http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis/hris-speech-160703.html

      


Back to Basics: WSIS and Human Rights
Human Rights in the Information Society (HRIS) Caucus 
July 16, 2003
Address to the intersessional meeting of July 15-18, 2003, Paris, France
Exactly 10 years ago, in Vienna at the World Conference on Human Rights, over
170 governments reaffirmed their commitment to Human Rights. As governments,
you collectively stated that Human Rights are universal, indivisible,
interrelated and interdependent. You agreed that their protection is the
first responsibility of governments. Today, as we debate the challenges of
the information and communication society, let us not forget what we have
already agreed upon. 
Human rights is not a sectoral issue, relevant to certain stakeholders only.
Human Rights are one of the essential purposes of the United Nations,
according to its Charter. The advent of information and communication
technologies offers both opportunities and threats for those rights. If this
Summit fails to reaffirm the centrality of Human Rights to its deliberations,
we will have not only missed an opportunity, we will have sacrificed the
civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights that we all hold dear.


We welcome the references to Human Rights in the draft Declaration of
Principles. However, human rights should figure prominently throughout both
the Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action and means should be
devised to effectively enforce them. 

We support the reference to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights in Paragraph 10 of the draft Declaration of Principles, but this
article must not only be affirmed, but also enforced. As we sit here in
Paris, countless individuals in various parts of the world are detained
simply for exercising, through ICTs, their basic democratic rights to freedom
of expression and freedom of association. 

Privacy, a human right enshrined in international law which encounters
specific challenges with the introduction of ICTs. Its protection will
require strong language in Paragraph 52 of the Declaration of Principles and
Chapters 5 and 6 of the Plan of Action. This is not an ethical or moral
issue, it is a fundamental human right. 

In the name of a war against terrorism and with the pretension of increasing
our security, human rights are being violated: right to a fair trial,
presumption of innocence, equality before the law, freedom of assembly and
association, freedom of movement and freedom from all forms of
discrimination. 

We don't need a culture of security, we need the security of cultures. That
means that everyone, without discrimination, must be able to freely exercise
their cultural rights and to use their own languages. ICTs will facilitate
the realization of the right to education and knowledge only if fair and
equitable access is within reach. That is the essence of a right to
communicate. 

"Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights
and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized. That is the
promise of Article 28 of the UDHR. The World Summit of Information Society
must not betray it. 

Contacts in Paris for Human Rights Caucus 
Diana Bronson, Rikke Frank Jorgensen, Meryem Marzouki 
Web site and mailing list of the HRIS caucus:
www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis/ 


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