Labour rights in WSIS declaration

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

Dear Philip Jennings,

I'm writing to you as one of the coordinators of the WSIS civil society 
human rights caucus, of which UNI is a member. Back from Geneva, I've 
watched the video archive of the CS press conference that I 
unfortunately wasn't able to attend on December 11th, and I've noticed 
your question to the speakers regarding any assessment of the official 
Declaration of principles regarding workers rights.

In case you haven't read it yet, I'd like to draw your attention to the 
human rights caucus press release of December 12th, where the caucus 
has assessed the Declaration, and explicitely deplored the absence of 
any reference to international labor standards. The caucus held a press 
conference the same day to share this assessment. English and French 
versions of the press release are on the caucus website:

- English: "Human Rights Caucus Assesses WSIS outcome". December 12, 
2003:
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis/hris-pr-121203-en.pdf

- Français: "Le caucus des droits de l'homme évalue les résultats du 
SMSI". 12 décembre 2003:
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis/hris-pr-121203-fr.pdf

I also would like to remind you the human rights caucus contribution to 
the CS declaration on this issue, which includes a specific article on 
labor rights in the human rights section. This article has been sent to 
UNI representative to the caucus for comments before inclusion. It 
reads as follows:

"2.2.4 Workers' Rights
ICTs are progressively changing our way of working. The creation of 
fair, secure, safe and healthy
working conditions, in the manufacture of equipment and software, and 
in the utilisation of ICTs in
the workplace in general, which respect international labour standards, 
for instance through tripartite
social dialogue, is fundamental. ICTs should be used to promote 
awareness of, respect for and
enforcement of human rights standards and international labour 
standards. Human rights, such as
privacy, freedom of expression, linguistic rights, the right for 
on-line workers to form and join trade
unions and the right of trade unions to function freely, including 
communicating with employees,
must be respected in the workplace."

Best regards,
Meryem Marzouki
IRIS - Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire, France
Co-coordinator of the WSIS CS Human Rights caucus


--
Meryem Marzouki - http://www.iris.sgdg.org
IRIS - Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire
294 rue de Charenton - 75012 Paris
Tel/Fax. +33(0)144749239