PrepCom 3: Concerned civil society writes to Kofi Annan

By APCNews GENEVA, Switzerland,

October 1, 2005


Dear Secretary General,


We civil society organizations participating at the Prepcom 3 of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva (17 – 30 September 2005) express our deep concern about the conditions in which the WSIS is about to take place in Tunis from 16 – 18 November 2005. Since we learned that the second phase of the Summit would take place in Tunisia, we have expressed serious concerns over the violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Tunisian authorities. Today, shortly before the holding of the Summit, we unfortunately must note that there has been no improvement and that we have recently even witnessed a serious deterioration of fundamental freedoms as follows:


The harassment of the Association of Tunisian Judges and the disciplinary sanctions taken against its active members on 1st August; the prohibition of the holding of the founding congress of the Union of Tunisian Journalists on September 7th and the harassment of its members; the prohibition of the holding of the 6th congress of the Tunisian Human Rights League on September 9th and the police blocks of its local sections.


These new attacks come in an already alarming context regarding such threats to fundamental freedoms as:


• Assaults on the Tunisian Bar that have included physical aggressions of lawyers at the law court and the sentencing of lawyer Mohamed Abbou in June 2005 to three years imprisonment – after an unfair trial – after he published on the Internet an article criticizing conditions in Tunisian prisons;


• Denial of the right to legal accreditation of independent civil society associations;


• Threats against freedom of assembly;


• Police blocking of the approaches to association headquarters and homes of their leaders;


• Verbal and physical aggressions of human rights defenders and public defamation campaigns against them;


• Retaliations against publicly independent university professors;


• Systematic censorship of newspapers and books;


• Blocking of Internet sites, systematic surveillance of e-mails and telephones;


• Arbitrary denial of authorizations to publish new newspapers and magazines and to create independent broadcasting outlets;


• Lack of a published and transparent system of broadcast licensing;


• Systematic use of torture by police to obtain confessions;


• Use of the pretext of the fight against terrorism to sentence without proof young people following trials international observers have deemed unfair;


• Keeping in jail of more than 600 prisoners of opinion, inhumane and degrading conditions and harassment of those who have finished their prison terms by imposing administrative controls, including banishment to distant locations.


These systematic violations of fundamental freedoms, coupled with the serious dysfunctioning of the judicial system have undermined the rule of law in Tunisia. It is shocking for the Summit to take place in a country with such a deplorable record.


We recall that the participants in the first phase of the WSIS have reaffirmed in their Geneva Declaration of December 2003 the centrality of human rights for the Information Society, most particularly:


• “The universality, indivisibility and interdependence and interrelation of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development as enshrined in the Vienna Declaration, as well as tight links between them. We reaffirm also that democracy, sustainable development and the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as good governance at all levels are interdependent and mutually reinforcing” (§3)


• “That as the essential foundation of the information society and as outlined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; that this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” (§4)


We regret that the Tunisian government has not respected its commitments to this Declaration in its capacity of host country of the second phase of the WSIS and that it is jeopardizing the chances of success of this Summit by a deliberate policy of massive human rights violations.


We hence consider that the minimal conditions for the holding of this Summit are not met and that the credibility of the United Nations is at stake, as well as that of the international community, not to legitimize practices and policies contrary to its international commitments.


We regret to inform you that if there are no significant improvements in the human rights situation in Tunisia before November 16, we would then need to reconsider the modalities and level of our participation at this Summit.


We, therefore, respectfully request you to dispatch a high representative to Tunisia to review the state of affairs in the host country and for you subsequently to seek Tunisian official conformity with its international human rights commitments.


We look forward to your early reply.


Steve Buckley, President, World Association of Community Radio Broadcasting (AMARC)


E. Markham Bench, Executive Director, World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC)


Chantal Peyer, Co-President of the Swiss Plate-form on the Information Society (Comunica-ch)


On behalf of the following international civil society entities:


Eric Sottas, Directeur, Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT)


Sean O Siochru, Campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS)


Karen Banks, Association for Progressive Communication (APC)


Sidi Kaba, President, Federation International des Droits de l’Homme (FIDH).


Aidan White, General Secretary, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)


Alexis Krikorian, International Publishers Association (IPA)


Guillaume Chenevière, Chairman, World Radio and Television Council


Jim Ottaway, Jr., Chairman and Mark Bench, Executive Director, World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC)


Timothy Balding, World Association of Newspapers (WAN)


Gus Hosein, Privacy International, UK


Fatou Jagne Senghor, Article 19


Luckson Chiapare, Executive Director, Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)


Susana Fernandez for WSIS Gender Caucus


Vittorio Bertola, Member of the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG)


Karin Karlekar, Freedom House


Rohan Jayasakeera, Index on Censorship


Robert Ménard, General secretary, Reporters without borders


Andrew Anderson, Deputy Director, Front Line, The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders


Randy Naylor, General Secretary, World Association of Christian Communications (WACC)


Jim McDonnell, Director of Advocacy, World Catholic Association for Communication (SIGNIS)


Joanna Arevalo, Third World Majority (TWM)


John D.H. Downing, Director, Global Media Research Center (Southern Illinois University)


Lisa McLaughlin, on behalf of Union for Democratic Communications


Clemencia Rodriguez for OURMedia


Dr B. Shadrach, Director for South Asia, OneWorld International Foundation


Alejo Miro Quesada, president, and Julio E. Munoz, Executive Director, Inter American Press Association,


