De: Rik Panganiban <rikp@earthlink.net>
Date: Ven 7 oct 2005  19:37:02 Europe/Paris
À: plenary@wsis-cs.org
Objet: Rép : [WSIS CS-Plenary] Speakers for the Summit / my position 
on nominations from Tunisia
Répondre à: plenary@wsis-cs.org
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Robert,
Thanks for clarifying your position.
The Selection Committee is finalizing its list, based on all the 
nominations from the various CS groupings, caucuses, working groups, 
etc.  We will of course take all the committee members views into 
account and will be circulating our final recommendations to the ITU 
and to this Plenary shortly.
Rik Panganiban
On Oct 7, 2005, at 1:17 PM, Robert Guerra wrote:
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With the help of Rik and others, the speakers nominating group is 
working hard to advance the work done in geneva to ready a list for 
the ITU. Numerous exchanges have taken  place so far, which is great.
In the spirit of transparency and openness, i thought it best to 
share my position (as focal point on the CSB for North America & 
Europe) on and about  nominations from Tunisia with the plenary list.
My position is as follows....
To be honest, the inclusion of  Tunisians as proposed speakers at the 
summit makes be personally shake in disbelief.  The names proposed 
(from Tunisia) are not  high enough level persons to speak at the 
plenary sessions. The caucus they represent  are problematic ones, 
ones which - many, myself included - believe are clearly infiltrated 
by the tunisian government .
There far better, and much less problematic speakers that MUST  be 
considered in their place. As a point of principle, if we are going 
to consider tunisians for rountables then  we SHOULD also  give an 
equal chance to "independent" civil society from the country. If that 
is not possible, then , there is no equal opportunity - no consensus, 
and as such the safest course of action  would be to not recommend 
any Tunisians at all to the ITU.
As you might imagine, this is a point of principle for me. I am 
passionate about this. There needs to be openness and transparency 
about this - very - sensitive issue.
Recommendation: remove all Tunisian names all together. If this group 
recommends  one Tunisian name vs. another, we will be lead into a 
dogfight we can not win. It's a political issue - let the ITU deal 
with it.
Alternatives: no doubt there are other names from other countries 
that are not only "less problematic" but, are higher level and 
involved in information society activities and/or initiatives at a 
higher level than the Tunisian nominees.
--
Robert Guerra <rguerra@privaterra.org>
Director, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)
WSIS Civil Society Bureau, Focal Point for North America & Europe
Tel +1 416 893 0377 Fax +1 416 893 0374
===============================================
RIK PANGANIBAN       Communications Coordinator
Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United 
Nations (CONGO)
web: http://www.ngocongo.org
email: rik.panganiban@ngocongo.org
mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524
* Information on the WSIS at http://www.ngocongo.org/wsis
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