Latest GOVERNEMENT draft declaration

[Meryem Marzouki <marzouki@ras.eu.org>]

Here is the latest GOVERNEMENT draft Declaration. It's also on line at:
<http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-
s/md/03/wsispc2/td/030217/S03-WSISPC2-030217-TD-GEN-0002!!MSW-E.doc>

Meryem	 	
==========
	Document WSIS/PC-2/DT/2-E
	25 February 2003
	Original English


DRAFT DECLARATION

Based on the

DISCUSSION IN THE WORKING GROUP OF SUB-COMMITTEE 2


A. Preamble
1	An inclusive global information society is one where all persons, 
without distinction, are empowered freely to create, receive, share and 
utilize information and knowledge for their economic, social, cultural 
and political development.

2	The World Summit on the Information Society offers an historic 
opportunity to realize this vision.

3	By harnessing the potential of information and communication 
technologies, in all areas of human life, we can now provide new and 
better responses to vital and longstanding issues, such as in poverty 
reduction and wealth creation, as well as equity and social justice.

4	Knowledge has always been at the core of human progress and 
endeavour. Yet now, as never before, knowledge and information 
constitute the fundamental sources of well-being and progress. Our 
individual and collective ability to create and share knowledge has 
become the driving force in shaping all our futures.

5	Today, the dramatic increase in the volume, speed and ubiquity of 
information flows that has been made possible through new information 
and communications technologies has already brought about profound 
changes in the demands and expectations upon government, business, civil 
society and the individual.

6	Meanwhile the information and communication revolution is still in 
its infancy. The untapped potential of ICT to improve productivity and 
quality of life is a serious issue for many developing countries, which 
risk being left behind.

7	Faced with complex and ever-evolving challenges, all stakeholders 
have critical choices to make. New forms of solidarity and cooperation, 
new modes of social and economic organization and new ways of thinking 
are called for.

8	In order to translate the rhetoric of the information and 
communication revolution into equitable growth and sustainable 
development on a global scale, and to realize the potential of ICTs to 
empower people, all stakeholders need to embrace fully their new roles 
and responsibilities.
9	Information and communication technologies (ICTs) should be 
regarded as a tool and not as an end in themselves.
10	In all parts of the world remarkable success has been witnessed in 
using information and knowledge for individual and collective 
development. The Summit provides a platform to allow the dissemination 
and replication of such success stories and best practices. In so doing 
it will contribute to reducing disparities, including those of the 
“digital divide”.

11	To take advantage of the unprecedented win-win situation that an 
information society can yield, concrete action and global commitment are 
now required.

B. Common Vision

12	The Information Society is an economic and social system where 
knowledge and information constitute the fundamental sources of 
well-being and progress and represent an opportunity for our countries 
and societies. The development of that society should take place within 
a global and local context of fundamental principles such as those of 
respect for human rights, democracy, environmental protection, the 
advancement of peace, the right to development, fundamental freedoms, 
economic progress and social equity.

13	The vision of an Information Society is one where all persons, 
without distinction of any kind, exercise their right to freedom of 
opinion and expression, including the freedom to hold opinions without 
interference, and to [create,] seek, receive and impart information and 
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

14	The concept of an Information Society is one in which 
highly-developed ICT networks, equitable and ubiquitous access to 
information, appropriate content in accessible formats and effective 
communication can help people to achieve their potential, promote 
sustainable economic and social development, improve quality of life for 
all, alleviate poverty and hunger, and facilitate participatory 
decision-making processes. Hence they enable the sharing of social and 
economic benefits by all, by means of ubiquitous access to information 
networks, while preserving diversity and cultural heritage.

15	The Information Society should be people-centred, with citizens and 
communities at its core. It should be at the service of humankind, 
including disadvantaged and marginalized groups and those with special 
needs. To reach its full potential, the Information Society requires the 
genuine participation, contribution and commitment of all, especially 
Governments, private sector and civil society.

