[Privsec] WSIS: Privacy and Terrorism in the InfoSoc, Tehran

[Ralf Bendrath]

Dear all,

the following mail is from our world summit NGO colleagues from Iran.
This intiative could really need some help. They still try to come to 
grips with their own ideas, want to defend privacy, but at the same
time are very concerned about the terrorist use of the internet. A number
of the planned panels resonate very well with what we did in the last few 
years. A great chance for an intercultural dialogue on our topics!
If you write to Amir and his colleagues, refer to me having forwarded this.

Best, Ralf

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	seminar on informaion society, privacy and terrorism-Tehran
Date: 	Tue, 15 Nov 2005 19:05:24 +0330
From: 	west <westasiaregion at hotmail.com>
To: 	<plenary at wsis-cs.org>, <apdvtiran at gmail.com>,
<apfav.registry at gmail.com>, "workershouse" <workershouse at yahoo.com>
CC: 	Ralf Bendrath <bendrath at zedat.fu-berlin.de>


Dear CS members,

The Association for Peace and Defending victims of Terrorism (an Iranian
think tank) and the Workers house of Iran, labour and work issues
research institute of Iran and a number of other institutions are
planning to hold the first seminar on IS, privacy and terrorism in the
Middle East Region.

The proposed dates are either in Feb 2006 (22-24 ) or March 2006 (8-10)
in Tehran, Iran. (exact place to be announced)

The logic behind this initiative is the ambiguity of CS and governments
on term terrorism , misusing  the concept of terrorism against peoples
privacy, and the important issue of terrorism and the information society.

As the organisers are in the process of preparing provisional agenda of
the seminar, it would be appreciated if you could send your ideas, or if
you wish to present a paper / or have a speech to inform the organisers.

The organisers are now inviting you to attend this seminar, and
register. They are trying to secure the accommodation of 30 participants
coming from abroad, which the accommodation costs of main panellists and
experts will be covered. There is no participation fee.

The seminar programme is basically divided into morning panels and
afternoon working groups on specific issues.   The morning panels
presentations are the guiding discussions for the afternoon working groups.

The proposed working groups are (afternoons of the days one and two of
the seminar):

1-IS and privacy, What is internet privacy? how terrorism could affect
the privacy of the citizens, what is the limit?
2-IS and terrorism: what terrorism means in the context of information
society? how it could misuse communication tools for its purpose, what
should be done
3-Terrorism and right to have access to information, right to
development: how it could threat the peoples access to information (by
all stakeholders)
4- What is the -War on Terror- effects on the information society? and
how it effects human rights
5- ??? to be decided

As you could see, the fifth working group topic is still not decided,
which will give, the experts , to share your thoughts and recommend what
could be the topic. There will be also some presentations by Iraqi
experts on how terrorism has affected the development of Iraq,
information society there and how terrorist group are using internet as
a tool for spreading terrorism. I am sure there will be a lot of
discussions in this regard. If the first seminar is successful, the
second seminar will be organised in Baghdad 2007.

The website of the seminar will be on-line by end of November, but in
the meantime we appreciate to be informed if you are interested to
participate, and secondly if you wish to share your research results,
paper, project, or expert views on the topic during the open panels.

Seminar Secretariat:

Mr. Arash Faraz
apdvtiran at gmail.com <mailto:apdvtiran at gmail.com>
apfav.registry at gmail.com <mailto:apfav.registry at gmail.com>


and also: westasiaregion at hotmail.com <mailto:westasiaregion at hotmail.com>

More information will be soon posted on the plenary list.

Regards

Amir