[WSIS CS-Plenary] Should Canada go to Wsis 2 in Tunis?

[lissjeffrey at sympatico.ca]

hello all:

The C2C Canadian civil society public web space is raising questions about 
Canada's role in Wsis 2, given the escalating recent reports on human rights 
violations.
< http://wsis.ecommons.ca/ >

I am posting these concerns to this list, because this seems to me a matter 
that we are going to need to confront sooner rather than later. Under what 
conditions are we as civil society members willing to overlook the human 
rights violations in Tunis that are being called to our attention by various 
journalist and human rights organizations?

When will we become more vocal regarding the problematic condition of human 
rights and freedom of expression and of the press in Tunisia? Am I missing 
something that you are all up on? Is this the time to hold our noses and 
take advantage of what can be gained in such an arena?

When will we decide -- or rather, start again on the discussion, as I am not 
suggesting this has not come up before  -- that the time has come to warn 
our own national governments that the situation is unacceptable, and does 
not appear to be improving, and that the question of the legitimacy of 
participation in Wsis 2 in Tunis must be on the agenda, now on the ground as 
we make our preparations, now at the national level, and now at the UN and 
international agency level?

We have started this discussion for Canada, on the basis of reports from 
others who are specialized in human rights. We see this as a fundamental 
question that must be faced by all who are concerned with the Wsis process 
and substance.
More on my take:
< http://wsis.ecommons.ca/node/view/558 >

There is too much business as usual about this Wsis 2 phase it seems to me, 
and we are finding it difficut to ignore some of the glaring contradictions 
between the rhetoric on democracy, rights and freedoms, and the reported 
situation in Tunisia. Sure, this is true elsewhere also, no country is 
perfect, but then Wsis 2 is happening in a specific place. It is a meeting 
about how the plans of action are working, and that means among other things 
how are the principles working in those plans of action? Right? I am surely 
not missing something here.

We want Canada to be very careful about what it is endorsing by overlooking 
the violataions of human rights, press freedoms, and freedom of expression 
and association on the Internet, as reported in Tunisia. Should we go if 
nothing changes?

I have not seen much about this issue on here, so I shall refer anyone who 
is also a public interest civil society generalist (we who are not single 
issue human rights and press freedom experts) to our own arena, and there 
are doubtless many others.
These issues are open for discussion on our civil society resource site, C2C 
launched in Geneva in December, 2003. The site also has info on Wsis 1 and 
2, from Canada and elsewhere  You do not need to be Canadian to visit, to 
register, and to take part, and yes, oui, on parle francais aussi.
http://wsis.ecommons.ca

The eCommons/agora does not want to see the road to Tunis paved with human 
rights and press freedom violations.

That would defeat the spirit and the purpose of Wsis!

     Liss Jeffrey
director, eComons/agora