16	The Information Society we envisage is one that reduces poverty and 
creates wealth to satisfy the basic needs and rights of all peoples. The 
Information Society offers great potential in promoting international 
peace, sustainable development, democracy, transparency, accountability, 
and good governance.

17	Full exploitation of the new opportunities provided by information 
and communication technologies (ICTs) and of their combination with 
traditional media, as well as an adequate response to the challenge of 
the digital divide, should be important parts in any strategy, national 
and international, aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals 
(MDGs) of combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental 
degradation and gender inequality.  Without the widespread and 
innovative use of ICTs, the MDGs may prove impossible to attain.

18	The right to communicate and the right to access information for 
citizens should be considered a basic human right.

19	The use of ICTs in human resources and human capacity development, 
including ICT literacy, should be promoted as a continuous and 
fundamental requirement of the Information Society, with special 
reference to people with disabilities.  Education and training, the 
fostering of science, innovation and technology deserve full and 
adequate support.

20	Recognising that confidence, trust and security are essential to 
the full functioning of the Information Society, guarantees should be 
provided to users of media, communication and information networks 
against cybercrime and child pornography as well as protection of 
privacy and confidentiality.

21	Preservation of cultural identity and linguistic diversity of 
hallmarks of a successful information society. Creativity and the 
creation, processing dissemination and conservation of local content can 
best be stimulated through an adequate balance between intellectual 
property rights and the needs of the users of information.

22	The existence of independent and free communication media, in 
accordance with the legal system of each country, is an essential 
requirement for freedom of expression and a guarantee of the plurality 
of information. Unhindered access by individuals and communication media 
to information sources shall be ensured and strengthened in order to 
promote the existence of vigorous public opinion as a pillar of civil 
responsibility in accordance with article 19 of the United Nations 
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international and 
regional instruments dealing with human rights.

C. Key Principles

23	The Summit should be aimed at extending the benefits of the 
Information Society to all and should be development-oriented. The 
Global Information Society should address the interests of all nations, 
most particularly, the interests of the developing countries, in a 
manner that secures the fair, balanced and harmonious development of all 
the people of the world.

24	A primary aim of the Information Society must be to facilitate full 
utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) at all 
levels in society and hence enable the sharing of social and economic 
benefits by all, by means of ubiquitous access to information networks, 
while preserving diversity and cultural heritage.

25	In building an Information Society, we should take into account:
–	Gender issues: Unequal power relations and other social and 
cultural aspects have contributed to differential access, participation 
and status for men and women. In this regard, more attention should be 
given to overcoming these constraints and ensuring that women can 
equally benefit from the increased use of ICTs for empowerment and full 
participation in shaping political, economic and social development;
–	Special circumstances of Small Island Developing States (SIDS): 
These countries, with fragile ecosystems vulnerable to environmental 
hazards, and characterized by small, homogenous markets, high costs of 
access and equipment, human resource constraints exacerbated by the 
problem of “brain-drain”, limited access to networks and remote 
locations, will require particular attention and tailored solutions to 
meet their needs;

26	The social and economic progress of countries and the well-being of 
persons and communities shall occupy a central place in activities aimed 
at building an information society.

27	The information society shall be oriented towards eliminating 
existing socio-economic differences in our societies, averting the 
emergence of new forms of exclusion and becoming a positive force for 
all of the world’s people by helping to reduce the disparity between 
developed and developing countries, as well as within countries.

28	The information society should serve the public interest and the 
aim of social well-being by contributing to the eradication of poverty, 
the creation of wealth, the promotion and enhancement of social 
development, democratic participation, linguistic diversity and cultural 
identity, while at the same time ensuring equal opportunities for 
gaining access to information and communication technologies and at all 
times upholding the principle of legality to ensure its efficient and 
orderly use.
29	It will be necessary to formulate an agenda for action aimed at 
achieving specific objectives leading to the transition into an 
information society, emphasizing the needs of youth, women and 
underprivileged groups by selecting appropriate and affordable 
technologies for implementation, thus bridging the digital divide.

