<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:v =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1 =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16705" name=GENERATOR><!--[if !mso]>
<STYLE>v\:* {
BEHAVIOR: url(#default#VML)
}
o\:* {
BEHAVIOR: url(#default#VML)
}
w\:* {
BEHAVIOR: url(#default#VML)
}
.shape {
BEHAVIOR: url(#default#VML)
}
</STYLE>
<![endif]--><o:SmartTagType name="country-region"
namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:SmartTagType><o:SmartTagType
name="place"
namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:SmartTagType><o:SmartTagType
name="PersonName"
namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:SmartTagType><!--[if !mso]>
<STYLE>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
</STYLE>
<![endif]-->
<STYLE>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"MS Mincho";
panose-1:2 2 6 9 4 2 5 8 3 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"\@MS Mincho";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.MsoPlainText, li.MsoPlainText, div.MsoPlainText
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";}
p.abstand, li.abstand, div.abstand
{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0cm;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0cm;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:Arial;
color:windowtext;}
span.EmailStyle20
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:Arial;
color:navy;}
@page Section1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 77.95pt 72.0pt 77.95pt;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</STYLE>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></HEAD>
<BODY lang=FR vLink=purple link=blue bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bonjour Renate</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I thank you a lot for this very interesting
infomation. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'm just finishing an article which is part of a
book to be published in autumn (in french : L'Ethique dans la société de
l'information, Edition Bruylant, Bruxelles) as a contribution to the follow-up
of WSIS Action line C10 with Unesco. I'll incorporate this (for me) new right as
one substantive part of ethics in the development process, especially in
education and in providing access to ICTs in DCs.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>All the best for you </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jean-Louis Fullsack</FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=renate.bloem@gmail.com href="mailto:renate.bloem@gmail.com">Renate
Bloem (Gmail)</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=governance@lists.cpsr.org
href="mailto:governance@lists.cpsr.org">governance@lists.cpsr.org</A> ; <A
title=parminder@itforchange.net
href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net">'Parminder'</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, August 20, 2008 8:23
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> RE: [governance] Rights in IG
research</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Hi <st1:PersonName
w:st="on">Parminder</st1:PersonName> and all,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Thanks for how you
expressed so evidently how rights are evolving or become more conscious. FYI,
yesterday I attended during the session of the UNWG on the Right to
Development the launching of the <B><I><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic">Implementing the Right to
Development – The Role of International Law</SPAN></I></B><I><SPAN
style="FONT-STYLE: italic">,</SPAN></I> a joint publication by the Friedrich
Ebert Stiftung and the Harvard School of Public Health, Program on Human
Rights in Development, soon to be online. In the meantime you can
find<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=abstand style="BACKGROUND: white"><B><FONT face=Arial color=navy
size=2><SPAN lang=DE
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Towards
the implementation of the right to development</SPAN></FONT></B><FONT
face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN lang=DE
style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> : field-testing and
fine-tuning the UN criteria on the right to development in the Kenyan-German
parthership / Felix Kirchmeier ; Monika Lüke ; Britt Kalla. - Geneva :
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Geneva Office, [2007]. - 46 S. = 2,3 MB, PDF-File. -
<BR>Electronic ed.: Genf ; Bonn : FES, 2008<BR>ISBN
978-3-89892-853-3</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
lang=DE
style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><A
href="http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/genf/05105.pdf" target=_blank>Die
Publikation im PDF-Format</A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=abstand style="BACKGROUND: white"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN lang=DE
style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><A
href="http://library.fes.de/cgi-bin/populo/digbib.pl?f_ABC=genf&t_listen=x&sortierung=jab">http://library.fes.de/cgi-bin/populo/digbib.pl?f_ABC=genf&t_listen=x&sortierung=jab</A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=abstand style="BACKGROUND: white"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN lang=DE
style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Best<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=abstand style="BACKGROUND: white"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN lang=DE
style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Renate<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=abstand style="BACKGROUND: white"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN lang=DE
style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN lang=DE
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN lang=DE
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<HR tabIndex=-1 align=center width="100%" SIZE=3>
</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">From:</SPAN></FONT></B><FONT
face=Tahoma size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"> <st1:PersonName
w:st="on">Parminder</st1:PersonName> [mailto:parminder@itforchange.net]
<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> mardi, 19. août 2008
08:01<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> <st1:PersonName
w:st="on">governance@lists.cpsr.org</st1:PersonName><BR><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> RE: [governance] Rights in IG
research</SPAN></FONT><SPAN lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Hi
All<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Rights to me are a set of basic
conditions and purposes of political association of human groups. They are
basic, and therefore they cannot be each and every thing which is decided by
the concerned political community. However at the same time the nature of
political association, and of a political community, is not static. Its
members today have the same right to pull together some ‘basic’ conditions and
purposes of their association as someone had in say circa 1823.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We know that nature of political
communities have undergone great change through history, and the conception of
rights can be said to have undergone a corresponding change. It can be no
one’s case that we have reached the end of history, so I find this thing about
lets stick to existing rights a bit difficult to swallow. It is more difficult
to accept this for someone from a society that is in the middle of more rapid
political evolution than someone in a relatively mature political system. And
since, as discussed, changes in conception of rights has directly to do with
evolution of a political community, I have great problem with how most
analyses of rights as have been seen on this list mostly simply refuse to
factor this angle in. (this evolution of political communities also cannot be
taken to be going in a given specified direction, <I><SPAN
style="FONT-STYLE: italic">a la </SPAN></I>modernization
theory.)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Another issue of relevance here is
this distinction of some rights needing spending of resources, as if others
don’t. Go to the stateless parts of Afghanistan, or Sudan, or insurgency bound
areas of Kashmir, and you will begin to understand what kind of resource
expenditure and systems need to be put in place to ensure the right against
bodily harm, what to speak of FoE. Ensuring any right needs work to be done,
otherwise they will be self-ensured. And doing any work/ effort means
expenditure of resources. So this distinction too, at the bottom, is very
fallacious. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This is not to say that all
political claims are rights, or even that all rights are equally important.
