[WSIS CS-Plenary] Renate Bloem: Statement for the Welcome Ceremony
karen banks
karenb at gn.apc.org
Wed Dec 10 06:54:31 GMT 2003
Dear All
Here is a copy of Renate Bloem's statement to the Swiss Host country
opening ceremony..
karen
Welcome Ceremony to the
World Summit on the Information Society
Statement by Renate D. Bloem
President of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the
United Nations (CONGO)
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General&
Excellencies & Ladies and Gentleman, Colleagues and Friends
It is indeed a great honor to be here tonight and I thank the Swiss
authorities for inviting me to bring a voice of civil society to this
Opening Ceremony. I honor them for having so well understood and supported
the assertion of the Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, when he said
(already in 1999 at the World Civil Society Conference in Montreal) that
for the United Nations, co-operation with civil society is not an option,
it is a necessity.
Never before has civil society so deeply and passionately been involved and
has participated in such a way as in this two year process leading up to
this first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. With the
green light given by the General Assembly Resolution (56/183) for a multi-
stake holder approach, the door opened (at least a little bit) to what I
call a new era in UN-civil society relations, in which governments, civil
society, the private sector and intergovernmental organizations, -all in
their respective roles sit more equally together to define and negotiate
our societies- knowledge and information societies- of tomorrow.
With the establishment of the Civil Society Bureau as counterpart to the
Governmental Bureau, a Content and Themes Group that coordinated the
substantive input from the Caucuses and a CS Plenary that gave legitimacy
to the overall activities CS organized itself in a way that allowed maximum
participation and diversity of opinion. It created also the possibility
both on-line and off-line to shape common positions for input into the
ongoing negotiations of the outcome document.
We are proud that we helped to move the discussion from ICTs as an end in
itself to ICTs as a means to social and economic development. And although
we became often frustrated during the process that our contributions were
heard but not enough taken into consideration, we moved slowly from input
to impact. We established essential benchmarks our ethical framework -, and
after the deadlock at Prepcom 3 started to write our own Declaration that
will be officially presented to the Summit on Thursday afternoon. We ask
that this Declaration becomes an official document of the Summit.
At the same time we are immensely pleased to recognize today that, after
the latest rounds of negotiations much progress has been made and most or
as I hear now all of the bracketed controversial areas, particularly
regarding human rights, have found new consensus language. Even the tricky
financial issue seems to come closer to an agreement.
Will this Summit then become a real watershed, a turning point?
This question was asked during our CONGO General Assembly held here last
week when we became painfully aware that the large majority of the world's
six billion people is not in a position to access the ICT systems or are at
ease with the programs that make it work. Millions of them have still to
make their first telephone call.
Panelists observed:
· The digital divide is linked directly to a gender divide, an
economic divide, an urban-rural divide, and a generational divide
· The ICT challenge that we face is a critical component of the
Millennium Development Goals and it will not be possible to achieve those
goals without meaningful cooperation and communication among all sectors of
the UN constituency and the private sector
· Meaningful communication implies a commitment to a new development
formula that implements integrated communication strategies&such strategies
as entertainment education, service provider relationships, media and
community-based support on a needs basis.
· There is an ongoing need for leadership development, human capacity
building, e-volunteering and evaluation of impact and lessons learned. This
will provide the best practices experience that will move us forward and
bring us together as a global community of responsible citizens seeking
continuous improvement and learning from our mistakes.
· The realization that information is not knowledge and contact is
not communication should guide our efforts and keep us on track
CONGO was asked to set up an open-ended WSIS Support Task Force to monitor
progress and urge governments to acknowledge and implement gender equality,
women and childrens rights, older persons issues and access for disabled
individuals and communities.
CONGO should play a watchdog role to assure that issues of security,
freedom of expression, access to information and equal opportunity are
maintained and expanded.
CONGO calls therefore on the summit to be bold and courageous in adopting a
plan of action that includes innovative communication strategies that have
been pioneered by the womens movement, by older persons and by indigenous
populations who have learned the value of community based problem-solving
and low cost alternatives to fancy and fragile hardware that may not be
appropriate.
Above all, the Summit should recognize that ICTs do not represent a means
for the north to communicate its views to the south but rather a system of
dialogue in which the south has as much to offer in the information society
as the north. When it comes to communication and knowledge, we are all
underdeveloped and seeking ways to improve ourselves and our communities.
Let us therefore use this important Summit to find the way forward to a
better world of peace and prosperity for all!
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