I. Introductory Remarks

I feel deeply honored for having been invited to this important International Policy Dialogue, and I am very pleased that the organizers wanted to include an NGO voice in these deliberations. Let me say at the outset that I am not an expert neither on Information-Communication Technology (ICT) nor on Digital revolution, but I am here as an activist for human rights, (in particular women and children's rights), which include the enjoyment of economic and social rights and access to 'global public goods'¹, such as knowledge and information. I am also here as newly elected President of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in consultative relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), in which capacity I also take immense pleasure to learn from and interact in this debate.

Allow me to briefly introduce CONGO. It is an umbrella association of some 360 international (and some national) organizations from North and South with the mandate to nurture UN/NGO relations, to assist the great variety of NGOs in consultative status to promote their common aim of supporting the United Nations Charter. At our recent General Assembly under the theme. "UN/NGO Dynamics in the 21st Century: Together for Social Justice, Equality and Peace" I outlined my vision for CONGO under the three headings: Outreach, Dialogue and Training to become even more inclusive, in particular through NGO capacity building in developing countries with the view to enable NGOs to respond effectively to the overarching challenges confronting us: poverty, racism, globalization, environmental challenges, how to achieve gender equality and a new child rights agenda and how the enjoyment of all human rights can be assured for all.

CONGO has intervened at the High-Level Segment of the substantive session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 1999 on "The role of employment and work in poverty eradication: The empowerment and advancement of women"² and again in 2000 through Board member on "The Universal Right to Access Information and Knowledge"³ (and in this respect I am very happy to meet here with the President of ECOSOC) as we are currently in the process to prepare our interventions for the next High-level session on the "Role of the United Nations system in supporting the efforts of African countries to achieve sustainable development".

CONGO was also an important stakeholder in the Millennium Forum, as well as the principal locus of NGO coordination in connection with the five-year review in follow up to the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing + 5). It was also actively involved in Copenhagen + 5 and the Geneva 2000 Forum.

In focussing here on "Digital Inclusion" and its tremendous challenges and opportunities, we should not loose (and have not lost) sight of the now recognized inter -relatedness among so many of the development issues of our time, in particular in overcoming extreme poverty.

II. Human Rights: A rights based approach: The missing link?

It is difficult for many of us here to imagine a world without television, telephones, fax machines, copiers, computers, the Internet and countless other technological tools and instruments that are routinely used by millions of affluent people to greatly improve their productivity, their health, and their quality of life. Tragically, the large majority of the world's six billion people is not in a position to access the systems or are at ease with the programs which make it work. Millions of them have still to make their first telephone call.

Only last week (as we have heard) Donald Johnson, Secretary General of the OECD, told an audience at an Economy Forum on E-Commerce in Dubai that the gap in information technology between developing and developed countries has doubled in the past three years. At the same time, data released from the US show that the overall level of US digital inclusion is rapidly increasing.⁴ The OECD chief said that in October the ratio of Internet hosts to population was 540 times higher in North America than in Africa, double the ratio in 1997. "Not only is the world unsustainable in the long run with billions of people condemned to poverty, but expanded trade and investment opportunities for OECD members will depend upon sustainable growth and sound stability in every region of the Globe", he said and added: "One might call this enlightened self-interest". Dubai's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoun called this gap: denying most developing countries the opportunity of true participation in the new global economy - a threat to world security.⁵

This is strong language. But nobody yet makes a link to human rights or its existing machinery i.e. to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Right to education) or the Declaration on the Right to Development, (and other relevant instruments such as CEDAW and CRC), although we have seen during the last decade the emergence of a consensus in development thinking in favor of the centrality of human rights as the normative underpinning of human development - an emphasis on the fulfillment of basic human needs and the development of human capacities as key indicators of any nation's development. This approach considers improvement in people's well-being and the enlargement of the choices open to them to be the central aim of development. (And how much would ready and affordable access to and knowledge to use the benefits of the technological revolution help to do just that!)

It is one more achievement of the women's movement in its long and still existing struggle to gain recognition for their own realization of all human rights, enshrined in the major human rights instruments, to have importantly contributed to this holistic approach. Together with other movements to end discrimination and protect vulnerable groups, at both the global and local levels, they have helped to maintain and strengthen the focus on people. In moving the concept from women in development to gender in development they have lead the way of looking at the differential impact any development measure, programme or policy has on women or men, boys or girls or on particular ethnics, races, classes or castes. They have also effectively used human rights instruments to ensure and challenge the responsibility and accountability of Governments and the international community alike to implement commitments made towards the realization of women's human rights.

What then is the added value of applying a human rights approach in the discussion of digital inclusion?

First: Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for mainstreaming human rights throughout the UN system, that is all human rights, civil and political as well as economic, social and cultural rights. There are many aspects to this. The framework of human rights can be applied to all the work of international organizations - from implementing women's rights to health projects in Africa to setting rules for the protection of intellectual property. The current debate on the "Right to Development" in the UN Working Group as well as growing focus on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights within the work of the Commission on Human Rights could well include the right to access to ICT, information and knowledge.

