[CS Bureau] fyi: The Director-General addresses the Permanent Delegations on the WSIS

[Magaly Pazello]

Dear friends,
I've received this message from Unesco-Infolac please pay attention 
about the linkage between the london attack and the Unesco agenda at WSIS.

Magaly

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*Flash Info n°122-2005
*Office of the Spokeswoman/ La Porte Parole
Contact: m.de-pierrebourg at unesco.org
Telephone: 00 33 (1) 45 68 13 26
Fax: 00 33 (1) 45 68 55 66

UNESCO, 8 July 2005

*The Director-General addresses the Permanent Delegations on the WSIS*

* ***

On 8 July 2005, the Director-General held an information meeting for 
Permanent Delegations on the World Summit on the Information Society 
(WSIS) to brief them on the preparation of the second phase of the WSIS, 
which will take place in Tunis from 16 to 18 November 2005.

Since the meeting was held in the wake of the terrorist attacks in 
London on 7 July, the Director-General expressed his agreement with the 
statement made by the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in 
which he had characterized these vicious acts as “an attack on humanity 
itself”, and asked the Delegates to observe one minute of silence in 
respect for and in solidarity with the victims of the outrage in London.

In his address to the Delegates, the Director-General highlighted the 
importance of the WSIS process, which over its two phases in Geneva in 
2003 and in Tunis in 2005, has served as catalyst for the international 
development agenda. Mr Matsuura referred to the UNESCO-promoted concept 
of “knowledge societies” with its four underlying principles – freedom 
of expression; quality education for all; universal access to knowledge 
and information; and respect for cultural and linguistic diversity - 
that had gained due recognition in the Declaration and Plan of Action 
adopted in Geneva.

The Director-General outlined UNESCO’s main contributions to the WSIS 
process - the four thematic meetings organized in 2005 to foster 
UNESCO’s multi-stakeholder approach to WSIS implementation activities 
and to formulate proposals for concrete actions in the areas of UNESCO’s 
competence. The publication of the World Report on “Building Knowledge 
Societies” before the Summit in Tunis will “strengthen the intellectual, 
strategic and ethical “watch” capacities of the international community”.

“At the World Summit itself in Tunis in November”, the Director-General 
explained further, “UNESCO will have a strong presence and high 
visibility. It will be an active participant and contributor, not least 
through our efforts to organize three events that will build on UNESCO’s 
concept of “knowledge societies”.

As regards the follow-up to the World Summit, the Director-General 
assured the Delegates of UNESCO’s intention “to play a major role in the 
implementation process, honouring its growing presence in the 
international debate on ICT for development and building on its strong 
multi-stakeholder partnerships. […] It is clear that each of the eleven 
Action Lines will involve a multiplicity of stakeholders in the 
implementation process. Among the UN agencies, it is important that 
there is a unified and coherent approach. At the international level, 
therefore, there is a need for overall inter-agency coordination of the 
activities of the multi-stakeholder implementing teams addressing the 
eleven Action Lines. ITU Secretary-General Utsumi has proposed that our 
two agencies should take on this responsibility together and I have 
accepted this proposal. However, it is important to remember that the 
greatest responsibility for implementation lies at the national level.”

/The full text of Mr Matsuura’s statement is available at the following 
address: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001400/140072E.pdf/

/ ///


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