[WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: [WSIS-CT] almost final version 4.3 of WSIS CS statement

[Elizabeth Carll, PhD]

Dear Hiroshi,

The presence of those with disabilities is very important and certainly
laudable in view if the many obstacles to participation.  I believe it is
very difficult for civil society to counter and influence governments due to
the lack of available and equitable resources,  Many of us are not paid
staff,  as I am a volunteer who has personally paid all expenses, including
to travel to Geneva and elsewhere as my NGO does not have funding ( and I am
not independently wealthy).  However, I believe there are important issues
which must be addressed for the future of our society and that is what
motivates my continued  participation, even though it is at considerable
personal expense.  I believe many individuals contribute in  many ways for
CS to have a voice.

Your raising awareness of the issues is understandable.  At the same time,
it is important to recognize that lack of mental health information and
services can lead to disability, but that this is only one group of
consumers within the mental health community, which is much more broader
including those who are not disabled but are in need of services due to
violence, war, trauma, family dysfunction, coping with catastrophic
illnesses, such as AIDS. etc and the same distinction can be made for
physical health as well.  Therefore, it would be inappropriate to have
policy and decisions driven by one subgroup within the context of physical
and mental health.

>From a mental health perspective, there is language that would be preferable
in the disability paragraphs, however, respecting the right of self
determination of each group, including the disability caucus, was the reason
I did not advocate changing language in the disability contributions.

As far as delaying this another 18 hours and then concluding the text, I do
not see where that would make a difference as all of the issues appear to
have been discussed and rediscussed.  In addition, if the CS Statement is
going to have some, hopefully, wide media coverage it must be sent out
quickly as it is getting very close to the holidays for many and this is not
the kind of information that is easily picked up nor seen as of interest at
that time.  If there is to be a delay, I would then suggest sending a press
release out in January as part of new year events.

In addition, having commitments for the beginning of this week, I and others
may not be able to participate. and therefore, I would suggest to follow the
agreed upon deadline, as much has been discussed and rediscussed already,
and look forward to the finalization of the CS Statement.

Best regards,

Elizabeth

-----Original Message-----
From: Hiroshi Kawamura [mailto:hiroshikawamura at attglobal.net]
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2005 11:41 AM
To: Elizabeth Carll, PhD; plenary at wsis-cs.org;
bendrath at zedat.fu-berlin.de; WSIS-CT; WSIS CT-Drafting
Cc: Sylvia Caras; Pwd at wsis-cs.org; Elizabeth K. Carll Ph.D.
Subject: Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: [WSIS-CT] almost final version 4.3 of
WSIS CS statement


Dear Elizabeth:

Thank you very much for your detailed response.

My intention is to raise awareness on the fact that Sylvia is not the only
one who are concenred with separation of mental health from other health
issues in the context based on the observation of the discussions at the
Global Forum in Tunis. It is very important to listen to the voices
representing those who are with disabilities and reach consensus even if the
deadline set out is very close.
I would like to suggest to wait further input for at least 18 hours from now
on before concluding the final text.

Of course I don't want to exclude anyone to take part in the discussion on
the list, but at the same time I must point out the effort and contributions
of those persons with and without disabilities who gathered in Tunis at the
price of their all difficulties of travel and almost no connection to the
internet at their disposal during their stay in Tunis. There was almost no
opportunities of actively getting involved in the e-mail discussion during
the Tunis Summit for almost all Disability Caucus participants because of a
lot of difficulties on site. And once you are lost, it was not easy to catch
up the process of development of the CS Statement.

In addition, as you have observed through pwd list, the Disability Caucus
worked on the Tunis Declaration to be adopted on 18th. I suppose many of
other caucuses have concluded their WSIS participation with some substantial
documents or statements. That is the reason why I propose the editor of the
Statement to list those documents to include diversity of outcomes of WSIS
Civil Society so that they will supplement the Statement even if some of the
Caucuses could not take part in the process sufficiently.

I hope to see further discussions on those points.

Best

Hiroshi

----- Original Message -----
From: "Elizabeth Carll, PhD" <ecarll at optonline.net>
To: <plenary at wsis-cs.org>; <bendrath at zedat.fu-berlin.de>; "WSIS-CT"
<ct at wsis-cs.org>; "WSIS CT-Drafting" <ct-drafting at wsis-cs.org>
Cc: "Sylvia Caras" <sylvia at peoplewho.org>; <Pwd at wsis-cs.org>; "Elizabeth K.
Carll Ph.D." <ecarll at optonline.net>
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 12:58 AM
Subject: RE: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: [WSIS-CT] almost final version 4.3 of
WSIS CS statement


