[WSIS CS-Plenary] Final version: Civil Society press release

[Valeria Betancourt]

Text of press release 
27 September 2003

WSIS process at PrepCom III

Civil Society announces today that if governments continue to exclude 
our principles, we will not lend legitimacy to the final official 
WSIS documents.

Civil society is already shaping information societies to achieve 
social, cultural, educational, political, and economic benefits for 
all. Communication rights are part of human rights. Human rights must 
be the framework for information societies. Without this, the WSIS 
vision of "an information society" is meaningless.

In the WSIS process, we have seen that, thus far, our main principles 
are not reflected in the results. Even though the process has been 
frustrating and inconsistent, with civil society included and 
excluded at the whim of governments, our experience has been one of 
closer engagement than has been the case at other United Nations 
conferences.  We hope that this is an experience that can be built on 
to ensure much closer involvement of civil society in the design and 
development of information societies.

While the spirit of the documents is market focused, civil society 
and some governments, especially from the south, will continue to 
support the rights of citizenship and promote the concept of 
cooperation instead of competition. 
Even if the outcomes of the WSIS do not reflect, at the end of the 
process, our principles, visions and perspectives, we will continue 
to be key actors in the definition of the nature and direction of 
information societies, one whose focus would be people's rights. We 
will insist that the proposal of the WSIS includes our priorities 
such as development and justice for the south, human rights, gender 
equity, community media, education, public goods, free software and 
open access to scientific and technological information, privacy, 
democratic and transparent internet governance, cultural and 
linguistic diversity, excluded minorities, indigenous people, etc. 

We now have a stronger position, because as the days have progressed 
meaningful communication has emerged. But much remains to be done.  
For our part, civil society, we are now in the process of drafting a 
framework document that will lay down our vision of inclusive, 
participatory, sustainable, equitable and just information societies.