[WSIS CS-Plenary] Shirin Ebadi speech (if accepted)

[Meryem Marzouki]

Dear all,

To avoid any misunderstanding, let me clarify this point:

It is obvious that Shirin Ebadi would be briefed with the main issues 
and concerns addressed by civil society at WSIS since 2002. Since the 
HR caucus proposed her name, and got many supports, it is obviously the 
first duty of the HR caucus to brief her on that. But it is not 
reasonable to ask for a meeting between her and thousands of persons...

I think that the caucus has gained enough confidence from CS @ WSIS 
since 2002, on its capacity to understand and participate to the 
promotion of all issues, even if this is not, obviously, at the level 
of details each dedicated caucus may reach.

But on the other hand, it is equally obvious that we cannot commit on 
every single issue be specifically addressed by Ms. Ebadi, since she, 
in the end, will write her own address. This is what I meant when 
speaking on "conditional support", and I wrote this message for the 
sake of transparency and honesty.

Again, I would like to remind everyone that this is the opening speech, 
and further speaking slots (round tables, plenaries, high level panels) 
would be used by other CS speakers to elaborate more on specific issues.

Best,
Meryem