Northern and Southern Human Rights

The morning was supposed to be taken up with an in depth talk by Professor Hamelink, Professor Boafo and their students about the relationship between the northern and the southern hemisphere as regards computer technology. They had prepared the discussion but as I reported earlier, the Kenyan telephone system in Nairobi went down the moment we wanted to start the conversation. Nevertheless, they sent us the results of their thinking via fax later, so their thoughts were embedded in the final ICATA declaration at the end of the GHP. Via Peacenet we went online anyway to discuss the relationship between the rich northern and the poor southern hemispheres, finding out how computer technology could contribute to the emancipation of people all over the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a reference point in all these debates, mostly because all of the people who participated 'wanted to do good', but many of us did not know what 'doing good' implied in those days. The fact that e-mail and Internet facilitates cheap information that is hard to censor appeared to be of crucial value for people in the southern hemisphere during these debates.

CN