[governance] Rights issues in Azerbaijan / What will CS @ Baku do?

Katy P katycarvt at gmail.com
Wed May 2 11:09:11 EDT 2012 

While the jailing of bloggers is a concern, the overall atmosphere of
demonizing the Internet in Azerbaijan should be a concern as well.

Azerbaijan (wisely?) maintains an outward face of promoting technology, but
it does a thorough job of discouraging it. This is much harder to combat
both internally and externally.

On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 11:07 AM, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro <
salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 10:56 AM, Katy P <katycarvt at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> While a panel can be a safe place, what happens when we all leave and the
>> government knows they a particular individual attended such a panel?
>>
>> There are no easy answers but whilst we are there we could use the
> opportunity to meet with local civil society organizations etc and maybe
> assist them with general strategies. In fact, activism can be strategic -
> for instance, we can get governments with good records to help communicate
> to governments who struggle with issues such as "Freedom of Expression" -
> like a sort of peer thing. Simultaneously, civil society can organize
> multistakeholder workshops to address this but at the same time regional
> organizations and local organizations have to figure out and develop a
> strategy for advocacy, one which is long term, medium and short term.
>
> In Fiji, we are under military rule since our Coup D' Etat in 2006 and we
> have anti sedition laws that make it illegal to criticize the state or any
> of its agencies. Sedition in Fiji is any criticism of government or its
> functions/practices/policies.
>
> So my reflections are based on what I see on the ground. I find that these
> laws are crafted out of "fear". The key thing would be addressing the fear.
> There are no easy answers but as the IGC we should really talk about the
> Human Rights Issues concerning jailing of bloggers in Azerbaijan.
>
> Kind Regards,
> Sala
>
>>
>> On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 10:50 AM, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro <
>> salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 10:43 AM, Robert Guerra <rguerra at privaterra.org>wrote:
>>>
>>>>  Given past experiences, my recommendation would be that -  as a
>>>> minimum workshop proposals that touch on Free expression and/or rights
>>>> issues need to not only be supported - but also carefully monitored to make
>>>> sure there isn't undue interference from the Azeri hosts and/or UN
>>>>
>>>
>>> Another way to do it is to get them involved in a Panel and create a
>>> "safe place" for dialogue on "abuse of the exceptions" in Article 19 of the
>>> ICCPR. If we through advocacy not by alienating them engage them in
>>> dialogue on what the mature response is, we could win both sides. The key
>>> is outreach and strategic advocacy. We must lead and guide them to
>>> understand why it is important.
>>>
>>> At the same time, we need to be very clear and express our position on
>>> the matter in some form. If even after this level of engagement, we are
>>> still ignored then we can recoup and strategize on how we wish to address
>>> it. Any approach should have a long term strategy because other countries
>>> can also learn.
>>>
>>> Kind Regards,
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> regards
>>>>
>>>>  Robert
>>>>   --
>>>> R. Guerra
>>>> Phone/Cell: +1 202-905-2081
>>>> Twitter: twitter.com/netfreedom
>>>> Email: rguerra at privaterra.org
>>>>
>>>>   On 2012-05-02, at 10:24 AM, Katitza Rodriguez wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  Hola Robert,
>>>>
>>>> comments below:
>>>>
>>>> On 5/2/12 9:15 AM, Robert Guerra wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On 2012-05-02, at 3:13 AM, Roland Perry wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  In message<
>>>> 855077AC3D7A7147A7570370CA01ECD214F43D at SUEX10-mbx-10.ad.syr.edu>, at
>>>> 22:03:02 on Tue, 1 May 2012, Milton L Mueller<mueller at syr.edu>  writes
>>>>
>>>>   Do you at least agree it wasn't a "workshop"? I know it sounds
>>>> pedantic,
>>>>
>>>>  [Milton L Mueller] It was a reception with food. And your point is...?
>>>>
>>>> A workshop is part of the official programme, and both interruptions
>>>> and poorly briefed organisers would be more serious.
>>>>
>>>> The incident in Sharm was not the only one where the IGF secretariat
>>>> has stepped in and stopped a critical conversation related to rights.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Last year's workshop session in Nairobi on - The Internet in the
>>>> Post-Revolution Phase — Challenges of Political Engagement and the Safety
>>>> of Citizens" was cancelled for reasons unknown at the very last minute.
>>>> However, the people stayed in the room and a very lively and engaging
>>>> conversation took place. In fact, the session - according to Keith Drazek
>>>> from Verisign proved to be one of the successes of the whole event.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> IGF Nairobi - Success of the Multi-stakeholder Model
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.circleid.com/posts/igf_nairobi_success_of_the_multi_stakeholder_model/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The Secretariat tried to remove the video archive of the session from
>>>> the official record. But luckily, it was saved - let's see for how long.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I did not hear about this. I'm astonished. Do you know if they are
>>>> editing the reports to at their own whim? Is there more cases like this
>>>> documented?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala
>>>
>>> Tweeter: @SalanietaT
>>> Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
>>> Cell: +679 998 2851
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ____________________________________________________________
>>> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
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>>> For all other list information and functions, see:
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>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala
>
> Tweeter: @SalanietaT
> Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
> Cell: +679 998 2851
>
>
>
>
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