Human rights organisations at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva unanimously condemned ‘the undemocratic actions of the Swiss authorities and Summit organisers” for silencing alternative minority voices.
Speaking at a briefing organised by the Human Rights Caucus, human rights activist Susanna George said: ‘Over the past three days, an open space for participatory communication was shut down by riot police and no reasons were given. Printed documents critical of the Summit and corporations were confiscated and a peaceful protest march was disrupted in the centre of town.”
George said political repression had been a constant feature at the Summit and the suppression of alternative voices has been part of public life in Geneva since early 2003.
‘Human Rights organisation groups strongly condemn these violations, which have clearly cast a shadow of hypocrisy over the Summit,” said Diana Bronson from the human rights organisation Rights and Democracy.
The Human Rights caucus, which represents 45 organisations from various parts of the world, came to the Summit to attempt to put human rights on the agenda. At the beginning of the Summit, on 10 December, the issue of human rights had not been on the agenda.
‘Now, thankfully, four paragraphs in the declaration have clauses that refer to human rights issues,” said Bronson. ‘We are relieved we got that far. However, we came here to see if we could put the development of ICTs at the service of human rights and that we did not get.”
She said in the Plan of Action, a document outlining the steps to be taken to reach the goals set out at the Summit, there was virtually nothing that dealt with the enforcement or implementation of human rights.
The Human Rights caucus also condemned Tunisia for human rights abuses and called on Summit organisers not to allow the African country to host the next phase of the World Summit in 2005 until an independent international enquiry had been sent there to assess the situation.
‘We feel it inappropriate that a country with such a high rate of human rights violations should host this summit,” said Bronson, ‘and this group must go to Tunisia and speak to all groups representing society to really assess what is going on there.” — Hana