1) Information and communication infrastructure

30	Access to information and free flow of information are fundamental 
human rights. Equitable and appropriate access for all is essential for 
a well-developed, affordable and easily-accessed information and 
communication network infrastructures. All citizens should be provided 
with the means of using ICT networks as a public service.

31	An adequately developed infrastructure is the precondition for 
secure, reliable and affordable access to information by all 
stakeholders, and for the upgrading of relevant services. The 
improvement of connectivity is of special importance in this respect, 
and it is undertaken by the public and the private sectors, acting in 
partnership. Community-led development is a critical element in the 
strategy for achieving universal access to information and knowledge. 
Community access centres and public services (such as post offices, 
libraries, schools) can provide effective means for promoting universal 
access in particular in remote areas, as an important factor of their 
development. Moreover, in order to ensure greater affordability, policy 
action should aim at setting up an appropriate open and competitive 
environment.

32	Information and communication services should be provided to 
disadvantaged groups in society, in particular those from lower income 
groups, to contribute to the alleviation of poverty.

33	In building an Information Society, we should take into account the 
unique geographic features and demographic diversity of nations and 
regions.

34	Universal access to information and communication technologies 
shall be an objective of all the stakeholders involved in building the 
information society, in accordance with the legal framework in force in 
each country.

35	While technology is significantly improving and costs are 
decreasing, it is important to ensure that access to information will be 
made available to all segments of the population. This is still not the 
case in many developing countries. Rural communities and poor strata of 
the population still cannot afford information services. Through a 
combination of new and more efficient technologies, common and shared 
access, open systems, and universal service provision, information and 
its ensuing knowledge should be considered vital, and prioritized and 
delivered accordingly.

36	It is advisable to devise ICT-specific indicators, which 
realistically reflect needs and performance of developing countries. 
Such indicators should take into account the particular conditions of 
developing countries where several people often share access to the 
Internet and a whole community may share usage of ICT equipment and 
infrastructure. Targets should also be set to benchmark penetration of 
ICT services within communities at urban and rural levels.

2) Access to information and knowledge

37	Individuals and organisations should benefit from access to 
information, knowledge and ideas. Notably, information in the public 
domain should be easily accessible. Information is the basis of a 
well-functioning and transparent decision-making process and a 
prerequisite for any democracy. Knowledge is the key agent for 
transforming both our global society and local communities.

38	The sharing and strengthening of global knowledge for development 
can be enhanced by ensuring equitable access to information for 
educational, scientific, economic, social, political and cultural 
activities, leading to a vibrant public domain of information.

39	It is recognized that the barriers to equitable access result from 
differences in education and literacy levels, gender, age, income and 
connectivity. In this context, particular attention should be given to 
least developed countries, economies in transition and post-conflict 
countries.

40	The integration of all socially vulnerable sectors, including, but 
not limited to, older adults, children, rural communities, indigenous 
peoples, differently abled persons, the unemployed, displaced persons 
and migrants shall be a priority objective in building the information 
society. To that end, barriers to participation, such as illiteracy, the 
lack of user training, cultural and linguistic constraints and 
particular conditions of access to the relevant technology, shall be 
overcome.

3) The role of governments, the business sector and civil society in the 
promotion of ICTs for development

41	All partners—public, private sector and civil society organizations—
have a stake in the development of communications and should be fully 
involved in decision making at the local, national, regional and 
international levels. This will require:
• forging new forms of partnership based on complementarities among the 
various categories of public, private sector and civil society 
stakeholders;
• establishing and/or strengthening at the local, national, regional and 
international levels, institutions that will create greater coherence 
and achieve better synergy in developing the information society.

42	The transition to the information society shall be led by the 
Governments in close coordination with private enterprise and civil 
society. An integral approach shall be taken that provides for an open 
and participatory dialogue with the whole of society in order to 
incorporate all stakeholders involved in the process of building a 
common vision for the development of an information society in the 
region.

