[WSIS CS-Plenary] Response to Political Chapeau, Art. 11+: New proposal by Indigenous Caucus

[Elizabeth Carll, PhD]

Dear Marc and all,

Thank you for posting this information and apparent difficult situation and
the need for a compromise.

>From the perspective of the Health and ICT Working Group,  if there is a
listing of special groups or people with special needs, then  reference to
ALL groups/peoples would be appropriate, including the phrase "promote the
physical and mental health of all people" and should be included in
paragraph 11.

Sally recommended the possibility of a strong reference to the Geneva
Declaration is also a possibility, however, the paragraphs referred make no
mention of physical and mental health.  As result physical and mental health
would be omitted.  If there was a reference to both "physical and mental
health"  within another paragraph of the Political Chapeau such as in
paragraph 1 or 7 as was previously recommended then, then Sally's
recommendation would certainly be an acceptable alternative.  See below.

The Health and ICT Working Group as well as ISTSS and NGO Committee on
Mental Health would support either of the recommendations put forth in
Marc's post below, as long as there is reference, in the Political Chapeau,
to the importance of both physical and mental health for the well being of
all people.

****************************************************************************
***************************
Previously recommended:

Paragraph 1.	 ".....so that people everywhere can create, access, utilize
and share information and knowledge, to achieve their full potential and to
promote sustainable development, to improve quality of life, to eradicate
poverty [,PROMOTE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH,] and to attain the
internationally-agreed development goals of the Millennium Declaration."

Paragraph 7.  "Furthermore, ICTs have made it possible for a vastly larger
population than at any time in the past to join in sharing and expanding the
base of human knowledge, and contributing to its further growth and
application to education, [MENTAL AND PHYSICAL] health and science."

****************************************************************************
***************************

Rationale:

The human, economic, and social development referred to in the document is
by necessity built on the foundation of BOTH physical and mental health of
all people and is an essential prerequisite for reaching the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).

Although resources for health care are often limited, this is even more so
with regard to mental healthcare.

Mental health is fundamental to overall health and productivity.   Mental
health is the foundation for learning, thinking, communicating, self-esteem,
resilience, as well as successful functioning in one’s work, family,
community, and society. Yet the majority of the world’s people do not
receive treatment for diagnosable mental disorders as mental health is often
viewed as disconnected from health services.

Many countries have no or very limited resources allocated to mental health
services, whether for trauma resulting from war, violence, and other crises,
mental illness, or stress and dual occurrences with physical illness as in
the cases of diagnosis and management of catastrophic illness.

More than 400 million people are known to suffer from mental and brain
disorders and these numbers are expected to rise sharply over the next few
decades, particularly among people in the developing world.  Despite, the
enormous social and economic burden so created, more than 40% of the world’s
countries have no articulated mental health policy, and over 30% have no
mental health programs.

It is important to address this human health disparity by ensuring that
there is appropriate allocation of resources and ensuring access to both
physical and mental health information via ICT, especially in developing
countries with limited resources.

Thank you, again  for your help with this.

Elizabeth

Dr. Elizabeth Carll
Focal Point to WSIS
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies;
Chair, Media/ICT Working Group,
UN NGO Committee on Mental Health;
WSIS Health and ICT Working Group

-----Original Message-----
From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org]On
Behalf Of Marc Steinlin
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2005 10:30 AM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org; WSIS-CT
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] (Wrong attachment) Political Chapeau, Art.
11+: New proposal by Indigenous Caucus


Sorry, the previous e-mail had a wrong attachment. Here is the proposal.
-marc


**************


Dear all,

There has been a lot of discussions on article 11 of the political
chapeau. The subject is controverse and splits states as well as the
civil society. E.g. the Indigenous Caucus (together with some states
such as Canada, Thailand & NewZealand) favour 11b because it puts
special emphasis on Indigenous Peoples. Other caucuses such as the
Gender Caucus (together with some states such as Russia and Nepal)
favour 11a, giving emphasis to other groups and countries. A third group
(e.g. the European Union) by all means want to avoid what they call a
long "shopping list". We got the impression that this was a somehow lost
battle for all of us.

We therefore looked for a way out of this apparent deadlock. The
attached proposal is based on an idea that Sally Burch mentionned in the
Cultural Diversity Working Group (many thanks, Sally!).
The proposal is to take the original article 11 and add a strong
reference to the respective paragraphs 11 to 16 in the Geneva
Declaration (cf. attachment). This would be acceptable for the
Indigenous Caucus, as the article 15 refers explicitly to the special
situation of Indigenous Peoples. We feel that in the same way it could
also satisfy the needs of all the other groups. And it would be short
and crisp as certain states want to have it.

We are interested in knowing the opinion of the other caucuses - could
you life with that? - and would like to raise the issue tonight in the
Content & Themes meeting.

Warm regards,
-marc

--
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Incomindios Switzerland
Marc Steinlin
Rotwandstr. 40
CH-8004 Zuerich
Switzerland

Home   +41 (44) 241 21 49
Mobile +41 (78) 850 42 32
stonelli at gmx.net
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: GenevaDeclaration 11-16.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 190976 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/pipermail/plenary/attachments/20050225/d3d62501/GenevaDeclaration11-16.doc
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Art 11+.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 29184 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/pipermail/plenary/attachments/20050225/d3d62501/Art11.doc