Version 2 - CS draft document

[Meryem Marzouki <marzouki@ras.eu.org>]

Dear all,

Here is version 2 of the CS draft priority document, posted yesterday 
on the list.
I'll make further comments on the general lists, with copy to our HR 
list.
Meryem

World Summit on the Information Society

12 July 2003

Civil Society Priorities Document: (12 July 2003)
Presented to the Intersessional Meeting
Paris 15-18 July 2003

WSIS - Civil Society Working Group on Content and Themes




The civil society organisations endorsing this document consider that 
the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) offers a unique 
framework at the international level, where not only different visions 
can be shared among a variety of stakeholders and cultures, but also 
basic agreements on the shape of future policies could emerge.

Given the breadth and complexity of the issues involved, an integral 
vision of information and communication societies is essential. A 
partial approach is likely to result in policies that could further 
deepen both digital and social divides, or exacerbate other negative 
impacts that are emerging.

We therefore welcome the broadened range of issues covered by the 
present draft documents for the WSIS.   We are concerned, nonetheless, 
that certain key areas are still missing, are inadequately addressed or 
have not achieved consensus.  The following lines will draw attention 
to these issues that constitute priorities for civil society.

As a starting point, the WSIS documents should avoid idealising the 
information society (IS).  It is one thing to describe the vision of 
the IS we rightly aspire to, as orientation for policies, ("The 
information society should be people centered...", Art 8, Draft 
Declaration:), and quite another to state that "The information society 
is a new and higher form of social organization...." (Art. 9), which 
could misleadingly gloss over the potential dangers.

Sustainable democratic development

An equitable Information Society must be based on sustainable economic 
and social development and democratic principles. Information and 
Communication Technologies (ICTs) have great potential for developing 
more democratic, transparent and participative processes of governance, 
from the local to the international level, which should be more 
explicitly supported in the Action Plan.  But technologies also have 
the potential of enabling the perpetuation and expansion of existing, 
undemocratic power relations and inequalities within and between 
peoples and nations.  Democratic and sustainable development of the 
information society can therefore not be left solely to market forces; 
in order to balance commercial objectives with legitimate social 
interests, recognition should be given to the need for appropriate 
regulation and development of public services, and the principle of 
equitable access to services and affordable cost should be reaffirmed.

Communities must also be empowered to develop their own productive 
forces within the information society, in particular to participate in 
its development and sustenance through fully democratic processes that 
allow them to share control of the decision making around economic, 
cultural, environmental, and other issues regarding ICT-based projects.

The action plan should address proposals to support community-based 
communications using both traditional and new media and communication 
technologies and to develop and nurture the discipline of community 
informatics, which responds to the particular characteristics and needs 
of communities, in relation to design, development, deployment, and 
operation of ICTs, as well as local content production.



ICTs should be used as an instrument for the creation of genuine and 
sustainable sources of work, thus providing new labor opportunities, 
above all for those who have been excluded from the formal employment 
system, as well as those affected by labor discrimination, such as the 
disabled and vulnerable groups (including those infected with HIV, the 
elderly, former drug addicts, former prisoners, ex-servicemen).

ICTs can contribute to sustainability, but their use is also creating 
new environmental hazards.  In view of mainstreaming ICTs into 
sustainable development, the action plan should include concrete 
proposals and policies to: develop renewable energy resources, 
particularly for remote communities; improve resource efficiency; 
dematerialize and reduce waste; increase the useful life of hardware; 
improve recycling conditions, ensure safe disposal of discarded ICT 
hardware and parts and encourage the development of alternatives to 
toxic ICT components.


Human rights

An information and communication society that has people and human 
needs at its centre implies underlining the importance of human rights 
standards as the core set of principles guiding its development.  
Communication is a fundamental participative and interactive process 
and is the foundation of all societal organization.  In order to ensure 
freedom of expression and the right to information, the WSIS 
Declaration should therefore not only reaffirm Article 19 of the 
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), but also commit to its 
active enforcement. In addition, the principles of a better-balanced 
flow of information, free circulation of ideas, press freedom, 
participation in the communication process, and knowledge sharing will 
only become meaningful inasmuch as they are supported by a consistent 
articulation of rights.  This would include the reference to the 
relevant articles from the UDHR, the International Covenant on Civil 
and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social 
and Cultural Rights, relating, among other things, to: privacy, freedom 
of thought, conscience, and religion, freedom of peaceful association, 
right to education and to participation in cultural life of the 
community, protection from discrimination or hate incitement, among 
others. We particularly welcome the references to communication as a 
right.

Similarly, the WSIS should refer to improvement of human rights 
standards, such as human and social development, democracy and 
participation, as focus points for setting goals and measures for 
progress.


Global knowledge commons

The Declaration should include, as a principle and theme, the 
maintenance and growth of the commonwealth of human knowledge as a 
means of reducing global inequality and of providing the conditions for 
intellectual creativity, sustainable development and respect for human 
rights. The privatisation of knowledge and information through 
copyright, patents and trademarks is ceasing to be an effective means 
of rewarding creative endeavour or encouraging innovation. Instead it 
is contributing to the growth of inequality and the exploitation of the 
poorest peoples and communities.

