WSIS and Diversity
I’m sure you’re very excited for today’s opening of the World Summit on the Information Society (”WSIS”) in Tunis. At Tunis, nations will be encouraged to adopt the Tunis Commitment. This document is hilarious. If you thought the WSIS is a digital coup d’etat, think again. It’s really about lifting up the world’s poor and minorities:
9. We reaffirm our resolution in the quest to ensure that everyone can benefit from the opportunities that ICTs [Information and Communicative Technologies] can offer, by recalling that governments, as well as private sector, civil society and the United Nations and other international organisations, should work together to: . . . foster and respect cultural diversity.
11. Furthermore, ICTs are making it possible for a vastly larger population than at any time in the past to join in sharing and expanding the base of human knowledge, and contributing to its further growth in all spheres of human endeavour as well as application to education, health and science. ICTs have enormous potential to expand access to quality education, to boost literacy and universal primary education, and to facilitate the learning process itself, thus laying the groundwork for the establishment of a fully-inclusive and development-oriented Information Society and knowledge economy which respects cultural and linguistic diversity.
13. We also recognise that the ICT revolution can have a tremendous positive impact as an instrument of sustainable development. In addition, an appropriate enabling environment at national and international levels could prevent increasing social and economic divisions, and widening the gap between rich and poor countries, regions, and individuals—including between men and women.
18. We shall strive unremittingly, therefore, to promote universal, ubiquitous, equitable and affordable access to ICTs, including universal design and assistive technologies, for all people, especially those with disabilities, everywhere, to ensure that the benefits are more evenly distributed between and within societies, and to bridge the digital divide in order to create digital opportunities for all and benefit from the potential offered by ICTs for development.
20. To that end, we shall pay particular attention to the special needs of marginalised and vulnerable groups of society including migrants, internally displaced persons and refugees, unemployed and underprivileged people, minorities and nomadic people, older persons and persons with disabilities.
23. We recognise that a gender divide exists as part of the digital divide in society and we reaffirm our commitment to women’s empowerment and to a gender equality perspective, so that we can overcome this divide. We further acknowledge that the full participation of women in the Information Society is necessary to ensure the inclusiveness and respect for human rights with in the Information Society. We encourage all stakeholders to support women’s participation in decision-making processes and to contribute to shaping all spheres of the Information Society at international, regional and national levels.
32. We further commit ourselves to promote the inclusion of all peoples in the Information Society through the development and use of local and/or indigenous languages in ICTs. We will continue our efforts to protect and promote cultural diversity, as well as cultural identities, within the Information Society.
38. Our efforts should not stop with the conclusion of the Summit. The emergence of the global Information Society to which we all contribute provides increasing opportunities for all our peoples and for an inclusive global community that were unimaginable only a few years ago. We must harness these opportunities today and support their further development and progress.
This hoiler-than-thou document exemplifies how the international liberal mindset uses the poor, women, disabled, and the ever expanding list of minorities in an abusive and manipulative manner in order to sound caring, sensitive, and compassionate. The internationalists anguish acts as a protective cover to further their shady goal of wresting the internet DNS from U.S. control. The world’s “marginalised and vulnerable groups of society” are the internationalists scapegoat. The “Tunis Commitment” makes me puke.