[WSIS CS-Plenary] On genuine CS representative in selection committee and selected speakers

[Meryem Marzouki]

Dear all,

Following the current discussion on the plenary list, regarding the  
fact that a Tunisian member of Parliament has been selected by ITU as  
WSIS speaker, and the concerns and protests expressed by some, I would  
like to provide you with the following information and facts:

The problem is larger than the ITU selection. In fact, the problem  
comes from CS itself, since:
- 2 members of the CS "selection committee" are members of the Tunisian  
Senate (Mohamed Bechir Khalfallah and Chekib Dhaouadi)
- 2 persons on the selected list by CS are members of the Tunisian  
Senate (Mohamed Elyes Ben Marzouk and Jameleddine Khemakhem)
- Other Tunisian people involved in WSIS as "CS" are also members of  
the Tunisian Senate (to only cite two of them who have shouted and  
obstructed the works and public meetings of the HR caucus: Emna Soula,  
Habib Achour).

All these people have been nominated (not elected) by President Ben Ali  
in July 2005 (see  
http://www.realites.com.tn/index1.php?mag=1&cat=/10010100ACTUALITES/ 
1Nation&art=13230&a=detail1).

Indeed, 41 out of 126 members of the Senate are designated by the  
President. The Tunisian Senate has been created in summer 2005, it is a  
lower Chamber, called "Chambre des Conseillers" (Chamber of  
Councellors). You may find synthetized information on the Tunisian  
Senate at: http://www.senat.fr/senatsdumonde/tunisie.html (in French,  
this is the web site of the French Senate).

Another eminent member of the Tunisian "CS" is a member of the Tunisian  
National Assembly (députée): Saïda Agrebi (see  
http://www.atm.org.tn/fr/index.htm)

That is to say that we should express concerns and protests:
- On the CS selection committee composition (not to mention the lack of  
transparency of its process, and the lack of accountability of its  
results: I still don't have received any answer regarding the fact that  
my own name, nominated by the HR caucus as proposed speaker, seems to  
have been "forgotten" by the "selection committee".
- On the recommended list to the ITU
- More generally, on the fact that Tunisian Parliament representatives  
(some not even elected, but nominated by President Ben Ali) are active  
as "CS" in the WSIS process, some of them having even created caucuses  
(like the "children rights caucus, created by Jameleddine Khemakhem).

However, these concerns and protests shouldn't be directed towards the  
ITU, which has picked up who it wanted from the list recommended by the  
"selection committee". They must be directed to CS @ WSIS itself, which  
has let this happened, some actively, others in a passive mode, by  
closing their eyes and their ears when such protests have been raised,  
specially by the human rights caucus, during the whole process.

If ITU selects who it wants, this is entirely our fault: by letting  
them choose in a "recommended list", we have allowed them to do that.  
If we had followed a procedure like the one proposed by Bertrand after  
the first "recommended list" has been posted, this wouldn't have  
happened.

Meryem Marzouki
HR Caucus co-chair