The civil society organisations endorsing this document consider that the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) offers a unique framework at the international level, where not only different visions can be shared among a variety of stakeholders and cultures, but also basic agreements on the shape of future policies could emerge.

Given the breadth and complexity of the issues involved, an integral vision of information and communication societies is essential. A partial approach is likely to result in policies that could further deepen both digital and social divides, or exacerbate other negative impacts that are emerging.

We therefore welcome the broadened range of issues covered by the present draft documents for the WSIS. We are concerned, nonetheless, that certain key areas are still missing, are inadequately addressed or have not achieved consensus. The following lines will draw attention to these issues that constitute priorities for civil society.

As a starting point, the WSIS documents should avoid idealising the information society (IS). It is one thing to describe the vision of the IS we rightly aspire to, as orientation for policies, ("The information society should be people centered...", Art 8, Draft Declaration:), and quite another to state that "The information society is a new and higher form of social organization...." (Art. 9), which could misleadingly gloss over the potential dangers.

Sustainable democratic development

An equitable Information Society must be based on sustainable economic and social development and democratic principles. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have great potential for developing more democratic, transparent and participative processes of governance, from the local to the international level, which should be more explicitly supported in the Action Plan. But technologies also have the potential of enabling the perpetuation and expansion of existing, undemocratic power relations and inequalities within and between peoples and nations. Democratic and sustainable development of the information society can therefore not be left solely to market forces; in order to balance commercial objectives with legitimate social interests, recognition should be given to the need for appropriate regulation and development of public services, and the principle of equitable access to services and affordable cost should be reaffirmed.

Communities must also be empowered to develop their own productive forces within the information society, in particular to participate in its development and sustenance through fully democratic processes that allow them to share control of the decision making around economic, cultural, environmental, and other issues regarding ICT-based projects.

The action plan should address proposals to support community-based communications using both traditional and new media and communication technologies and to develop and nurture the discipline of community informatics, which responds to the particular characteristics and needs of communities, in relation to design, development, deployment, and operation of ICTs, as well as local content production.

ICTs should be used as an instrument for the creation of genuine and sustainable sources of work, thus providing new labor opportunities, above all for those who have been excluded from the formal employment system, as well as those affected by labor discrimination, such as the disabled and vulnerable groups (including those infected with HIV, the elderly, former drug addicts, former prisoners, ex-servicemen).

ICTs can contribute to sustainability, but their use is also creating new environmental hazards. In view of mainstreaming ICTs into sustainable development, the action plan should include concrete proposals and policies to: develop renewable energy resources, particularly for remote communities; improve resource efficiency; dematerialize and reduce waste; increase the useful life of hardware; improve recycling conditions, ensure safe disposal of discarded ICT hardware and parts and encourage the development of alternatives to toxic ICT components.

Human rights

An information and communication society that has people and human needs at its centre implies underlining the importance of human rights standards as the core set of principles guiding its development. Communication is a fundamental participative and interactive process and is the foundation of all societal organization. In order to ensure freedom of expression and the right to information, the WSIS Declaration should therefore not only reaffirm Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), but also commit to its active enforcement. In addition, the principles of a better-balanced flow of information, free circulation of ideas, press freedom, participation in the communication process, and knowledge sharing will only become meaningful inasmuch as they are supported by a consistent articulation of rights. This would include the reference to the relevant articles from the UDHR, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, relating, among other things, to: privacy, freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, freedom of peaceful association, right to education and to participation in cultural life of the community, protection from discrimination or hate incitement, among others. We particularly welcome the references to communication as a right.

Similarly, the WSIS should refer to improvement of human rights standards, such as human and social development, democracy and participation, as focus points for setting goals and measures for progress.

Global knowledge commons

The Declaration should include, as a principle and theme, the maintenance and growth of the commonwealth of human knowledge as a means of reducing global inequality and of providing the conditions for intellectual creativity, sustainable development and respect for human rights. The privatisation of knowledge and information through copyright, patents and trademarks is ceasing to be an effective means of rewarding creative endeavour or encouraging innovation. Instead it is contributing to the growth of inequality and the exploitation of the poorest peoples and communities.

The Action Plan must defend and extend the global knowledge commons, through public policy and investment in open source and open content, including both applications and human capacity development, as well as through access to public communication platforms for sharing of knowledge and information. The Action Plan should commit to a fundamental review of the impact on poverty and human rights of current arrangements for recognition and governance of privately held knowledge and information, including the work of WIPO and the functioning of the TRIPS agreement.

