WSIS Appeal to Protect Freedom of Expression in Tunisia

[Robin Gross]

Dear colleagues,

Please read this appeal and consider endorsing it so that pressure can
be brought on Tunisia to protect the freedom of expression rights of its
citizens.

Members of the European Parliament Marco Cappato and Marco Perduca of
the Transnational Radical Party have drafted a Tunis.05 Appeal/Manifesto
to encourage Tunisia to respect freedom of expression rights as part of
the WSIS process.

They seek endorsements for the appeal/manifesto from civil society who
wish to join them in pressuring governments to respect freedom.  Send
endorsements to Marco Cappato at
< Mcappato at europarl.eu.int >

Forward this document to others who may be interested in supporting the
initiative also.

Thank you,
Robin Gross
IP Justice Executive Director


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE TUNIX.05 APPEAL/MANIFESTO


We firmly believe in the principles contained in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and therefore are convinced that there can
only be a free, open and accountable Information Society as foreseen in
the Declaration of Principle of the World Summit on Information Society.

Free: free as in freedom of expression, freedom to share knowledge,
ideas and creativity in mutual respect, and through peaceful manners,
without pervasive or violent restrictions, limitations or control; free
like the ideas that have allowed the development of programs and systems
that can be shared and improved by anybody, facilitating a variegated
and cooperative human progress.

Open: open to the multilingual and multicultural contribution of
everybody. Open to public scrutiny through policies that limit the abuse
of dominant positions by government or private entities, and that also
contribute to the elimination of new digital barriers against
disadvantaged people; open to the development of programs and
applications that guarantee the participation of every individual in the
democratic process, and ultimately the enjoyment of civil and political
rights, including the right to privacy. [(mental and physical health,)
and equality of opportunity and access for women, children, indigenous
peoples, and people with disabilities]."

Accountable: rights, namely those enshrined in the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by over 140 nations,
should be fully enjoyed regardless of the political regime that govern a
country. No special, let alone emergency laws or regulations, should be
adopted to govern the Information Society.

Whereas the United Nations has launched the laudable initiative to
address the needs and constraints of world communication:

We launch this TUNIX.05 APPEAL/MANIFESTO to decision makers charged with
the implementation of the plan of action adopted at the 1st session of
the WSIS, held in Geneva in December 2003 and to all concerned parties.

The TUNIX.05 APPEAL/MANIFESTO aims at supporting:

  E-democracy vs. e-government: (while we believe that it is crucial for
public entities to provide maximum access to their services and
deliberations also online, we believe that) New technologies should
serve as another medium to facilitate and enlarge participatory
democracy, not strengthen or render more efficient the ways in which a
government - too often not freely and fairly elected – controls its
citizens.

  No money without democracy:  International aid should not be disbursed
for the sake of the mere promotion of Information Technologies: new
technologies are a means, not an end. Aid programs (should include)
specific "human right protection/enjoyment/promotion" clauses to bind
suppliers and donors of money and technologies to accountable mechanisms
for the implementation of the Geneva Plan of Action, and recipient
countries to account for their advancement towards free, open and
democratic societies.

  Non-discrimination against free/open software. The UN should serve as
a facilitator in the endeavor to assist developing nations in bridging
the digital divide. To this end, legal and economic barriers for those
operative systems that are free, affordable and open should be eliminated.

A new balance for intellectual property rights: The needs of an
information society are incompatible with the rules and regulations
that, through legal or economic monopolies (e.g. software patents,
excessive copyright enforcement, “anti-circumvention” laws) limit the
circulation of ideas and creativity.  We urge lawmakers to heed the call
of developing nations that question “unbalanced” international
intellectual property regimes that do not allow them to put into place
innovations under reasonable terms.

In particular we appeal to the Secretary-General and those Member States
of the United Nations that have committed to, and are guided by, the
principles contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to
facilitate the development of a free, open and accountable Information
Society for the benefit of mankind.

  Tunis 2005

We believe that in order for this scenario to become a reality, the
decision to convene the second phase of the WSIS in Tunisia must be
paralleled with firm pressure from the international community on the
host country to respect freedom, democracy and rule of law.

We believe that the current political situation in Tunisia cannot be
considered a credible environment for the promotion of information
technologies that respect civil liberties. The Tunisian Government
cannot be regarded as a credible supporter of socially responsible
Information Technologies as it systematically intervenes in the ways in
which the Internet can be accessed, organized and used. The State's
monopoly of the connectivity, its strict and pervasive regulations on
who can use new communication technologies, and the total control on the
content of the messages that may be published, fly in the face of a
free, open and accountable information society, essentially negating its
core objective: freedom.

  Tunis should take the opportunity of the final phase of the WSIS to
open up to civil and political reforms, otherwise, the WSIS will become,
not a great opportunity to seize, but rather a counter-productive effort
to oppose.

  With this TUNIX.05 APPEAL/MANIFESTO, we urge democratic governments to
exert their political and diplomatic pressure on Tunisia so that laws
restricting freedoms are changed and all journalists, web-masters, and
web-editors, are  free to publish their ideas and opinions; and
dissidents, human rights advocates, and activists are released from
prison and allowed to (publish) (work) freely, in accordance with
international norms that guarantee freedom of expression and information
sharing. We urge them to apply the same pressure to all those regimes
that systematically curb freedom.

  Should the international community decide to turn a blind eye on this
worrying situation, each and every person, and ourselves among them,
should reserve their inalienable right to nonviolent actions of direct
and cyber civil disobedience in order to activate goodwill citizens the
world over to reverse this course of events.







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