> Dear Hiroshi and All,
>
> Thank you for your input, as it is obvious that the Disability Caucus has
> given much thought to the WSIS documents as have others
>
> With regard to your request as to the issue of deleting physical and
> mental
> health and in essence deleting mental health, from the document now, seems
> surprising, as Sylvia had expressed her concerns all along, and these
> issues
> were posted on the plenary listserv and I do not recall a request for the
> removal of mental health from the document after the discussions by the
> Disability Caucus.
>
> In addition, while there may have been discussion to which those of us who
> were unable to attend the Tunis Summit are not privy, the process of
> finalizing the document cannot be based solely on decisions at the Summit,
> as obviously that would disenfranchise many who were not able to
> participate.  Therefore if that were the case, to be fair and treat all
> equitably,  it require the removal of all information by those who did not
> attend.
>
> Most importantly aside from the many previous issues and support discussed
> for the inclusion of mental health, including most recently comments by
> UNGA
> President Eliasson at the informal briefing with NGOs this past Friday and
> the White House report on aging, the inclusion of mental health is
> essential
> to prevent the disenfranchisement of a large group of the worlds' people
> as
> well as the elimination of services to all people affected by traumatic
> events.
>
> ***Following the logic of Sylvia Caras' argument for the removal of
> reference to mental health from the documents,  I would request that the
> same be done with removing any reference to those who are disabled as
> health
> should be seen a s a seamless service and not carve out any particular
> population which will further contribute to the stigmatization of that
> group.  Health services to the disabled are no different than  other
> specialties such as cardiac, etc.
>
> The recognition of the importance of addressing mental health needs and
> labeling it using clear language which is tied directly to how governments
> decide on funding is essential.  To my knowledge there is no funding for
> access to emotional and spiritual services by governments.  Furthermore in
> many cultures spiritual is viewed as,  and often translates into,
> religious
> terms which brings with it a whole host of problematic and political
> issues.
>
> In addition, the reference to physical and mental health was included in
> each of the health paragraphs in order that each can serve as a stand
> alone
> paragraph should one of the points be picked up by the media or other
> organizations and therefore prevent misinterpretation, when taken out of
> context.
>
> Having a separate section in the document for one group's (disability)
> interest at the expense of another group's (physical and mental health)
> interest, by now eliminating reference to that group at the 11th hour, is
> the opposite of inclusive society and undermines the previously agreed
> upon
> Geneva CS Declaration.   Therefore,  it is requested that if the language
> for physical and mental health is removed from the CS Statement, to be
> equitable the same be done with all language references to disability.
>
> Hopefully, this has helped further clarify the issues.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Dr. Elizabeth Carll
> Health and ICT Working Group
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org]On
> Behalf Of Hiroshi Kawamura
> Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2005 3:59 AM
> To: bendrath at zedat.fu-berlin.de; WSIS-CT; WSIS ng
> Cc:lvia Caras; plenary at wsis-cs.org; Pwd at wsis-cs.org
> Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: [WSIS-CT] almost final version 4.3 of
> WSIS CS statement
> Importance: High
>
>
> [Please note that by using 'REPLY', your response goes to the entire list.
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>
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>
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> _______________________________________
>
> Dear Ralf and others:
>
> As I attached in the body of my posting to CS Plenary List on 19th
> November,
> the Disability Caucus adopted the Tunis Declaration.
> Since the Caucus held two major events on 15th and 18th November in Tunis,
> I
> am afraid that none of the Caucus members could effectively commit the
> process of CS Statement development.
> I really appreciate CS members who are working on this very difficult work
> to create a consensus and formulate a CS Statement.
>
> At the last stage of CS Declaration, I must admit that there is still a
> serious issues to be dealt with among those health professionals and
> disability caucus regarding the language being used in the "almost final
> version 4.3". As a matter of fact, the concern expressed by Sylvia Caras,
> was also expressed by her at the Global Forum on Disability in the
> Information Society in Tunis during the summit and she received no
> objections on her contributions. Of course there was no voting but I sense
> that there was positive understanding on her statements in general.
>
> Quotation from the posting of Sylvia Caras on 15 December:
>
> I'd be pleased to see, if that pharse "physical and mental" were deleted,
> an
> explanation that "health includes biological, emotional, social, spiritual
> and vocational well-being"  which seems to me would embrace all aspects of
> health and thus not reuqire carving out mental health.
>
> --end of quotation.
>
> As the CSB Focal Point on Disability, I must address the fact that there
> is
> a serious disagreement on the language used in the WSIS CS Statement
> clearly
> expressed by Sylvia as quoted above. Even though Elizabeth Carl reported
> that there were only one objection among the Caucus on Health and ICT, I
> have to point out that the feeling of the Global Forum in Tunis was in
> support of Sylvia and she addressed the concerns to the WSIS-CT list on
> behalf of all attendees of the Global Forum in Tunis.
>
> In addition, there was no disability specific active input to the CS
> Statement due to the fact that WSIS Disability Caucus was focusing on its
> own declaration which was adopted on 18th November based on all disability
> specific WSIS process since 2002, I would like to ask the editors of the
> CS
> Statement to refer to the Tunis Declaration as attached as one of the
> delarations and statements of CS that may be listed or attached to the CS
> Statement rather than inserting paragraphs or sentences at this stage.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Hiroshi Kawamura
> WSIS CSB Disability Focal Point
>
>
>
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