43	The importance of the ICT sector has grown over time, especially in 
the developed world. However, developing countries are lagging behind in 
terms of ICT manufacturing capabilities, imports of embodied ICT 
technology and, more importantly, research and development (R and D), 
incubation schemes and venture capital investment. It is essential for 
governments to encourage investment in the creation of regional ICT 
production facilities.

44	The growth in the demand for applications should spawn the dynamics 
for creating a favourable environment for the private sector to invest 
and meet the challenges that applications present in moving towards the 
information society. The demand created by e-government, e-learning, 
e-health and e-business applications should induce the introduction and 
development of new services.

4) Capacity building

45	People should be enabled to acquire the necessary skills in order 
to participate actively in and understand the Information Society and 
benefit in full from the possibilities it offers. Individuals should be 
engaged in defining their own needs and in the development of programs 
to meet those needs. Technological change will progressively require 
life-long learning and continuous training by all. Public policy should 
take into account inequalities in access to quality education and 
training, particularly in the case of vulnerable groups and underserved 
or remote areas. Specific attention has to be paid to training of 
trainers.

46	The use of ICTs for capacity-building and human resource 
development, including ICT literacy, should be promoted, with special 
reference to the requirements of people with disabilities.

47	Building and exploiting processes for education, establishing new 
institutional forms, including incubation schemes and technology-based 
business start-up support programmes as well as other enterprise 
promotion modalities, and creating training and technology assessment 
networks that specifically target educational systems, are of utmost 
importance.

48	Institutional capacities to collect, organize, store and share 
information and knowledge are as critically important as human 
capacities.

5) Security

49	To realise the full benefits of ICTs, networks and information 
systems should be sufficiently robust to prevent, detect and to respond 
appropriately to security incidents. However, effective security of 
information systems is not merely a matter of government and law 
enforcement practices, nor of technology. A global culture of 
cyber-security needs to be developed.

50	ICTs can potentially be used for purposes that are inconsistent 
with the objectives of maintaining international stability and security 
and may adversely affect the integrity of the infrastructure within 
States, to the detriment of their security in both civil and military 
fields, as well as in relation to the functioning of their economies. It 
is also necessary to prevent the use of information resources or 
technologies for criminal or terrorist purposes.

51	Governments should promote awareness in their societies of cyber 
security risks and seek to strengthen international co-operation, 
including with the private sector so as to build confidence and trust in 
the Information Society.

52	The issue of Internet security is critical. National and regional 
efforts should be coordinated, taking into consideration the importance 
of secure infrastructure and data flow in concordance with international 
standards and guidelines.

6) Enabling environment

53	The existence of a supportive and predictable legal framework is an 
important prerequisite for enhancing trust in ICTs and e-business.

54	To maximise the economic and social benefits of the Information 
Society, governments need to create a trustworthy, transparent, and 
non-discriminatory legal, regulatory and policy environment, capable of 
promoting technological innovation and competition, thus favouring the 
necessary investments, mainly from the private sector, in the deployment 
of infrastructures and development of new services.

55	In building an Information Society, we should take into account  
the imbalance of information flows.

56	Access to information and communication technologies shall be 
secured in accordance with international law, bearing in mind that some 
countries are affected by unilateral measures which are not compatible 
with it and which create obstacles for international trade .

57	Strengthening the policy-making capacity in the area of ICTs to 
enhance national and regional ICT policy-making processes and 
institutions is of utmost importance. ICTs will advance development if 
related efforts and programmes are integrated in a national development 
strategy. Governments are the primary actors, in concert with the 
private sector and civil society, in the pursuit of access for all to 
ICTs for development.

58	The responsibility for root directories and domain names should 
rest with a suitable international [inter-governmental] organization and 
should take multilingualism into consideration. Countries’ 
top-level-domain-names and Internet Protocol (IP) address assignment 
should be the sovereign right of those countries. Internet governance 
should be multilateral, democratic and transparent and should take into 
account the needs of the public and private sectors as well as those of 
the civil society.

