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We, the undersigned, are writing to you as a group of non-governmental organizations and activists from different regions committed to participating in the preparatory process for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which will take place in Geneva, Switzerland in December 2003.

We see the WSIS as a conference that is being convened at a unique juncture in human development. It comes in the wake of a series of international development conferences held over the past decade that have brought together government around the world in a process of consensus building focused on the principles, values, decision-making and governance frameworks that should underpin different aspects of human society. We are cogniscant of the context in which the WSIS is taking place. It is one characterised by a heightened push for systems of global governance, global accountability, and a fundamental commitment of all governments to address social injustice, inequality in the face of growing disparities between the rich and poor, and heightened desolation and fear among many populations resulting from long-drawn violence and civil strife.

As NGO activists with a strong commitment to social justice, gender equality and human rights, who have lobbied actively for government commitments on these matters in conferences in the past decades, we welcome now the opportunity to participate in the process of the WSIS.

As a UN conference that has linked its objectives to meeting the Millenium Development Goals, we believe that the WSIS should be “…working towards a world in which sustaining development and eradication of poverty would have the highest priority”. But in recent months, we have grown increasingly concerned with the directions taken by the preparatory process for WSIS and in particular with what has been presented to us as the “Proposal of an Orientation Document for PrepCom-2,” also referred to as a Non-Paper. We write to share with you our concerns regarding the content and form of this Non-Paper, urging you to take strong leadership to restore a focus on human development objectives within the WSIS process. We believe that there is an urgent need to prioritise the needs of the most marginalised amongst us, and to analyse fully the realities of countries in the South, thus paving the way for a Summit that will have outcomes that are meaningful for the least privileged.

Here are some of our concerns with regard to the orientation, content and form of the Non-Paper:

1. While we fully recognise the quantum leap expansion that has taken place in the information and communications sector as a result of corporate capital investments from both private and public institutions, we are deeply concerned by the document's heavy reliance on market-based solutions for almost all developmental issues related to ICTs. There appears to be a strong centre-staging of market-based approaches and an assumption that growth, efficiency and profit-maximising should the guiding principles of development.

Examples of this, though it exists in many different forms throughout the document can be seen in Action Line, No. 5 on Enabling Environment and No. 6 on Building Partnership and Mobilising Resources for the Information Society, which refer to including ICTs inside Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) packages, and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) agreements of the World Bank. We have good reason to fear that promoting an information society in ways that are linked to currently inequitable aid packages to the South will lead to entrenched indebtedness, rather than lead to sustainable human development. It would not be far-fetched to imagine a diversion of aid from much needed social development allotments that will ultimately impact the world’s poorest and most marginalised, including poor women of the South.

2. The WSIS is held under the auspices of the United Nations and given the mandate of this international body, which is the site of consensus building amongst governments. We applaud the attempts of the WSIS Secretariat to define the roles and relationships of the various stakeholders in this process, and where possible to strengthen partnerships amongst them. However, the 'division of labour and specialized responsibilities' that are outlined for the various stakeholders seems to us to be expressed in over-simplistic terms for instance, Point 3 of the Annex of “Examples of Possible Concrete and Comprehensive Actions’ describes governments’ role as being to “ create stimulating regulatory environment and fiscal incentives", the role of business sector as being to “bring in technology and make available simple applications,” while the role of non-governmental organisations be to “undertake awareness campaigns and work at the community level.” Such a division of labour simplifies the many very complex relationships that exist between the different stakeholders. These relationships must be recognized and acknowledged if there are to be any common platforms upon which those concerned can act together in using ICTs for human development. For instance, it is crucial to acknowledge that the various stakeholders in this process do not have the same advantages in the global context and therefore will not have receive the same benefits, or pursue the same interests in relation to the outcomes of the WSIS.

