[WSIS CS-Plenary] On conditional support to Shirin Ebadi

[Meryem Marzouki]

Dear all,

I'm afraid it would be difficult to include supports to Shirin Ebadi  
that seem conditional to having something very specific said. This  
applies to the Disability Caucus support as well as to the Health and  
ICT Working Group support, following the messages sent by,  
respectively, Hiroshi and Elizabeth. The Human Rights Caucus is  
grateful for these two supports, but we cannot seriously commit, on  
behalf of Ms. Ebadi, that she would specifically address a given point.  
If we do that, then we will soon end with a kind of "shopping list".  
This is not reasonable.

So, unless there is a message posted, on time, by both Hiroshi and  
Elisabeth, confirming their support on the general basis that Ms. Ebadi  
would address in her speech the necessary human rights and social  
justice foundations for an information society, in the way she  
personally feels appropriate to address this issue, the Disability  
Caucus and the Health and ICT Working Group would not be included, so  
that no one may feel disappointed or, worse, utilized in some way or  
another. I think this is fair enough, and honest.

I understand the importance of the issue of the rights of persons with  
disabilities, and in particular the rights of women with disabilities  
(Hiroshi request). I also understand the importance to have access to  
physical and mental health information and services via ICT (Elizabeth  
request). I share these concerns. But anyone would reasonably recognize  
that if this level of details is reached for all issues of concerns of  
whole CS @ WSIS, then the opening speech would need to last some hours,  
and would loose any strength. There are numerous other speaking slots  
(round-tables, high-level panels, plenaries) where the development of a  
given issue is more relevant. But we're speaking of the opening.

More generally speaking, I would like to refer to a message by Ronald  
Koven on this list (Tue, 11 Oct 2005 17:29:14 EDT, Subject: speakers  
list transmitted to the ITU), on this issue. I share this viewpoint  
expressed by Rony, specially since we're talking here of a really  
outstanding figure, with true intellectual authority worldwide.  
Moreover, this person is known all over the world, and has a public  
status. In other words, everyone know, or may find out, what she  
previously said in numerous top level occasions. If we support her,  
this means that we know she would make a strong high-level address, of  
which we all will be proud.

Finally, may I remind everyone that, at the Geneva Summit opening,  
Kicki Nordström was the plenary speaker, and half of her speech was  
dedicated to the specific issue of people with disabilities, specially  
blind people. The speech may be found at:  
http://www.itu.int/wsis/geneva/coverage/ 
archive.asp?lang=en&c_type=op%7C10

On a more practical issue, I have to tell you that my mail (pop) server  
has had problems since last night, and as a consequence I'm able to  
write from but not to receive emails at my usual address. This means  
that I am able to gather all the supports expressed on the plenary list  
(through the web archives), but not those sent directly to my email  
address after Saturday 23:00 GMT. Sorry about that.

Best,
Meryem