<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2>
<P>Luego de una plenaria nutrida de intensidades verbales en el debate de
la<BR>sociedad civil llevado a cabo en la maniana del sabado 26- en la
última<BR>jornada de la PREPCOM de Tunez, se arribo a un posición de
concenso<BR>expresandose las dos posiciones que se confrontaron a lo largo de
estas tres<BR>jornadas.</P>
<P>Finamente pudieron ser leidas en la plenaria general y con ello se alcanzo
un<BR>objetivo muy apreciado por los grupos de la sociedad civil
aquí<BR>reunidos: que no hubiera ningún tipo de cercenamiento a la libertad
de<BR>expresion.<BR><BR>Lamentamos no poder enviarles la versión en espaniol
pero dado la<BR>urgencia de los tiempos le adelantamos la version en ingles y
esperamos que<BR>algun voluntario o voluntria la pueda traducir.<BR><BR>Jose
Luis Aguirre - Arturo E. Bregaglio<BR>Representación AMARC - CRIS en
Tunez<BR><BR>Civil Society statement on the human rights issue<BR>Intervention
de la soci&eacute;t&eacute; civile sur la question des droits
de<BR>l&#8217;homme<BR>PrepCom1, WSIS second phase<BR>Hammamet &#8211;
June 26 2004<BR>Presented by<BR>Souhayr Belhassen, vice-president of the
Tunisian Human Rights League<BR><BR><BR>At the beginning of this WSIS second
phase, civil society organizations<BR>present in Hammamet wish to express their
objectives and their working<BR>priorities in view of the Tunis Summit in
2005.<BR><BR>At a time where the foundations of international human rights law
are being<BR>challenged by newly adopted laws and measures, everywhere in the
world, in<BR>the name of a fight against terrorism, it was important that the
Declaration<BR>of principles adopted in Geneva in 2003 makes reference to the
fundamental<BR>principles of universality and indivisibility of all human
rights, to the<BR>right to development, and specially reaffirms the necessary
respect of the<BR>integrality of Article 19 of the UDHR on freedom of
expression, of<BR>information and of communication.<BR><BR>This second phase
must go beyond that. Indeed, we intend that it clarifies<BR>these principles by
also reaffirming the fundamental principle of non<BR>discrimination, the
necessity to respect international labor standards, and<BR>the recognition that
a true security can only be reached with measures<BR>entirely compatible with
internationally recognized human rights, not least<BR>the right to privacy. In
addition, we cannot accept that the Declaration of<BR>principles admits that the
rule of law is supposed to &laquo; reflect<BR>national realities&raquo;
rather than being in coherence with the legally<BR>binding obligations of States
according to the international human rights<BR>treaties they have
ratified.<BR><BR>The Tunis phase will focus on Internet governance and
infrastructure<BR>financing issues. We will take part in this work, making sure
that its<BR>results ensure the promotion of the effective implementation of the
whole set<BR>of human rights, and do not derogate from them.<BR><BR>Without
effective implementation, the principles would indeed stay without<BR>substance.
We request that WSIS allow for these principles to be translated<BR>into an
information and communication society serving human rights. To this<BR>end, we
wish that the Summit define precise indicators allowing to evaluate<BR>the
realization of this objective and set up an international mechanism for<BR>their
assessment on this ground, at the local, regional and
international<BR>level.<BR><BR>Finally, we are entirely conscious of the
fundamental importance of holding<BR>WSIS here and for the people of all the
global South countries, and we thus<BR>wish its success. However, we wish to
reaffirm that it is the duty of the two<BR>host countries of the Summit to show
exemplarity, especially in the<BR>realization of freedom of expression, of
information, of communication, as<BR>well as of freedom of association and the
right to privacy.<BR></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>