Second: The integration of 'digital inclusion' into the human rights debate could benefit from constant monitoring by the human rights machinery. The independent expert on the right to development and the special rapporteur on the right to education would be well placed to compile all relevant information and 'best practices', as well as monitor commitments and recommendations and bring the information to the Commission (and to the world).

Third: The shifting of the debate from ad hoc arrangements, even if they are as high level as the G8 Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT) or the ECOSOC ICT Task Force, to the ongoing human rights discussions would open for much wider participation of actors, including from NGOs (civil society) in this crucial global issue. This would by no means undermine important recommendations coming from these high level bodies, but rather give them much wider awareness.

Fourth: The fundamental right to information is inherent in many other rights. Indeed, without access to information and the technology that makes the sources instantly available and useable, many of the other rights are hollow or remain out of reach. Widespread availability of global communication and information technology could therefore have a dramatic effect on the awareness/knowledge and realization of human rights and the empowerment of people, particular in the areas of health, education and development.

III. Best practices

It is known that NGOs played a leading role in a number of vital issues during the cycle of world conferences of the last decade, from human rights to the environment, from development to disarmament. However, the way they have networked, connected and interacted for the review follow- up conferences of the last three years was a revolution and is an example of best practice in ICT in itself. In particular during the Beijing + 5 process, in which CONGO played an important role, unprecedented on-line discussions allowed input from people from all over the world and from all walks of life, including men. And as we are gathered here, other on-line discussions allow input from NGOs into the processes of upcoming events such as the World Conference against Racism, on Least Developed Countries or special General Assembly Sessions on HIV AIDS, Small Arms and Children. This way NGOs not only connect with each other but also connect issues and become aware of the linkages of the challenges before us. This permits for more effective advocacy and action.

While this revolution in itself is probably a good practice and a happier consequence of the phenomenon of globalization, it allows also to express on a global level deep anxieties about the way our world develops into ever more divided camps of "haves" and "have-nots", of "knows" and "know-nots". The protesters, whether violent (Seattle, Prague... etc.) or more civilized, got their message through. Never was there more consensus that bridges over the divide must be built soon and that poor people need to be empowered and given opportunities for more participation and security.

We as CONGO therefore strongly support all bridge building efforts in this direction, to begin with the Secretary General's initiative suggested in his report "We the Peoples," (A/54/2000) to the Millenium Assembly, such as UNITeS, the consortium of high-tech volunteers who will train groups in developing counties in the uses and opportunities of information technology, and stimulate the creation of additional corps in North and South.

We also commend the Grameen Bank for their continued creative response to overcome poverty with particular focus on women, and for their latest creations: the Grameen Phone company and Grameen Communications, dedicated to bringing Internet services into the villages in a financially sustainable way.

In the same way we support all initiatives for rural and excluded areas, such as the 'lincos' concept or the multi -purpose Village Telecom Centres.

Education, including legal and digital literacy, with emphasis on lifelong education and learning to learn has been central to our advocacy, highlighting in particular girls' education.

Last year, at ECOSOC, we asked for a $500 million Trust Fund for information technology to be funded by both the public and private sectors, and we wait for ECOSOC to report on this.₆

We further asked:

• that wider dissemination of information technology best practices be shared
• that international organizations and bilateral aid providers take necessary steps to make information technology an inherent part of each and every development project they help finance and to inform ECOSOC in 2001 and subsequent years of steps they have taken to bring this about
• that debt forgiveness, explicitly earmarked for information technology uses, should be implemented on a demonstration basis in at least five of Least Developed Countries for wider use
• that global parliamentarians and heads of state see the technology revolution in terms of partnership, common good, the right of access, knowledge sharing, and equitable distribution
• that gaps and barriers (language, gender, age, diversity, etc) be bridged in a culturally sensitive and individually empowering way
• that if access to information and knowledge is a human right, that it be guaranteed sooner rather than later.

IV. Conclusion

Much has been said about our current value system, about greed driven market forces with little or no social responsibilities. Even the recent World Development Report released by the World Bank₇ carries the simple message that mass poverty in the midst of global prosperity is morally unacceptable, politically unsustainable and economically wasteful.

But who is responsible for our set of values? Who is the market? Who is to blame?

Institutions, governments, the World Bank, the IMF, the private sector, multinational corporations? The individual, you and me with our every day decisions and our lack of human and social consciousness?

Out of all the discussions during Beijing and Copenhagen +5 and the NGO Millennium Forum on this issue a consensus emerged for building the right coalitions, coalitions that work for the poor and the voiceless, coalitions that embody collective and individual human values so that action produces collective benefits.

As CONGO we were heartened by the seeming convergence of the visions expressed in the Declaration of the NGO Millennium Forum and the Millennium Summit of Heads of States. We want to capture and nurture the momentum created and work closely together with the UN and member states, with international organizations, the private sector, the donor community and other NGOs to build the digital bridges necessary to improve the quality of lives throughout the world.

I thank you for your attention.