3. There is no mention of gender equality in any part of the document, while all references to women are always couched in the frame of “women and youth.” We are not inclined to focus on the number of times when women are mentioned but rather on when and how they are mentioned. We are seriously concerned about the conceptual inadequacy of the framework that mechanistically links together ‘women and youth as if to suggest that the situation of these two constituencies are fundamentally similar and should be approached in the same way. A strong, fully informed gender perspective, on the other hand, would encompass the diversity and specificity of concerns of different categories of women both in the North and in the South. To this end, we urge that gender equality should be specifically identified both as a Key Principle in the document, and as a cross-cutting issue in relation to each of the Action Lines proposed within it.

4. The document is very heavily focused on digital technology, making little mention of the more traditional ICTs. We urge you to recognise the need for a variety of information and communication media to meet the needs of those who either cannot attain digital versatility for a long time to come, or for whom digitally enabled communications is not a desired form. We need to recognise that given the diversity of cultures and societies that exist globally and that embody a vast range of communications styles, needs and purposes, prescribing or pursuing only one solution, i.e. the digital solution, is anti-thetical to the expansion of human opportunities and to the notion of democracy overall. The Annex of the Non-Paper has a listing of benchmark indicators, all of which refer to digitally enabled technologies. There is no mention of enhancing other communication media such as community-based radio broadcasting, print and other media.

5. In Action Lines, Point 2 of the Non-Paper, there is a reference to “working with the media to popularise the use of ICTs”. We feel that separating out media from ICTs is conceptually flawed, even if this is a common practice when speaking about old and new forms of ICTs. We need to recognise all information and communication tools that are used for the purposes of information sharing, news delivery, public broadcasting, knowledge transfer, entertainment and so forth.

6. We are seriously concerned about the way in which information security is described in Action Line 7 of the document. While we recognise the new challenges that emerge around security concerns with the advent of new information and communications technologies, we believe that any attempt to legislate around these concerns, such as “the elaboration of an international convention on information and communication network security” must not be at the expense of existing human rights and civil liberties frameworks. In any deliberations of information security, the legal principles of necessity, specificity, and proportionality must be upheld at all costs.

7. Given that the WSIS is being held within the framework of the United Nations where governments have ratified a range of treaties, declarations and action plans, grounded in the firm principle of the universality, non divisibility of human rights we are concerned with how fundamental freedoms are being described/implied in the Non-Paper. While we recognise that this is a conference whose main agenda is information and communications, we need to ensure that at the level of principles that there will be an upholding of ALL fundamental human rights. This would ensure that the development of ICTs would be in line with other social development goals that have been stated in previous UN conferences.

In light of the concerns raised in this letter, we strongly urge the ITU WSIS Secretariat to ensure that the social dimensions of development are emphasised. While we recognise that sustainable and equitable economic development is a crucial element in the overall effort to bridge social divides, we believe that many of the more entrenched socio-political injustices cannot be redressed through economic or market-based solutions. In many cases, social inequality and marginalisation have historical and geo-political roots that need a high level of political will to reexamine basic assumptions upon which our societies are founded.

We believe that using traditional and new ICTs as enabling tools towards ensuring that all members of society benefit from economic growth based on a holistic approach to all aspects of development: growth, equality between women and men, social justice, conservation and protection of the environment, sustaina7bility, solidarity, participation, peace and respect for human rights.

We thank once again for your leadership in beginning the process of our discussions with the introduction of the Non-Paper. We look to the ITU WSIS Secretariat to provide leadership and guidance to State parties in ensuring that all negotiations and agreements made at the WSIS are based on a reaffirmation to furthering commitments made at previous United Nations conferences and summits.

We would be available, if you are interested, to meet with you and discuss these issues further.

Yours sincerely

Association of Progressive Communications - Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP)
African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FemNET)
Isis International - Manila
International Women’s Tribune Centre (IWTC)
Margaret Gallagher, Media and Gender
William J. McIver, Jr., University at Albany, State University of New York, USA
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, Africa (AMARC Africa)

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