[WSIS CS-Plenary] Prepcom III entangled in debate on Human Rights in China

[Milton Mueller]

>>> rikp at earthlink.net 09/19/05 6:11 AM >>>
>Charles Geiger, WSIS Executive Secretariat
>He explained that the ES bound by document 
>"arrangements for accreditation."  We need to 
>receive a list of contributions and sources, including 
>government sources.  We have received a thick 
>application from Human Rights in China.  Their list 
>of donors includes anonymous donors.  Thus their 
>file is not complete.

I wish to express my disappointment with the role of the WSIS ES
(Executive Secretariat) in this affair. The explanation Mr. Geiger
provided for not recommending Human Rights in China (HCIR) were
obviously rationalizations for discriminatory treatment, based on the
Chinese government's desire to suppress or punish HCIR. 

The organization that I am accredited under was not asked for, and did
not submit, information about EVERY individual or organization that has
ever contributed money to it. Many other NGOs also did not. It is
therefore clear that much more stringent standards were applied to HCIR
than other organizations. And as the Canadian delegate pointed out, the
language of the accreditation standards does NOT require disclosure of
each and every donor. 

It is very unfortunate that WSIS ES played the role of "doing China's
dirty work," allowing them to cloak this blatant act of exclusion in a
cover of bureaucratic procedure. 



Dr. Milton Mueller
Syracuse University School of Information Studies
http://www.digital-convergence.org
http://www.internetgovernance.org