[WSIS CS-Plenary] a view on the denial of accreditation of Rapporteurs Sans Frontieres

[adel.elzaim at canti.com]

Thank you Rick for this neutral and constructive point of
view. 

Adel El Zaim

-----------------------------------------


On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 12:21:22 +0200
 Rik Panganiban <rikp at bluewin.ch> wrote:
> Dear Friends,
> 
> Speaking in my personal capacity, I would like to express
> a view on the denial of accreditation to the WSIS of the
> media-rights group Rapporteurs Sans Frontieres (Reporters
> Without Borders).  For those who do not know, during the
> high-level segment of the last session of the Commission
> on Human Rights, held in March 2003, RSF disrupted one of
> the meetings by throwing flyers into the assembly hall,
> denouncing the election as chair of the CHR a
> representative of the government of Libya. This was a
> planned act of civil disobedience, which resulted in
> their expulsion from the hall of those RSF
> representatives, and subsequently the suspension of their
> accreditation to ECOSOC for one year.
> 
> My understanding is that if an organization with ECOSOC
> consultative status has their accreditation suspended or
> revoked, they are not allowed to participate in other
> UN-sponsored fora.  Thus, on a legalistic level, the WSIS
> secretariat was within their rights to not allow this
> organization's representatives to be accredited to
> participate in the WSIS.
> 
> Civil society organizations should know some of the
> immediate results of RSF's actions.  While many human
> rights groups at the Commission on Human Rights were
> certainly in sympathy and agreement with the message RSF
> was communicating, several disagreed vociferously with
> their methods.  One direct effect of the RSF action was
> that every NGO was subject to extreme searches for the
> rest of the CHR, and prevented from carrying into meeting
> rooms of more than a handful of documents for fear that
> each group would stage another similar demonstration.
> 
> This was the first year that the Commission on Human
> Rights has ever held a high-level segment.  One important
> goal of the high-level segment was to bring more
> political weight and financial support for the work of
> the CHR, which in recent years has suffered from severe
> budget cuts effecting the basic functioning of the
> meeting, including meeting times, translations, meeting
> rooms, etc.  By disrupting the high-level segment, it
> will certainly be taken into consideration when the
> Commission decides whether to hold it again in subsequent
> years.
> 
> I am not opposed to civil disobedience, which has its
> place when other means of protest and negotiation have
> been exhausted.  But civil society organizations need to
> be clear about where they stand on whether or not we
> choose to respect the rules of participation.   RSF chose
> to do their action, I believe in full understanding of
> the immediate and longer-term effect of that action.
> However I think we need to be clear that NGOs in general
> have the responsibility to participate in a constructive
> and fair manner, in the same way that we expect
> governments to respect the rules of procedure.  If an NGO
> chooses to not follow those rules of procedure, there are
> consequences.
> 
> As we fight for our rights to participate effectively in
> the WSIS process, we need to be clear that we do not
> intend to simply shout at government representatives, to
> shower them with flyers, but that we want to engage
> constructively and respectfully in the negotiations.
> 
> 
> Rik Panganiban
> (in my personal capacity)
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
> Plenary at wsis-cs.org
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Adel El Zaim, PhD
adel.elzaim at canti.com
Téléphone: (514)214-9139

Association ISOC-Québec
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