Preparations of World Summit on the Information Society Speed Up
08-09-2003 ()
Universal access to information, access to education, freedom of expression and cultural diversity are the four principles for future knowledge societies that are at the heart of UNESCO’s message to the third meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS PrepCom-3), to be held in Geneva from 15-26 September 2003.
In order to underpin this message in the Summit preparation process and at the Geneva Summit meeting itself, UNESCO organizes a variety of special events: a Ministerial Round Table Meeting during the 32nd Session of the General Conference in October 2003, a UNESCO High-Level Colloquium bringing together world leaders on the eve of the first Summit meeting in Geneva, in December 2003, and four side events devoted respectively to Education, Culture, Science and Media at the Summit meeting itself.
UNESCO has also started to publish a series with ten titles summarizing essential issues related to the information society.
PrepCom 3, yet another step in the preparation of the Summit meetings in Geneva at the end of 2003 and in Tunis in 2005, will consist of two full weeks of negotiations on all issues related to the output of the Summit. An important objective of this meeting will be to forge consensus on the contents of the Declaration and Action Plan which are to be adopted by Heads of States and Governments at the Geneva phase of the Summit. “The texts coming out of Prepcom-3 should be sufficiently mature to guide leaders’ preparations for the Summit”, says the Summit’s Secretariat . The meeting will also consider the Summit Rules of Procedure and arrangements for participation and organization of work.
The first and second Preparatory Committee meetings which took place in July 2002 and February 2003have contributed significantly to advancing the preparatory process, in organizational and substantive terms. The progress made during PrepCom-2 on the draft Declaration of Principles and Action Plan and their endorsement, as basic working documents for the further work of the PrepCom, were important steps forward.
From 15 to 18 July , UNESCO hosted an Intersessional Meeting at its Paris Headquarters where more than 750 representatives from governments, the private sector, intergovernmental agencies, civil society and the media worked to refine the draft Declaration of Principles and the Draft Plan of Action.
UNESCO has also started to publish a series with ten titles summarizing essential issues related to the information society.
PrepCom 3, yet another step in the preparation of the Summit meetings in Geneva at the end of 2003 and in Tunis in 2005, will consist of two full weeks of negotiations on all issues related to the output of the Summit. An important objective of this meeting will be to forge consensus on the contents of the Declaration and Action Plan which are to be adopted by Heads of States and Governments at the Geneva phase of the Summit. “The texts coming out of Prepcom-3 should be sufficiently mature to guide leaders’ preparations for the Summit”, says the Summit’s Secretariat . The meeting will also consider the Summit Rules of Procedure and arrangements for participation and organization of work.
The first and second Preparatory Committee meetings which took place in July 2002 and February 2003have contributed significantly to advancing the preparatory process, in organizational and substantive terms. The progress made during PrepCom-2 on the draft Declaration of Principles and Action Plan and their endorsement, as basic working documents for the further work of the PrepCom, were important steps forward.
From 15 to 18 July , UNESCO hosted an Intersessional Meeting at its Paris Headquarters where more than 750 representatives from governments, the private sector, intergovernmental agencies, civil society and the media worked to refine the draft Declaration of Principles and the Draft Plan of Action.
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· News Archives 2003
· Switzerlands: News Archives
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