Transcript UNESCO convention CD + CRIS

THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
AND
ITS
CITIZENS
2005
Deirdre Williams, CARDICIS 2, Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic, 5th December 2005
The sea separates
but
the sea also connects
Yes: in the sea of life enisled,
…
We mortal millions live alone.
The islands feel the enclasping flow,
And then their endless bounds they know.
To Marguerite
Matthew Arnold
Digital Divide:
separates us
but
we can also use the digital to divide the barriers
between us
Globalization:
seems to try to make us all the same
but
we can use it to create a community of diversity
Information
Technology
Communication
(Civil society)
Communications Rights in the
Information Society (CRIS)
• a campaign to ensure that communication rights are central to the
information society and to the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS).
• Our vision of the ‘Information Society’ is grounded in the Right to
Communicate, as a means to enhance human rights and to strengthen the
social, economic and cultural lives of people and communities.
• We are not users of the information society, but citizens of it with the rights
and obligations that citizenship permits and imposes.
• The WSIS was supposed to be a tripartite summit, with governments, the
private sector and civil society working together. The problem was, nobody
knew what this should look like.
UNESCO Convention on the Protection
and Promotion of the Diversity of
Cultural Expressions
among other things:
19. Noting that while the processes of globalization, which
have been facilitated by the rapid development of
information and communication technologies, afford
unprecedented conditions for enhanced interaction
between cultures, also represent a challenge for cultural
diversity, namely in view of risks of imbalances between
rich and poor countries,
endorses the right of States to define and conduct cultural
policies ;
initiates hope for a globalization more respectful of peoples'
identities (President Chirac)
Summary
With the Convention on Cultural Diversity
UNESCO has given us a legal claim on our
own identity
The CRIS campaign continues to fight for
our right, as citizens of the information
society, to communicate and build
communities.