[CS Bureau] Parallel Events - Rejections now being sent - WE HAVE PROBLEM!

[Steve Buckley]

Dear Charles

I have received this very worrying message from Robert Guerra which was 
sent to the WSIS CS bureau. Any decisions that prevent the holding of 
events on human rights and freedom of expression at Tunis 2005 will 
seriously affect the credibility of the WSIS whether or not there is a 
technical pretext given.

Please can you confirm whether or not the WSIS Executive Secretariat is a 
party to this decision or whether it has been taken by the Tunisian COSMSI 
alone. If the Executive Secretariat has not been party to this decision I 
urge you to take it up with the Tunisian authorities immediately and to 
insist on the co-responsibility of the WSIS Executive Secretariat in all 
decisions relating to parallel events.

Steve Buckley
President, AMARC
Convenor, IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group

cc. Robert Guerra, WSIS CS Bureau, IFEX TMG

At 11:04 05/05/2005 -0400, Robert Guerra wrote:
>Dear all:
>
>I just have received a rather troubling email - one where my proposal for 
>a side event  - that was submitted just before the end of the day on April 
>30th (in my time zone) - has seemingly been rejected/refused by the organizers.
>
>I don't believe which time zone was the one to submit by was ever 
>mentioned - and as such, i and likely a few others - believed it was the 
>local time zone.
>
>While I have contacted the side-event organizers to clarify the point for 
>my particular submission , i think it is an issue to be addresses by the 
>bureau. Despite our call for effective engagement in the prepatory process 
>- we aren't being engaged in matters that count. Date of meetings and the 
>deadline specifics need, - actually must be - communicated to the CSB so
>that we can inform the larger CS constituency.
>
>Francis and Renata's earlier messages seem to indicate that there - indeed 
>was an issue with deadlines, however there was going to be a certain 
>amount of flexibility on how dates were going to be considered. Obviously 
>from the message i just got from the side-event team - well, that doesn't 
>seem to be the case.
>
>The reason i'm - particularly  concerned - is that the proposal was 
>related to a presentation/panel on Censorship and Freedom of expression in 
>the North African and Middle East. It was being proposed by the 
>organization i am associated with - Computer Professionals for Social 
>Responsibility (CPSR) - together with  Human Rights Watch (HRW) . My fear 
>is that the pretext of - sorry it was late - was used to dismiss a 
>proposal that has a human rights component. This may not be the case - 
>but, i don't know and would ask for the bureau and ES to help me clarify 
>the details.
>
>
>regards
>
>Robert
>
>
>
>
>
>Begin forwarded message:
>
>>From: "Guellouz ridha" 
>><<mailto:smsi-evenementsparalleles at mincom.tn>smsi-evenementsparalleles at mincom.tn>
>>Date: May 5, 2005 5:18:48 AM EDT (CA)
>>To: "Robert Guerra" <<mailto:rguerra at privaterra.org>rguerra at privaterra.org>
>>Subject: Re: Request for participation to the Parallel Events / WSIS 
>>Second Phase
>>Reply-To: "Guellouz ridha" 
>><<mailto:smsi-evenementsparalleles at mincom.tn>smsi-evenementsparalleles at mincom.tn>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>With reference to your request to organise parallel events during Tunis 2005
>>WSIS, we would like first to thank you for your interest.
>>
>>However since we have received your request on 1st of may  at 5:31, we
>>apologize to consider it as being out of date limits, according to the
>>guidelines of the parallel events.
>>
>>
>>
>>Best Regards
>
>Original submission date..
>
>>From: Robert Guerra <<mailto:rguerra at privaterra.org>rguerra at privaterra.org>
>>Date: April 30, 2005 10:40:22 PM EDT (CA)
>>To: 
>><mailto:smsi-evenementsparalleles at mincom.tn>smsi-evenementsparalleles at mincom.tn, 
>><mailto:wsis-parallelevents at mincom.tn>wsis-parallelevents at mincom.tn
>>Cc: <mailto:privaterra at privaterra.org>privaterra at privaterra.org
>>Subject: Request for participation to the Parallel Events / WSIS Second Phase
>>Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v728)
>>Message-Id: 
>><<mailto:D63222E9-58CB-4415-A2EF-97B6B378C4E3 at privaterra.org>D63222E9-58CB-4415-A2EF-97B6B378C4E3 at privaterra.org>
>>Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=Apple-Mail-9--830930726
>>
>>Request for participation to the Parallel Events / WSIS Second Phase
>>
>>See attached file and below for details
>
>
>
>
>
>---------------------[ Ciphire Signature ]----------------------
>From: rguerra at lists.privaterra.org signed email html-body (8098 characters)
>Date: on 05 May 2005 at 15:04:11 UTC
>To:   charles.geiger at itu.int, bureau at wsis-cs.org
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                          Steve Buckley
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                    Tel: +44 114 220 1426
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