The press freedom group Rapporteurs sans Frontieres (Reporters without Borders) has recently come out with a “Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents” that’s a great resources for bloggers, whether you are a citizen journalist in Iran or a non-techie wanting to set up your own online diary. The handbook begins with the basics — what is…
Category: Civil Society
WSIS Civil Society Statement released… 4 weeks after Tunis
A couple of days ago, civil society groups finally finished drafting of a huge omnibus statement on the WSIS. Full text of the statement can be found here. In principle I have no problem with the idea of civil society groups coming out with a statement in response to the World Summit on the Information…
Civil Society is Dead, Long Live Civil Society
Robert Guerra of CPSR asked on the WSIS plenary email list whether or not the plenary list should continue to exist or not. I will re-state what I said at the close CS plenary in Tunis. All the structures and modalities that were developed over the course of the last four years in the WSIS…
A note of thanks to WSIS civil society
Well, its all over. Too much to sum up right now. But I just sent this message to the WSIS civil society listserv. Yesterday afternoon, the smiling, broad face of President Ben Ali appearing simultaneously on every flat screen display in the entire Kram convention center signalled the final end of the World Summit on…
Shirin Ebadi nominated by Civil Society to speak in Tunis
In a rare show of solidarity and unanimity, WSIS civil society groups have strongly recommended that Ms. Shirin Ebadi, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2003, speak on behalf of civil society at the opening ceremony of the WSIS in November. Ms. Shirin Ebadi is a staunch human rights defender in her country, its first…
When Cultures Clash: NGOs versus Internet Community
On the WSIS plenary listserv there has been an ongoing debate between those arguing that only accredited NGO entities should be recognized as the primary actors within civil society at the WSIS and those that contend that individuals must have voice and a vote within our processes. Underlying this is a deeper and increasing tension…
Controversy over Chinese Human Rights NGO
Human Rights has again emerged as a controversial issue at the WSIS, this time over the situation in China. Today the opening plenary of Prepcom III was thrown into conflict and disarray by the attempt by the US delegation to get the NGO “Human Rights in China” accredited for the summit in November. The NGO…
The GA hearings are over… were we heard?
This past Thursday and Friday were the much anticipated “informal interactive” hearings of the UN General Assembly with civil society. Many of us NGO reps in New York have been actively preparing for these hearings for the past year. I had an interesting perspective on the hearings as one of the rapporteurs of the sessions….
Pick me! Pick me! Who will speak at the GA hearings?
The process for nominations of participants to attend the first General Assembly hearings with civil society and the private sector have been announced, with an extremely short deadline for groups to nominate individuals to speak. It’s going to be a hairy process choosing who from among all of civil society and the private sector worldwide…
Civil Society has Trust Issues
I am finalizing the points that I will be making during my session on “ICT Partnerships and Civil Society” at the UNESCO WSIS conference I attending now in St Petersburg. I have gone around and around on this, and think that I would like to focus on building confidence of NGOs in partnership arrangements. Here’s…