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<br><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><b>HUMAN RIGHTS CAUCUS CONCERNED
ABOUT WSIS OUTCOME</b></font></div>
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<br><font size=2 face="Times New Roman">GENEVA, DECEMBER 7, 2003 -- The
civil society Human Rights Caucus of the World Summit on the Information
Society has many reasons to be concerned as thousands of delegates converge
on Geneva for the World Summit. The Caucus, which includes
more than 40 organisations, has been working since the first preparatory
meetings 18 months ago to ensure that human rights are not left off the
WSIS agenda.</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="Times New Roman">Our <b>first concern</b> is about
the lack of political will to address the effective implementation of human
right standards and how ICTs can serve to enforce these. Rather than forward-looking
strategies that address the new potential and challenges posed by ICTs
for human rights, time and resources have been spent on defending principles
that were agreed upon 55 years ago. Even banal references to the Universal
Declaration on Human Rights have been debated and contested right up until
the last hour. This opportunity to bring the human rights agenda
forward has been squandered. </font>
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<br><font size=2 face="Times New Roman">The caucus has been involved in
WSIS precisely because it was an important opportunity to carry the human
rights agenda forward. We aimed to actually translate human rights principles
to the context of the information society. Unfortunately, our task
has become defending the formal commitment to previously reached international
consensus, that is, preventing complete backtracking on human rights. </font>
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<br><font size=2 face="Times New Roman">(More information on the caucus’s
interventions throughout the process can be found at www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis)</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="Times New Roman">The <b>second concern </b>of the
Human Rights Caucus is the ongoing deplorable human rights situation in
Tunisia, scheduled to host phase 2 of the Summit in 2005. The caucus joins
many others in rejoicing that webmaster Zouhair Yahyaoui has been conditionally
released and hopes that he and others imprisoned for exercising their human
rights will be free from official harassment and intimidation. The caucus
considers this first move on the part of the Tunisian government a step
in the right direction. But this does not change the fact that there
are very serious problems remaining to be solved in order for WSIS Phase
Two to take place in Tunisia in acceptable conditions.</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="Times New Roman">The most significant problems are
the lack of freedom of speech and freedom of information, the tight controls
on the use of the internet, the strict control over the media, and the
constant intimidation and harassment of people who dare to criticize the
regime, however mildly.</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="Times New Roman">The human rights caucus will be
active throughout the Summit this week in Geneva. Amongst
other activities, the Caucus is a co-sponsor of the <b>World Forum on Communication</b>
<b>Rights </b>in the Information Society, to take place on December 11
at Palexpo. With well-known human rights leaders from countries
where the information society is tightly controlled (Souhayr Belhassen
from the Tunisian Human Rights League and Sharon Hom from Human Rights
in China) in addition to keynote Aminata Traoré, the session promises an
excellent overview of some of the most contentious issues of the Summit.
The programme can be found here: </font><font size=2 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><u>www.communicationrights</u></font><font size=2 face="Times New Roman">.
It takes place in Palexpo, Salle Mont-Blanc, starting from
9:30am.</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="Times New Roman">-30-</font>
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<br><font size=2 face="Times New Roman">For more information: Diana
Bronson: 41 079 296 4782 or dbronson@ichrdd.ca</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>
Diana Bronson<br>
Rights and Democracy/Droits et Démocratie<br>
www.ichrdd.ca<br>
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