The Action Plan must defend and extend the global knowledge commons, 
through public policy and investment in open source and open content, 
including both applications and human capacity development, as well as 
through access to public communication platforms for sharing of 
knowledge and information. The Action Plan should commit to a 
fundamental review of the impact on poverty and human rights of current 
arrangements for recognition and governance of privately held knowledge 
and information, including the work of WIPO and the functioning of the 
TRIPS agreement.
The Action Plan must recognize the pivotal role of people living in 
extreme poverty in the dialogue between all parties, contributing their 
experience and knowledge.  It should give particular attention to 
measures to maintain knowledge diversity and to protect the knowledge 
pool of indigenous peoples, especially botanical and agricultural 
knowledge, against "information mining" and other unfair exploitation.


Literacy, Education, and Research

Literacy, education and research are fundamental components of 
information and knowledge societies. Knowledge creation and acquisition 
should be nurtured as a participatory and collective process and not 
considered a one-way flow.  But only an informed and educated citizenry 
with access to the means and outputs of pluralistic research can fully 
participate in and effectively contribute to knowledge societies.

Urgent attention should be paid to the potential positive and negative 
impacts of ICTs on the issues of illiteracy in national and 
international languages of the great majority of the world’s people.  
Literacy, education, and research efforts in the Information Society 
must include a focus on the needs of people who have physical 
impairments and the elderly.

The action plan should devote attention to the tools, facilities and 
resources that enable lifelong learning.  Capacity building designed to 
empower individuals and communities in the Information Society must 
include, in addition to just basic literacy and ICT skills, information 
literacy (i.e. the ability to find, appraise, use and create 
information) and should stimulate the desire for learning.  Publicly 
funded and independent writing and research, in all parts of the world, 
are essential for building a pluralistic and diverse body of knowledge. 
  Gender sensitive educational programmes and appropriate learning 
environments including e-learning must be developed to increase women’s 
access to education and employment.

Computer and information science professionals must be encouraged to 
perform the continuous task of educating the public about both the 
social risks and benefits of existing and emerging technologies within 
the information society.

Governments should invest in nation-wide "backbones" providing access 
to scientific, cultural and educational information covering all 
categories of inhabitants, with support through continuous programs for 
research and development of educational resources and services.


Cultural and linguistic diversity

The Declaration should adopt as a statement of principle the need to 
respect cultural and linguistic diversity. Communications media and 
information technologies have a particularly important role to play in 
sustaining and developing the world's cultures and languages. The 
implementation of this principle requires support for a plurality of 
means of information and communication including community-driven 
communications initiatives.

The Action Plan should promote legislative, regulatory, technological 
and financial measures to support communications media and information 
pluralism; and should allow for specific safeguards against the 
concentration of media ownership in either corporate or government 
hands.  It should reinforce rights of access to the media and the means 
of information and expression for all peoples, including indigenous 
peoples and other discriminated groups as well as other linguistic and 
cultural minorities. The Action Plan should support the development of 
public service broadcast media including community media.

The Action Plan should support new information and communication 
technologies, which can reinforce cultural and linguistic diversity 
through, for example, translation, voice recognition and other means of 
transcending cultural and linguistic barriers.


Gender

Evidence of governments' commitment to gender equality and women's 
empowerment remain largely absent from the WSIS Agenda.

The Declaration must adopt as a statement of principle a fundamental 
commitment to gender equality, non-discrimination and women's 
empowerment, and recognize these as non-negotiable and essential 
prerequisites to an equitable and people-centred development within the 
Information Society.

To advance gender equality and women's empowerment in the Information 
society, the Action Plan must demonstrate commitment to redress the 
effects of the intersection of unequal power relations in the social, 
economic and political spheres, which manifests in differential access, 
choice, opportunity, participation, status and control over resources 
between women and men as well as communities in terms of class, 
ethnicity, religion, race, geographical location and development status.

The Action Plan should endorse the call of gender and ICT advocates for 
the development of governance and policy frameworks, the setting of 
quantitative and qualitative targets, programmes, activities, 
applications and tools, and a system of monitoring and evaluation which 
would redress shortcomings of current gender mainstreaming approaches.


"Information security" issues

Existing policies on information security often impinge unnecessarily 
upon the rights of individuals, and may be technologically and 
economically problematic.  The Declaration should contain, as a 
statement of principle, that the informed involvement of all 
stakeholders is an essential component to the development of any policy 
at the local, national, and international levels.

The action plan must address efforts to create a culture of security 
and confidence in technological, economic, and legal issues that help 
to ensure a technologically reliable infrastructure.  This includes 
calling for education and open discourse, inventories of recommended 
best practices (such as OECD privacy guidelines and the European 
Parliament Committee proposal for a Council Framework Decision on 
attacks against information systems) and impact assessments of 
potential policies.

