[English] Quick report on 1st week activities of HR caucus

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

Hello everyone,

Here is a very quick report of HR caucus activities at this step of 
prepcom2, so that those who couldn't make it to attend may keep aware 
of what's going on from our side.
The caucus website will be updated with information and documents, 
check it at:
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis

This first week has mainly been devoted to 'communication' activities 
on HR caucus concerns, with regards to both WSIS process and WSIS 
issues and documents. These activities have been:

- Feb. 14. During the CS briefing session organized by CONGO with the 
participation of Mr Geiger, Executive Director of WSIS and head of Exec 
Secretariat, and Ambassador Karklins, president of WSIS 2nd phase 
process, we raised the issue of accreditation, both the one of our 
member HRIC (see below) and the one of Tunisian independent CS 
organizations, which are not legally recognized. Both Mr Geiger and Mr 
Karklins seem very supportive and have given, during the meeting and 
through private discussions I had with them, some guidance to advance 
these issues.

- Feb. 16. Participation to a press conference organized at the Swiss 
Press Club in Geneva, by HR caucus member Amnesty International, Swiss 
section and by Communica-CH, the Swiss CS coordination. The title of 
the press conf was: "WSIS in Tunis: a Summit on information under 
repression?". Participants spoke in French and German. I'll send to the 
list my own presentation soon, in French and English, as soon as I find 
time to sort out my notes and translate them into English. It resulted 
in good press coverage, mainly in the Swiss press.

- Feb. 16. Participation to the WSIS CS press conference at the Palais 
des Nations, through a speaking slot we have asked for, arguing that, 
while we understand governance, financing, and WSIS follow-up 
activities are indeed central issues in the 2nd phase, human rights and 
social justice still are crucial and transverse concerns that should be 
raised, specially since CS as a whole have strongly fought in order to 
have them included in WSIS. Rikke has already posted to the list her 
draft speech.

- Feb. 17. Organization of a 3 hours panel on "Information society and 
Human Rights", with the participation of 5 members of the caucus (DIHR, 
IRIS, FIDH, HRIC, LTDH), plus an introduction from Walther Lichem, 
Austrian ambassador, in his capacity of member of PDHRE (People's 
Decade for Human Rights Education). The programme has already been 
posted to the list, and Rikke has also sent her own presentation at 
this panel. The panel was very well attended (120 to 150 persons), with 
representatives from governements (Canada, at the ambassador level, and 
Denmark, Swiss, France, etc.) as well as Osamu Shiraishi, representing 
the OHCHR. The panel ended with a bit of chaos in the last minutes of 
discussions, as unfortunately usual each time we talk about Tunisia 
(some of us already experienced that in Hammamet prepcom), but, all in 
all, I think it went well, and attendees has appreciated the 
presentations.

- Feb. 18. A caucus member, Human Rights in China (HRIC), has once 
again been denied accreditation to WSIS, following China's 
intervention, and is calling for support. At the request of HRIC, we 
decided to initiate a petition calling for support (this would 
certainly help the Executive Secretariat in its task for HRIC 
accreditation to next PrepCom). This petition and the call for support 
has been announced during the morning CS plenary by Sharon Hom, 
Executive director of HRIC, and will be sent in some minutes to the 
plenary list as well as to this list.

Apart from these specific activities, the usual networking is going on. 
As just announced, the caucus has now 2 new members : MISA (Media 
Institute of Southern Africa) has been participating to WSIS since the 
first phase, but Ambedkar Center for Justice and Peace is new to it. 
This organization is based in India and has international offices in 
the US and Canada, and deals, inter alia, with the human rights of the 
Dalits, which are violated by the cast system in India. Yogesh Varhade, 
the president of this organization who we met in Geneva, is now on the 
list and would be interested in getting in touch with caucus members 
dealing with minorities and indigeneous peoples issues (e.g. 
INCOMINDIOS). I would also like to mention that some HR caucus members 
are also participating to other caucuses, or even coordinating them, 
and that it is very important that this way they can bridge between HR 
issues and other, more specific issues, relevant to WSIS : education, 
cultural diversity, privacy and security, etc., not to mention the link 
with regional caucuses.

As next week will see intensive discussions of official documents 
(political chapeau and operational part, financing mechanisms report, 
internet governance report), we will mainly be working on comments and 
inputs to these documents. To this end, a caucus meeting has been 
announced for Monday, Feb. 21 at 13:00. As for now, the meeting place 
is the Serpentine bar, but new place would be announced in case a room 
is found available.
Again, if any caucus member may provide comments or even short 
paragraphs to be included in a HR caucus written contribution, it is 
most welcome to do so. We already have as a start Rikke's proposal on 
governance and HR issues and Ginger's comments on financing and HR.

Best regards,
Meryem
HR caucus co-chair

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