The Action Plan must recognize the pivotal role of people living in extreme poverty in the dialogue between all parties, contributing their experience and knowledge. It should give particular attention to measures to maintain knowledge diversity and to protect the knowledge pool of indigenous peoples, especially botanical and agricultural knowledge, against "information mining" and other unfair exploitation.

Literacy, Education, and Research

Literacy, education and research are fundamental components of information and knowledge societies. Knowledge creation and acquisition should be nurtured as a participatory and collective process and not considered a one-way flow. But only an informed and educated citizenry with access to the means and outputs of pluralistic research can fully participate in and effectively contribute to knowledge societies.

Urgent attention should be paid to the potential positive and negative impacts of ICTs on the issues of illiteracy in national and international languages of the great majority of the world’s people. Literacy, education, and research efforts in the Information Society must include a focus on the needs of people who have physical impairments and the elderly.

The action plan should devote attention to the tools, facilities and resources that enable lifelong learning. Capacity building designed to empower individuals and communities in the Information Society must include, in addition to just basic literacy and ICT skills, information literacy (i.e. the ability to find, appraise, use and create information) and should stimulate the desire for learning. Publicly funded and independent writing and research, in all parts of the world, are essential for building a pluralistic and diverse body of knowledge. Gender sensitive educational programmes and appropriate learning environments including e-learning must be developed to increase women’s access to education and employment.

Computer and information science professionals must be encouraged to perform the continuous task of educating the public about both the social risks and benefits of existing and emerging technologies within the information society.

Governments should invest in nation-wide "backbones" providing access to scientific, cultural and educational information covering all categories of inhabitants, with support through continuous programs for research and development of educational resources and services.

Cultural and linguistic diversity

The Declaration should adopt as a statement of principle the need to respect cultural and linguistic diversity. Communications media and information technologies have a particularly important role to play in sustaining and developing the world's cultures and languages. The implementation of this principle requires support for a plurality of means of information and communication including community-driven communications initiatives.

The Action Plan should promote legislative, regulatory, technological and financial measures to support communications media and information pluralism; and should allow for specific safeguards against the concentration of media ownership in either corporate or government hands. It should reinforce rights of access to the media and the means of information and expression for all peoples, including indigenous peoples and other discriminated groups as well as other linguistic and cultural minorities. The Action Plan should support the development of public service broadcast media including community media.

The Action Plan should support new information and communication technologies, which can reinforce cultural and linguistic diversity through, for example, translation, voice recognition and other means of transcending cultural and linguistic barriers.

Gender

Evidence of governments' commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment remain largely absent from the WSIS Agenda.

The Declaration must adopt as a statement of principle a fundamental commitment to gender equality, non-discrimination and women's empowerment, and recognize these as non-negotiable and essential prerequisites to an equitable and people-centred development within the Information Society.

To advance gender equality and women's empowerment in the Information society, the Action Plan must demonstrate commitment to redress the effects of the intersection of unequal power relations in the social, economic and political spheres, which manifests in differential access, choice, opportunity, participation, status and control over resources between women and men as well as communities in terms of class, ethnicity, religion, race, geographical location and development status.

The Action Plan should endorse the call of gender and ICT advocates for the development of governance and policy frameworks, the setting of quantitative and qualitative targets, programmes, activities, applications and tools, and a system of monitoring and evaluation which would redress shortcomings of current gender mainstreaming approaches.

"Information security" issues

Existing policies on information security often impinge unnecessarily upon the rights of individuals, and may be technologically and economically problematic.  The Declaration should contain, as a statement of principle, that the informed involvement of all stakeholders is an essential component to the development of any policy at the local, national, and international levels.

The action plan must address efforts to create a culture of security and confidence in technological, economic, and legal issues that help to ensure a technologically reliable infrastructure.  This includes calling for education and open discourse, inventories of recommended best practices (such as OECD privacy guidelines and the European Parliament Committee proposal for a Council Framework Decision on attacks against information systems) and impact assessments of potential policies.

The lack of civil liberties consideration in many existing national and international frameworks and conventions makes these solutions inappropriate including current trends in increased surveillance, monitoring, data-retention, mining and profiling.  The action plan should include a call for developing means through which local and international stakeholders can ensure equitable and just protection of rights as international legal solutions are devised.