7) ICT-Applications

59	Cooperation and collaboration should be enhanced through the 
development of applications and content suited to local needs.

60	The effort to build an information society shall encompass access 
to information and communication technologies, the utilization of these 
technologies through the articulation of local, regional and global 
actions, and their use for public and social purposes in such areas as 
government, health care and learning.

61	E-government empowers citizens through access to information, 
improves interactions with business and industry, and leads to better 
delivery of government services to citizens and more efficient 
government management. The resulting benefits can be greater 
convenience, improved efficiency of the economic system, increased 
transparency and less corruption, leading to increased possibility for 
developing countries to attract foreign investments and financial 
assistance.

62	Member States should ensure that all schools, universities and 
other learning institutions have Internet and multimedia access for 
educational, training, re-skilling and research purposes. Attention must 
be directed to the training of teachers to adapt to the new learning 
environment. Legal, economic and social issues that are considered as 
obstacles to the development of the e-learning process in the region 
should be identified.

63	Healthcare applications over networks could provide unique 
opportunities for patients and practitioners alike, particularly for 
those from developing countries provided the infrastructure supports 
such applications. Healthcare is becoming information intensive. 
Hospital management systems need to be encouraged and the Internet 
increasingly used to obtain medical information. Health information 
networks between points of care, such as hospitals, laboratories and 
homes, electronic health cards and online health services have already 
been implemented or are being considered in many developed countries. 
Member States should take advantage of the success achieved in this 
field.

64	The restructuring of business processes to make use of digital 
technologies is essential, particularly for small and medium size 
enterprises (SMEs) and public policies should support this process. 
These policies should also aim at strengthening the entrepreneurial 
spirit of the business community.


8) Cultural identity and linguistic diversity, local content and media 
development

65	The Information Society is founded on respect for, and enjoyment 
of, cultural expression. New ICTs should stimulate cultural diversity 
and plurilingualism and enhance the capacity of governments to develop 
active policies to that end.

66	The creation of local content should be accorded high priority.

67	Technology supply should be diversified through:
• the implementation of an operational plan of action geared to the 
cultural and linguistic specificities of all countries.
• Investment and funding strategies should be pursued through assistance 
with content creation and democratisation of access with particular 
emphasis to women and the youth.

68	Multilingualism should be promoted and cultural diversity 
maintained as the driving force for the process of developing content 
for local and international use.

69	ICTs can strengthen traditional media such as broadcasting and 
print, which will continue to have an important role in disseminating 
content in the Information Society.

70	Active steps towards encouraging the production of local content 
should be taken. Steps involve the establishment of conditions for 
development of digital content and local multimedia industries including 
intellectual property right provisions, promotion of tools for the 
management of local languages, including internationalised domain names, 
as a means for promoting multilingualism and investment in projects 
aiming at the promotion of this objective.

9) Ethical dimensions of ICT

10) International co-operation

71	The information society is intrinsically global in nature. Thus, a 
policy dialogue based on global trends in the information society should 
take place at the world, regional and subregional levels in order to 
facilitate:
• the provision of technical assistance aimed at national and regional 
capacity-building for the maintenance and reinforcement of regional and 
international cooperation;
• the sharing of experiences;
• the sharing of knowledge; and
• the development of compatible regulations and standards that respect 
national characteristics and concerns.

72	International policy dialogue on the Information Society at global, 
regional and sub-regional levels should promote the exchange of 
experience, the identification and application of compatible norms and 
standards, the transfer of know-how and the provision of technical 
assistance with a view to bridging capacity gaps and setting up 
international cooperation programmes, in particular in the field of 
creation of content. Sharing success stories and experiences will also 
pave the way for new forms of international co-operation.

11) Other issues

73	Every citizen should be guaranteed freedom of expression and 
protected access to information in the worldwide public domain as part 
of their inalienable right to freely accessing the information 
constituting the heritage of humankind, which is disseminated in all 
media. This may involve the strengthening of networks that can increase 
individual participation in local, national, regional and international 
democracy.