dear stacco, perhaps worth republishing on the p2p blog ? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: La Quadrature du Net <[email protected]> Date: Sat, Dec 10, 2016 at 12:15 AM Subject: [opennetcoalition] Open Government in France: an Empty Promise? To: [email protected] Press Release *Tags : OGP16, AXELLE LEMAIRE, BERNARD CAZENEUVE, OPENWASHING, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, OPEN DATA, FREE SOFTWARE, SURVEILLANCE* La Quadrature du Net — For immediate release Permanent link: https://www.laquadrature.net/en/Open-Government-France-an- Empty-Promise Open Government in France: an Empty Promise? Paris, 9 December 2016 — *As France is hosting the Open Government Partnership Global Summit, a number of Civil Society Organizations point out the inconsistencies of the French government. Some have decided not to attend.* The report on "open government" in France is co-signed by the following Civil Society Organizations (CSO): ANTICOR, April, BLOOM, DemocracyOS France, Fais ta loi, Framasoft, La Quadrature du Net, Ligue des Droits de l’Homme, Regards Citoyens, République citoyenne, SavoirsCom1. While showcasing a "dialogue with civil society", France is far from being an exemplary democracy Open government is a new way to collaborate between public actors and civil society, to find mutual answers to the important challenges democracies are facing: human rights, preservation of the environment, fighting corruption, universal access to knowledge, etc. To this end, seventy countries joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Each state is required to co-create and implement a "National Action Plan" together with civil society. France joined the Open Government Partnership in April 2014, and published its first National Action Plan in July 2015.Since October 2016 the French government co-chairs the OGP with WRI (World Resource Institute), a US-based civil society organization. As such, France will host the OGP Global Summit, in Paris, from December 7th to December 9th, 2016, announced as the "COP 21 for democracy". As the "Country of Human Rights", co-chair and host of the OGP Global Summit, France should be exemplary regarding open government. Unfortunately, actions do not match the promises, including in the three areas identified as "core priorities" by the French government itself (1. climate change and sustainable development ; 2. transparency, integrity and anti-corruption ; 3. building digital commons), despite the Government's self-satisfaction.Worse, some decisions, incompatible with democratic progress as promoted by the Open Government Partnership, are leading France on a dangerous path. The Civil Society Organizations who co-sign this statement, publish their critical analysis of Open Government in France and ask the French Government and Representatives to reevaluate some choices that are widely inconsistent with general interest and OGP's principles, and to finally bring coherence between speeches and actions. *Read the entire document <https://www.laquadrature.net/files/open%20government%20partnership%20empty%20promise.pdf>* *Signatories* - ANTICOR <http://www.anticor.org> is a non-profit organisation founded in 2002 by Eric Halpen and Severine Tessier to fight corruption and bring ethics back into politics. - April <http://www.april.org/> is the main French advocacy association devoted to promoting and protecting Free/Libre Software. The involvement of its volunteers and staff enables it to carry out many and diverse actions to promote digital freedoms. - BLOOM <http://www.bloomassociation.org/>is a non-profit organization founded in 2005 by Claire Nouvian that works to preserve the marine environment and species from unnecessary destruction and to increase social benefits in the fishing sector. - DemocracyOS France <http://democracyos.eu/> is a non-profit organization promoting the use of an open source web platform that allows transparent and collective decision making. - Fais Ta Loi <http://faistaloi.org/>is a collective that aims at helping people furthest from the democratic debate to make their voice heard in Parliament. - Framasoft <https://framasoft.org/> is a network dedicated to the promotion of free culture, in general, and free software in particular. - Ligue des Droits de l’Homme <http://www.ldh-france.org/> acts for the defence of the rights and liberties of all. It is in interested in social citizenship and proposes measures for a strong and vibrant democracy, in France and in Europe. - La Quadrature du Net <https://www.laquadrature.net/> is a non-profit association that defends the rights and freedoms of citizens on the Internet. - Regards Citoyens <http://regardscitoyens.org/> is a French organization of citizens volunteering from all regions to work together on providing a better understanding of the French democratic institutions by levering public information in new and creative ways. Regards Citoyens has advocated for public Open Data in France since 2009. Their most prominent initiatives are parliamentary monitoring websites including notably: NosDeputes.fr; NosSenateurs.fr and LaFabriqueDeLaLoi.fr. - République citoyenne <http://republiquecitoyenne.fr/> is a French CSO, created in 2013, that aims at stimulating citizens' critical thinking on democratic issues and on open government, in particular. - SavoirsCom1 <https://www.savoirscom1.info/> is a collective dedicated to promote Knowledge Commons in public policies. About La Quadrature du Net La Quadrature du Net is an advocacy group that defends the rights and freedoms of citizens on the Internet. More specifically, it advocates for the adaptation of French and European legislations to respect the founding principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation of knowledge.

In addition to its advocacy work, the group also aims to foster a better understanding of legislative processes among citizens. Through specific and pertinent information and tools, La Quadrature du Net hopes to encourage citizens' participation in the public debate on rights and freedoms in the digital age.

La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, European and international NGOs including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society Institute and Privacy International. List of supporting organisations: https://www.laquadrature.net/ en/they-support-la-quadrature-du-net Press contact and press room [email protected] – +33 (0)972 294 426 https://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room *To unsubscribe, click here <http://www.laquadrature.net/civicrm/mailing/optout?reset=1&jid=326&qid=168583&h=b5f92c4f53ddbacd>* *La Quadrature du Net60, rue des OrteauxParis, 75020* _______________________________________________ Opennetcoalition mailing list [email protected] https://lists.laquadrature.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/opennetcoalition -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/