[WSIS CS-Plenary] RE: [WSIS-CT] [THETHA] South African WSIS Civil Society Statement

[Elizabeth Carll, PhD]

Thank you for posting the reminder for the call for comments. I am also
posting this on the WSIS plenary to emphasize the importance of the need for
repetition of development issues among the various NGO statements which will
be drafted for WSIS II. The more development issues are repeated from
different regions of the world the more likely they will be included in
outcome documents.

The SOUTH AFRICAN WSIS CIVIL SOCIETY STATEMENT is excellent and quite
comprehensive.  However, there are 2 areas (physical/mental health and
gender equality) in which it may be helpful to add inclusions.

The following are recommendations for inclusion:

1.   In Section 3 "Critical Areas of Consideration", it is recommended there
be a paragraph addressing access to physical and mental health information.
While there is reference to this critical area in the paragraph addressing
disability, which is very important, it needs to be broader and focus on all
people.

Recommended insertion is in brackets:

[Access to Physical and Mental Health Information - Priority be given to
access for all people to all forms of physical and mental health
information.  This access must be a two way flow of information and
communication and include input from communities, organizations, and
individuals, and take into consideration cultural/regional issues.]

2.  It may be helpful to expand Section 12 "Civil Society Has a
Responsibility to Advance the Use of ICTs to Reduce Gender Imbalances" to
not only focus on benefiting women, but also to focus on women as active
participants in controlling this important resource.  Therefore, the
following, in brackets, is recommended for inclusion in this section.

[Special focus should be made to include the equal participation of women in
the development, implementation, and policy formulation of all aspects of
ICT.]

Hopefully, these points can be included in the excellent statement by the
South African Civil Society.

Thank you for your consideration.

Best regards,

Dr. Elizabeth Carll
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies;
Communications Coordination Committee for the United Nations;
NGO Committee on Mental Health
New York, USA
Tel: 1631-754-2424
Fax: 1631-754-5032
ecarll at optonline.net

-----Original Message-----
From: ct-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:ct-admin at wsis-cs.org]On Behalf Of
THETHA
Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 8:32 AM
To: wsis
Subject: [WSIS-CT] [THETHA] South African WSIS Civil Society Statement


SOUTH AFRICAN WSIS CIVIL SOCIETY STATEMENT

Final call for comments, feedback and endorsements

Deadline: 14 September 2005

www.sangonet.org.za

---------------------------------------------

The Second Phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) will
be held from 16-18 November 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia.

The Summit is an important event, symbolising the recognition by the global
community that ICTs can play a major role in social and economic development
and contribute significantly towards poverty alleviation.

In the past few months SANGONeT has coordinated the preparation of a WSIS
South African Civil Society Statement with the support of various local
civil society organisations.

This document focuses on various important issues shaping the Information
Society, including freedom of expression, telecommunications costs, funding
and evaluation, Internet governance, media freedom, open source software and
open content, education, gender and disability.

The third draft of the Statement is now available on the SANGONeT website
and all South African civil society organisations are requested to review
the document and submit their final comments, feedback and endorsements to
SANGONeT by no later than Wednesday, 14 September 2005.

Feedback should be send to - info at sangonet.org.za

The final version of the Statement will be submitted to the Department of
Communications on 16 September 2005


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