We oppose calls by some governments to support the Council of Europe's Cybercrime Convention or models based on the convention. Civil society organisations have been working for a number of years to educate and inform the convention's development to little avail and are now opposing its ratification because of its overly broad mandate, its insensitivity to local issues and its disregard for civil liberties.

The WSIS should also recognize that one of the greatest threats to "information security" lies in the militarization of information space, including the development and deployment of "infowar" technologies and techniques; the deployment of military software or hardware against civilian communications systems; the domination of satellite orbits for military purposes; and the purposeful destruction of civilian communication systems during conflicts in violation of international law. The WSIS should encourage the foundations for a future Convention against Information Warfare to address these concerns.

Access and infrastructure issues

Global universal access to communication and information should be a target of the WSIS action plan. The expansion of the information infrastructure should be based on recognition of a universal right to communicate and principles of equality and partnership and guided by regulation at both national and international levels. The integration of access, infrastructure and training of the citizenry and the generation of local content, in a framework of social networks and clear public or private policies, is a key basis for the development of egalitarian and inclusive information societies. The evolution of policy should be coordinated internationally but enable a diversity of appropriate solutions based on national and regional input and international sharing of information and resources. This should be people-centered and process-orientated, rather than technologically determined and expert dominated.

International bandwidth costs and allocation of spectrum and geo-stationary positions should be equitable and the current burdens of cost unfairly weighted to under-developed contexts must be eliminated.

National access and infrastructure plans must address the divide between socio-economic groups and between urban and rural areas. People with disabilities and others who require special consideration in terms of accessibility such as the elderly should have access to appropriate equipment and services. Governments should be encouraged to ensure democratic management of radio frequencies, including access for community media.

Free/open source software that enables access and the development of capacity should be an essential component of all communications roll out plans. Governments should be encouraged to adopt free/open source software as far as possible, since their use of proprietary software is both economically unsustainable and compromising in terms of transparency and security.

WSIS should agree to draw up an International Convention on a policy of subsidized tariffs and prices for digital inclusion public policies and projects, and of the fair renegotiation of bilateral network interconnections and multilateral peering agreements, towards better balanced and lower cost international route, Internet bandwidth and hub repartition.

Global ICT Governance

In an information and communication society, good governance must be based on the values of participation, inclusiveness, transparency and accountability. This particularly implies the democratic management of international bodies dealing with ICTs. Given the borderless characteristics of ICTs, decision-making bodies should respect the principles of democracy and openness as well as sovereignty.

In particular, the management of the core resources of the Internet, that are the Internet protocols, standards and identifiers such as domain names and IP addresses, must serve the public interest at the global, national and local levels. Furthermore, any decision made on protocols and standards should be compatible with international human rights standards articulated in the International Bill of Rights (i.e. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), and specially the rights to freedom of expression, to privacy, and the principle of non-discrimination. Such decisions should also allow for a better-balanced flow of information.

To these ends, the current management of Internet names and numbers and other related mechanisms should be re-examined with the full participation of all stakeholders in light of serving public interests and compatibility with human rights standards.

Attention to other regional and international processes

Finally, we wish to draw the attention of the different stakeholders active in the WSIS process to a major risk. Essential decisions are already being taken, in other regional and international political arenas that may not be consistent with the vision and values elaborated at this Summit.

Work in progress of supra-national organisations such as the Council of Europe (e.g. its CyberCrime Treaty), the European Union (e.g. its Directives on copyright and software patents), the WIPO, the ITU itself (e.g. its new rules on collection tariffs or taxes de répartition), the WTO (e.g. its decisions taken within the frame of the GATTS) all have huge potential consequences for knowledge, education and culture.

We therefore recommend that the WSIS participants:

1. Establish a multi-stakeholders observatory committee that would be responsible for:

• mapping decision-making in other political arenas that impacts or intersects with the WSIS agenda;

• establishing a monitoring system to ensure that decisions taken in other political arenas that relate to the information society are consistent with the general framework established by the WSIS process; and

• reporting to all stakeholders of the WSIS on a regular basis until December 2005.

2. In the development of international legal frameworks, give preference to those bodies which empower the effective participation of developing countries in decision making process to redress the current trend of exporting of frameworks developed by Western countries, to the global level.

Endorsements

[To be completed]