World Summit on the Information Society
30/08/2002
The Secretariat of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) has announced a special 'informal meeting on Content and Themes' to take place in Geneva, 16-18 September 2002 (see http://www.itu.int/wsis/).
Apparently, civil society groups will have access to only the first day of the 3-day meeting.
This comes in the wake of July's preperatory meeting in Geneva, where civil society groups were for the most part sidelined and shut out of the discussion on rules, procedure, accreditation, and agenda. (see http://www.wsis.info). Also troubling at that meeting was the attempt by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), who are charged with organizing the Summit for the UN, to introduce for the first time individual corporatations as accredited participants in the UN process.
Many civil society groups (and some governments) are pushing for human rights to be central to the WSIS, and want to see themes and action on topics such as media democracy, corporate monopoly media, community media, information commons, free/opensource software, organizing rights in the virtual workplace, etc., as well as inclusion of women, young people, indigenous people, queer folk, etc. A few governments are actively blocking discussion of any human rights related themes, and many (especially US) would be happy to see the Summit limited to "technical" discussion.
The draft agenda that emerged from the prepcom in July doesn't have much space for human rights discussion. The agenda is still up in the air, though, and large amounts of pressure at this early stage might ensure broadening of the themes.
I highly encourage all of you to think of the WSIS, if not as a site for us to engage in helping to craft international language on communication rights, at least as a potential amplifier for media interest in discussion of human rights and the so-called information society. Consider registering as an organization...this can be done through the ITU site:
http://www.itu.int/wsis/events/im_sep2002_reg.html
For more info contact the CRIS campaign (www.crisinfo.org)
Sasha Costanza-Chock
for the CRIS campaign
Communication Rights in the Information Society
www.crisinfo.org
