|
UN General Assembly endorses WSIS outcome
The General Assembly of the United Nations in New York yesterday endorsed the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society, which concluded in Tunisia last November.
The delegates welcomed the strong development orientation of the Summit outcomes and the progress achieved towards a multi-stakeholder approach to building a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented information society.
Adopting without a vote a resolution on the Summit, the Assembly also welcomed the Digital Solidarity Fund as an innovative financial mechanism, with the objective of transforming the digital divide into digital opportunities for the developing world, and seeking new voluntary sources of solidarity financing.
Further to the text, the Assembly requested the Economic and Social Council to oversee the system-wide follow-up of the Summit outcomes and to review, at its substantive session of 2006, the mandate, agenda and composition of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development. The Assembly also invited the Secretary-General to convene a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue called the Internet Governance Forum.
UNESCO with its unique mandate to promote the free exchange of ideas and knowledge has played a key role in WSIS. UNESCOs contribution incorporated the ethical, legal and sociocultural dimensions of the Information Society and helped to grasp the opportunities offered by the ICTs by placing the individual at its centre.
Fulltext of UN Resolution.
Source: UNESCO
|
|
|
|
|
