Hi Al,
Thanks for the info, I have sent in Forum Asia's endorsement.
Sacha
On Thursday, June 5, 2003, at 04:18 PM, Alan G. Alegre wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Meryem Marzouki <marzouki@ras.eu.org>
> To: <ct@wsis-cs.org>; <plenary@wsis-cs.org>
> Cc: Rik Panganiban <rikp@bluewin.ch>
> Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2003 4:38 PM
> Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Please sign-on - Letter to OHCHR
>
>
> [This is a call for signatures by NGOs]
>
> Hi all,
>
> Below you will find a letter to the Deputy High Commissioner for Human
> Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, to ask him to attend next PrepCom of the
> World Summit on the Information society (WSIS) and the Summit itself,
> in order "to ensure that human rights language in the WSIS process is
> comprehensive, strong and consistent with resolutions and decisions
> adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and build upon human rights
> language developed through the various UN world summits and
> conferences.", as written in the letter.
>
> This letter is an initiative from Rik Panganiban from the World
> Federalist Movement, who submitted the proposal to the WSIS Human
> Rights caucus, coordinated by Rikke Frank Jorgensen from the Danish
> Institute for Human Rights and myself as IRIS representative (see the
> HR caucus website at:
> http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis).
>
> After some modifications from HR caucus members, the final text of the
> letter has been agreed (see below).
> Now we would like to gather as much signatures from organizations as
> possible, so that the letter can be seen as a strong demand.
>
> You are then asked to send signatures before the deadline of June 12.
> Please send them directly to me (marzouki@ras.eu.org), I'll post the
> final list here.
> Please provide: name of the org, web site if any, contact person name
> and email.
>
> You don't need to be accredited to the Summit for that, not to have
> taken an active part in its process till now.
>
> Thanks you in advance,
> Meryem Marzouki
> HR caucus co-coordinator
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> Final text of the letter:
> June 2003
>
> Bertrand Ramcharan
> Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights
> United Nations
> Geneva, Switzerland
>
> RE: Human Rights and the World Summit on the Information Society
>
>
> Your Excellency Mr. Bertrand Ramcharan:
>
> The under-signed civil society organizations strongly encourage your
> active participation in the preparatory committee and summit meeting =
of
> the World Summit on the Information Society, taking place in September
> and December 2003, respectively. Human rights are an essential
> requirement of the Information Society, as elaborated in the draft
> declaration of the WSIS (WSIS/PCIP/DT/1-E):
>
> 10. The essential requirements for the development of an equitable
> Information Society include: The respect for all internationally
> recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms. Notably the right to
> freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to hold =
opinions
> without interference and seek to, receive and impart information and
> ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers in accordance with
> article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to
> unhindered access by individuals to communication media and =
information
> sources=85
>
> As the United Nations highest human rights official, your good offices
> are needed to ensure that human rights language in the WSIS process is
> comprehensive, strong and consistent with resolutions and decisions
> adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and build upon human rights
> language developed through the various UN world summits and=20
> conferences.
>
> Civil society organizations view ICTs as having both tremendous
> applications that enhance human rights, such as through the rapid
> dissemination of action alerts and instant access to human rights
> information, and disturbing capacities to greatly diminish human
> rights, such as by providing governments with means enabling intrusive
> surveillance and monitoring and therefore, repression.
>
> Only through the active participation of governments, civil society,
> and international human rights institutions such as your Office can
> these ICTs be best harnessed to maximize the protection of human =
rights
> worldwide.
>
> We hope the Office of the High Commissioner will become involved in
> this event and we look forward to our ongoing collaboration in =
ensuring
> that the World Summit on the Information Society has a strong human
> rights focus. In particular we are hoping that you personally will be
> able to attend the Third Prep Com, to take place in Geneva in =
September
> 15-27, 2003, and we look forward to meeting with you at that time. We
> also hope that the Office of the High Commissioner will be prominent =
in
> the deliberations of the Summit in December, and that we will harness
> the potential of information technology to serve the cause of human
> rights to the Summit in Tunisia and beyond.
>
> We look forward to your reply.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> [under-signed NGOs. 15 till now]
>
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
> Plenary@wsis-cs.org
> http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary
>
>
>
>