> There is too much business as usual about this Wsis 2 phase it seems to me, 
> and we are finding it difficut to ignore some of the glaring contradictions 
> between the rhetoric on democracy, rights and freedoms, and the reported 
> situation in Tunisia. Sure, this is true elsewhere also, no country is 
> perfect, but then Wsis 2 is happening in a specific place. It is a meeting 
> about how the plans of action are working, and that means among other things 
> how are the principles working in those plans of action? Right? I am surely 
> not missing something here.
> 
> We want Canada to be very careful about what it is endorsing by overlooking 
> the violataions of human rights, press freedoms, and freedom of expression 
> and association on the Internet, as reported in Tunisia. Should we go if 
> nothing changes?
> 
> I have not seen much about this issue on here, so I shall refer anyone who 
> is also a public interest civil society generalist (we who are not single 
> issue human rights and press freedom experts) to our own arena, and there 
> are doubtless many others.
> These issues are open for discussion on our civil society resource site, C2C 
> launched in Geneva in December, 2003. The site also has info on Wsis 1 and 
> 2, from Canada and elsewhere You do not need to be Canadian to visit, to 
> register, and to take part, and yes, oui, on parle francais aussi.
> http://wsis.ecommons.ca
> 
> The eCommons/agora does not want to see the road to Tunis paved with human 
> rights and press freedom violations.
> 
> That would defeat the spirit and the purpose of Wsis!
> 
> Liss Jeffrey
> director, eComons/agora
> 
> 
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