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World Summit for an Information Society - WSIS
The first WSIS was held in Geneva in December 2003. This report is also available at World Summit.
The document, a collaborative work of
civil society groups from around the world, is an attempt to interject
human rights into the conversation regarding the building of a
global information society.
Speakers at the press conference noted that WSIS
included the first UN summit planning process in which civil society
groups were invited to participate from the start.
According to Sally
Burch, who spoke during the press conference, about 60 percent of the
ideas contained in the official WSIS declaration - to be released
tomorrow - originated within civil society, though readers might "need a
microscope" to identify them.
The civil society groups therefore felt it
necessary to release their own document, not as a binary
counter-proposal to the WSIS declaration, but as a document that would
more accurately represent civil society interests.
"We aspire to build information and communication societies where
development is framed by fundamental human rights and oriented to
achieving a more equitable distribution of resources, leading to the
elimination of poverty in a way that is non-exploitative and
environmentally sustainable.
... To
this end we believe technologies can be engaged as fundamental means,
rather than becoming ends in themselves, thus recognising that bridging
the Digital Divide is only one step on the road to achieving development
for all.
We recognise the tremendous potential of information and
communications technologies (ICTs) in overcoming the devastation of
famine, natural catastrophes, new pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, as well as
the proliferation of arms."
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