Fernando Martins, Brazilian Association of Newspapers – ANJ-Brasil


Paulo Lima, Executive Director, Rede de Informações para o Terceiro Setor (RITS)


Rita Freire, Planeta Porto Alegre and Ciranda Internacional, Brasil


Felix Gutiérrez Matta, Red de comunicaciones indígenas Apachita, La Paz, Bolivia


Roberto Bissio, Executive Director, Institutdo del Tercer Mundo (ITeM), Uruguay


Daniel Pimienta, President, Fundation Redes y Desarrollo (FUNREDES)


Julian Casasbuenas, Colnodo, Colombia


Carlos Alvarez, Wamani, Argentina


Edmundo Vitale, Escuela Latinoamericana de Reds (ESLARED), Venezuela


Olinca Marino, Laneta, Mexico


Rod Macdonell, Executive Director, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE)


Spencer Moore, National Press Club of Canada


Oliver Zielke, Web Community Resource Networks, Canada


Michel Lambert, Alternatives, Canada


Carl-Morten Iversen, Norwegian PEN


Rikke Frank Jorgensen, Digital Rights, Danemark


Jane Johnson, Danish United Nations Association (DUNA)


Sjoera Nas, Co-director, Bits of Freedom, Dutch digital civil rights


Meryem Marzouki, President, Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire (IRIS), France


Jean-Louis Fullsack, President, Coopération Solidarité Développement aux PTT (CSDPTT), France


Ghislaine Glassom Deschaumes, Transeuropeennes, France


Ralf Bendrath, Netzwerk Neue Medien, Germany


Ulrich Remmel, Deutscher-Journalisten-Verband (DJV), Germany


Johannes Schunter, computer scientist, ICONICS Informations- und Computersysteme, Germany


Danièle Lenzin and Roland Kreuzer, Presidents of comedia – the Swiss media union


Olivier Labarthe, Président de la Commission d’information, Fédération genevoise de coopération, Switzerland


Carlo Sommaruga, lawyer and MP, General Secratary Asloca SR, Switzerland


Claudia Padovani, University of Padova & CRIS Campaign, Italie


Andrea Amato, Institut mediterraeen (IMED), Italie


Marco Cappato, Parti Radical, Italie


Liz Probert, GreenNet


Anastasia Roniotes, MIO-ECSDE, Grece


Corina Cepoi, Independent Journalism Center (IJC), Moldova


Pavel Antonov, Bluelink, Bulgaria


Bako Mihaly, StrawberryNet, Romania


Danijela Babic, Zamirnet, Croatia


Leandro Navarro, Pangea, Catalunya, Spain


Marise J. R. A. Fonseca, Network of Feminists Women for Gender Equity in Development (GENERA), Spain


Helene Olivan, Institut europeen de la mediterranee (IEMED), Spain


Valentina Pellizzer, UniMondo, Southern Europe


Jose Moises Martin President de la Plateforme Intergouvernemental Euromed


Jean François Courbe, Forum social Mediterreen


Chaffai Abdelhamid, Reseau marocain Euromed gerarda Ventura


Kamel Jendoubi, President, Reseau Euromediterraneen des Droits de l’Homme (REMDH)


Mokhtar Trifi, president, Ligue Tunisienne pour la défense des droits de l’Homme (LTDH)


Sihem Bensedrine, spokesperson, Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie (CNLT)


Radhia Nasraoui, president, Association de Lutte contre la Torture en Tunisie (ALTT)


Lotfi Hajji, president, Syndicat des journalistes tunisiens (SJT)


Naziha Rjiba, deputy president, Observatoire pour la Liberté de Presse, d’Edition et de Création (OLPEC)


Essia Belhassen, coordinatrice SMSI, Association Tunisienne des femmes démocrates (ATFD)


Samir Dilou, deputy president, Association Internationale pour le soutien aux prisonniers politiques (AISPP)


Ali Ben Salem, president, Amicale Nationale des Anciens Résistants (ANAR)


Safwa Aissa, president,Vérité-Action (VA)


Mokhtar Yahyaoui, president, Centre pour l’indépendance de la justice et des Avocats (CIJA)


Jalel Matri, president, Union des Tunisiens en Suisse (UTS)


Mourad Errahib, Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, Maroco


Naim Abou tair, Palestinian NGO (PNGO)


Amir Makhlouf, ITTIJAH (Union of Arab NGO)


Dawoud Hassan, Arab Committee for the Defense of Journalists


Georges Abi Saleh, Plateforme euromed, Liban


Ahida Taleb, Rassemblemeñt Deomcratique libanais des femmes (RDLF)


Ziad Abdessamad, Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND)


Pius N. Njawé, Organisation Camerounaise Pour La Liberté De La Presse.


Natasha Primo, WomensNet, South Africa


Sohrab Razzaghi, Iran Civil Society organizations Training and Research Center (ICTRC)


Parminder Jeet Singh, Director, IT for Change, India


Ahmed Swapan, Executive Director, VOICE, Bangladesh


Kong Sidaroth, Open Forum, Cambodia


Oh, Byoung-il, Jinbonet, South Korea


Al Alegre, Foundation for Media Alternatives, Philippines


Frederick Noronha, Bytesforall, South Asia


Andrew Garton, c2o, Australia


(Individuals)


Marianne Seger, Germany


Lucia Fanini, Italy


Elisabeth Eide, Norway

Author: —- (APCNews)
Contact: communications@apc.org
Source: APCNews
Date: 10/05/2005
Location: GENEVA, Switzerland
Category: Democracy & ICTs


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