APC and APC WNSP Critique the Draft Declaration and Action Plan Prepared
for
the UN "World Summit on the Information Society"
Critical issues are not addressed sufficiently, if at all
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, June 2 2003 -- In detailed documents
submitted
to the secretariat of the United Nations' World Summit on the
Information
Society (WSIS), APC and the APC Women's Programme recognised the efforts
of
the WSIS drafting committee to include the concerns and interests of the
many governments, private sector and civil society stakeholders taking
part
in the process which will culminate in the first ever UN Summit
dedicated to
communications in Geneva in December.
However, say the ICT activists, "there are critical issues [that] are
not
addressed sufficiently, if at all".
APC and WNSP criticised the draft documents - which include a
declaration
and action plan - for:
* their reluctance to explicitly confront the fact that fundamental
political, social and economic inequalities shape our world
* a lack of acknowledgment that gender inequality is central in broader
social inequality
* not acknowledging that without greater access to power and
decision-making
and equitable redistribution of available resources, we are unlikely to
reduce the gap between the powerful and the powerless
* lacking awareness on proposals around the 'information security
agenda'
that threaten to further harm already weakened human rights in areas
such as
privacy and data protection
* their scant reference to the impacts on the environment in the
information
society resulting from new technologies and infrastructure
* their insufficient acknowledgement of the negative impact of
Intellectual
Property Rights on access to information and knowledge, and on
technological
innovation.
Read full article: =
<http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=3D12235>
APC Comments: <http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=3D12209>
APC WNSP Comments: =
<http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=3D12233>
Links to original WSIS documents and all submitted comments:
<http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/listing-all.asp?lang=3Den&c_event=3Dpc=
i|1
&c_t
ype=3Dall|> (there are currently some errors in the attribution of
articles)
To contact APC or APC WNSP about the World Summit on the Information
Society: Write to Karen Banks <karenb@gn.apc.org>
689_2.html (attatchment)