The lack of civil liberties consideration in many existing national and 
international frameworks and conventions makes these solutions 
inappropriate including current trends in increased surveillance, 
monitoring, data-retention, mining and profiling.  The action plan 
should include a call for developing means through which local and 
international stakeholders can ensure equitable and just protection of 
rights as international legal solutions are devised.

We oppose calls by some governments to support the Council of Europe's 
Cybercrime Convention or models based on the convention. Civil society 
organisations have been working for a number of years to educate and 
inform the convention's development to little avail and are now 
opposing its ratification because of its overly broad mandate, its 
insensitivity to local issues and its disregard for civil liberties.

The WSIS should also recognize that one of the greatest threats to 
"information security" lies in the militarization of information space, 
including the development and deployment of "infowar" technologies and 
techniques; the deployment of military software or hardware against 
civilian communications systems; the domination of satellite orbits for 
military purposes; and the purposeful destruction of civilian 
communication systems during conflicts in violation of international 
law. The WSIS should encourage the foundations for a future Convention 
against Information Warfare to address these concerns.


Access and infrastructure issues

Global universal access to communication and information should be a 
target of the WSIS action plan. The expansion of the information 
infrastructure should be based on recognition of a universal right to 
communicate and principles of equality and partnership and guided by 
regulation at both national and international levels.  The integration 
of access, infrastructure and training of the citizenry and the 
generation of local content, in a framework of social networks and 
clear public or private policies, is a key basis for the development of 
egalitarian and inclusive information societies.  The evolution of 
policy should be coordinated internationally but enable a diversity of 
appropriate solutions based on national and regional input and 
international sharing of information and resources. This should be 
people-centered and process-orientated, rather than technologically 
determined and expert dominated.

International bandwidth costs and allocation of spectrum and 
geo-stationary positions should be equitable and the current burdens of 
cost unfairly weighted to under-developed contexts must be eliminated.

National access and infrastructure plans must address the divide 
between socio-economic groups and between urban and rural areas.   
People with disabilities and others who require special consideration 
in terms of accessibility such as the elderly should have access to 
appropriate equipment and services.  Governments should be encouraged 
to ensure democratic management of radio frequencies, including access 
for community media.

Free/open source software that enables access and the development of 
capacity should be an essential component of all communications roll 
out plans. Governments should be encouraged to adopt free/open source 
software as far as possible, since their use of proprietary software is 
both economically unsustainable and compromising in terms of 
transparency and security.

WSIS should agree to draw up an International Convention on a policy of 
subsidized tariffs and prices for digital inclusion public policies and 
projects, and of the fair renegotiation of bilateral network 
interconnections and multilateral peering agreements, towards better 
balanced and lower cost international route, Internet bandwidth and hub 
repartition.


Global ICT Governance

In an information and communication society, good governance must be 
based on the values of participation, inclusiveness, transparency and 
accountability.  This particularly implies the democratic management of 
international bodies dealing with ICTs. Given the borderless 
characteristics of ICTs, decision-making bodies should respect the 
principles of democracy and openness as well as sovereignty.

In particular, the management of the core resources of the Internet, 
that are the Internet protocols, standards and identifiers such as 
domain names and IP addresses, must serve the public interest at the 
global, national and local levels. Furthermore, any decision made on 
protocols and standards should be compatible with international human 
rights standards articulated in the International Bill of Rights (i.e. 
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant 
on Civil and Political Rights; and the International Covenant on 
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), and specially the rights to 
freedom of expression, to privacy, and the principle of 
non-discrimination. Such decisions should also allow for a 
better-balanced flow of information.

To these ends, the current management of Internet names and numbers and 
other related mechanisms should be re-examined with the full 
participation of all stakeholders in light of serving public interests 
and compatibility with human rights standards.


Attention to other regional and international processes

Finally, we wish to draw the attention of the different stakeholders 
active in the WSIS process to a major risk.  Essential decisions are 
already being taken, in other regional and international political 
arenas that may not be consistent with the vision and values elaborated 
at this Summit.

Work in progress of supra-national organisations such as the Council of 
Europe (e.g. its CyberCrime Treaty), the European Union (e.g. its 
Directives on copyright and software patents), the WIPO, the ITU itself 
(e.g. its new rules on collection tariffs or taxes de répartition), the 
WTO (e.g. its decisions taken within the frame of the GATTS) all have 
huge potential consequences for knowledge, education and culture.

We therefore recommend that the WSIS participants:

1. Establish a multi-stakeholders observatory committee that would be 
responsible for:

• mapping decision-making in other political arenas that impacts or 
intersects with the WSIS agenda;
• establishing a monitoring system to ensure that decisions taken in 
other political arenas that relate to the information society are 
consistent with the general framework established by the WSIS process; 
and
• reporting to all stakeholders of the WSIS on a regular basis until 
December 2005.

2. In the development of international legal frameworks, give 
preference to those bodies which empower the effective participation of 
developing countries in decision making process to redress the current 
trend of exporting of frameworks developed by Western countries, to the 
global level.


Endorsements

[To be completed]