Depending on our individual and collective political preferences, some may be
more important than the other. And some are most important for all of us. For
instance, we will all agree that the right against bodily harm is something
extremely basic and important. But there are many grey shades here as
political communities evolve. Does the right of children not to work in
relatively dangerous conditions derive from this right? (Or, the right not to
work at all.) Which all other ‘child rights’ derive for this right and from
others. What are dangerous conditions? At some point just working long
hours can be considered dangerous. Can then working long hours for adults also
be considered dangerous?. Does then, the right to have a decent livelihood
without working in ‘dangerous conditions’ become a right derived from the
right against bodily harm. Does it mean anything, or help, to christen a new
set of rights as child rights or labour rights, or is it blasphemous to the
basic ideals of human rights. Who decides when this point of blasphemy is
reached? <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">It is amusing that people could
argue that we should close the list of rights - as the list of states
who can legally pursue nuclear weapon programs is official closed – when we,
for instance, in India, see daily struggles of people to claim basic political
rights, through grassroots movements, constructing these rights collectively,
through new political consciousness. There is this right to livelihood
struggle by tribals whose forest inhabitation is taken away by ‘civilized’
people carried self-certified documents based on right to property, and its
‘legal’ adjudication (reminds of something long back in the
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> ??). People dying with
AIDS in millions when there are medicines that are not allowed to be produced
by them (local companies) for self-consumption in the name of intellectual
property rights. And therefore there is a (counter) political assertion of a
right to health. This are only a few vignettes of the political struggles of a
big number of people which are very conveniently sought to be excluded by
some, from conceptions of what is political most important and non-negotiable
– ‘our’ rights (whose??). <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This doesn’t mean that we can talk
about rights loosely. No not at all. These are, by definition, issues of
highest importance to human life. But neither one should seek to freeze an
arbitrary codification for everyone about what is of highest importance to
human life for different political communities (including for the global
community, whose ‘political community’ nature is increasingly stronger, and
therefore we should be more careful than ever of political dominations, even
if in the name of human rights.)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">In fact, at a seminar organized by
IT for Change a few years back a social activist strongly challenged the
conception of ‘communication rights’ as being un-connected to any people’s
movement or people’s perspectives. She was strongly of the opinion that one
has to be careful putting things in a ’rights framework’, and not doing so
devalues people’s struggles (not only Indian people’s struggles but as
much as those of French, and American whose struggles underlie some very
important rights). I have not brought this subject up with her but I expect
her to criticize a conception of a possible ‘right to the Internet’ from the
same perspective. I don’t think she will be right in doing so, but I do agree
with her framework of critique. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">But I don’t agree with the
frameworks of defending ‘existing rights’ and negating any other conceptions
that seek refuge in UDHR as ‘the’ rights document or in negative-positive
right distinctions. Instead, let us be tuned in to people’s political
realities and struggles which give shape to rights. There is no other
yardstick of ‘deciding on’ what can be or cant be rights. Such essentialism is
self serving for the respective political ideologies professed by the
protagonists. (No, it is not neo-imperialism - at least, not yet :-)
)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Since we are discussing rights as
a part of an advocacy group (which concerns social change), I think we should,
in my view, be more tuned with real frontiers of social change, and deep
political realities of these frontiers. And since this is a global group, I
think its political legitimacy lies in being globally inclusive in conceiving
of what is highest in terms of our political priorities as a global political
community. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Parminder</SPAN></FONT></st1:PersonName><FONT
face=Arial size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoPlainText><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>____________________________________________________________<BR>You
received this message as a subscriber on the list:<BR>
governance@lists.cpsr.org<BR>To be removed from the list, send any message
to:<BR>
governance-unsubscribe@lists.cpsr.org<BR><BR>For all list information and
functions, see:<BR>
http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>