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

[james.archibald at staff.mcgill.ca]

See the attached response to Liss's question.
J. Archibald


Quoting 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
>
>
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