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<DIV>Dear All,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I would hope that the IGF and MAG would be interested in disability access
issues as well and would consider further networking with persons with
disabilities with regard to the new Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (CRPD). We have recently launched a new
International Network of Women With Disabilities (INWWD) in Quebec in August
2008. We are still in the process of getting ourselves organized,
but I would hope that we might also contribute to the UN mission. I
am one of the moderators of the new listserv and it is clear to me that
internet governance issues are interfering with our process. We set up our
listserv with Yahoo Groups by default. We also have a working group that
is connected with the International Disability Caucus for Indigenous
Persons with Disabilities. The IGF and MAG should be networking more
closely with the International Disability Alliance (IDA) and the International
Disability Caucus (IDC). IDA has an IDA CRPD Forum with Yahoo Groups
listserv and also a Steering Committee that communicates via Yahoo Groups.
The IDC also has a listserv on Yahoo Groups. There are also several other
large umbrella organizations that lobby for the rights of persons with
disabilities, including Rehabilitation International (RI), the Survivors Corp
(formerly the Landmine Survivors Network) and Handicapped International
(HI). To my knowledge, all these umbrella organizations are connected with
the International Disability Alliance.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I find the disability rights issues to be very much front and center in the
world right now. Disability cuts across all the usual dividing lines and
affects almost every single individual directly and probably every single human
alive at least indirectly -- via family members, friends, costs of accessibility
vs the human cost of inaccessibility, etc. We are making significant
progress on the disability access issues regarding the internet with respect to
the UN website and with respect to the design and layout of buildings all around
the world. I hope the internet governance issues will also be pushed
forward by including our agenda of non-discrimination, reasonable accommodation,
autonomy, etc. For more information on the Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities, please check out <A
href="http://www.un.org/disabilities">www.un.org/disabilities</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There are also websites available for most of the organizations that I
mentioned above.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Being new to this list, it is not clear to me yet what has been discussed
and what has not. I sincerely hope this information is of value to the
group.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I'm happy to be a new member,</DIV>
<DIV>Myra Kovary, M.L.A</DIV>
<DIV><A href="mailto:mmk29@cornell.edu">mmk29@cornell.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.myrakovary.com">www.myrakovary.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV>- a UN Representative of MindFreedom International (MFI) <A
href="http://www.mindfreedom.org">www.mindfreedom.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV>- a member of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry
(WNUSP) <A href="http://www.wnusp.net">www.wnusp.net</A> </DIV>
<DIV>- a founding member and moderator of the new listserv for the International
Network of Women With Disabilities (INWWD)</DIV>
<DIV>- a founding member of the Ithaca Mental Patients Advocacy Coalition
(IMPAC)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 1/22/2009 9:22:32 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
jeremy@ciroap.org writes:</DIV>
<DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>On
20/01/2009, at 6:58 PM, Ian Peter wrote:<BR><BR>> Do we agree with this
summary?<BR><BR>(Parminder's, snipped) - yes, entirely.<BR><BR>> The IGF
should be assured stable and sufficient public funding to be <BR>>
able to<BR>> carry its functions effectively, and impartially in global
public <BR>> interest.<BR><BR>Clearly yes. To be frank, nobody
takes the IGF seriously - even <BR>friendly civil society people in the
ICT space, unless they are on <BR>this list (and sometimes even then),
react with surprise when it is <BR>suggested that the IGF was once
intended to be something like a <BR>"public policy ICANN" rather than
just an annual symposium. Properly <BR>funding it would not solve
that problem, but it would help.<BR><BR>> Our recommendations should
emphasize that the IGF needs its mandate <BR>> extended<BR>> so
that it can evolve. The small secretariat with its direct <BR>>
connection to<BR>> New York has been a successful arrangement that
provides <BR>> flexibility. I<BR>> think it is important that no
other UN organization gets involved in <BR>> the<BR>> IGF's
management.<BR>><BR>> Any thoughts on this?<BR><BR>I entirely agree with
Milton that the interposition of the black box <BR>of the UN Secretariat
prevents the MAG from being adequately <BR>democratic, but on the other
hand I think Jeanette's main point was <BR>that we have only a fairly
thin link to the UN bureaucracy at present <BR>and that it certainly
should not be thickened.<BR><BR>-- <BR>JEREMY MALCOLM<BR>Project
Coordinator<BR>CONSUMERS INTERNATIONAL-KL OFFICE<BR>for Asia Pacific and the
Middle East <BR><BR>Consumers International (CI) is the only
independent global <BR>campaigning voice for consumers. With over 220
member organisations in <BR>115 countries, we are building a powerful
international consumer <BR>movement to help protect and empower
consumers everywhere. For more <BR>information, visit
www.consumersinternational.org.<BR><BR>____________________________________________________________<BR>You
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http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT><br/><font style="color:black;font:normal 10pt arial,san-serif;"> <hr style="margin-top:10px"/><b>Inauguration '09</b>: Get <a href="http://news.aol.com/main/politics/inauguration?ncid=emlcntusnews00000003">complete coverage</a> from the nation's capital.</font></DIV></BODY></HTML>