Preparing a Civil Society Online Conference on WSIS
28-11-2002 (Paris)
Today continues in Paris a preparatory meeting that will organize an online conference for civil society as part of the preparations of the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS; Geneva, December 2003). The two-day meeting was opened by UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura yesterday.
Welcoming Adama Samassékou, President of the WSIS Preparatory Committee, the Director-General stressed the importance of involving civil society representatives in the Summit’s preparation process. The online conference will take place in the lead up to the second meeting of the WSIS Preparatory Committee (Prepcom II, Geneva, 17-28 February, 2003), where the Summit’s Draft Action Plan will be discussed by Member States.
Noting UNESCO’s close and long-established relations with civil society, the Director-General maintained that UNESCO is well-positioned to bring quite diverse constituencies into the Summit process and, indeed, to act as a bridge linking civil society, governments, professional groups and users.
The Director-General expressed the hope that four key principles (equal access to education; freedom of expression; the guarantee of a strong public domain of information; and the preservation and promotion of cultural diversity, including multilingualism) would be incorporated into the animating vision of the World Summit.
UNESCO, he stated, wishes to ensure that the Summit addresses questions that go beyond ‘access’ in technical or infrastructural terms: “After all, the access in question is really about full access to society; more than this, it is about the capacity to influence the kind of society being generated by large-scale technological and economic forces”. The desire to enlarge the Summit’s agenda to take account of important issues of intellectual and ethical debate is something that UNESCO shares with civil society. “The narrowing of cultural as well as technological divides is something we must all strive for”, said the Director-General.
Noting UNESCO’s close and long-established relations with civil society, the Director-General maintained that UNESCO is well-positioned to bring quite diverse constituencies into the Summit process and, indeed, to act as a bridge linking civil society, governments, professional groups and users.
The Director-General expressed the hope that four key principles (equal access to education; freedom of expression; the guarantee of a strong public domain of information; and the preservation and promotion of cultural diversity, including multilingualism) would be incorporated into the animating vision of the World Summit.
UNESCO, he stated, wishes to ensure that the Summit addresses questions that go beyond ‘access’ in technical or infrastructural terms: “After all, the access in question is really about full access to society; more than this, it is about the capacity to influence the kind of society being generated by large-scale technological and economic forces”. The desire to enlarge the Summit’s agenda to take account of important issues of intellectual and ethical debate is something that UNESCO shares with civil society. “The narrowing of cultural as well as technological divides is something we must all strive for”, said the Director-General.
Related themes/countries
· online discussion forum for Civil Society
· 2002
Share this story:
Contact information
- UNESCO
Source