The General Assembly,
Recognizing the
urgent need to harness the potential of knowledge and technology for promoting
the goals of the United Nations Millennium Declaration [1],
and to find effective and innovative ways to put this potential at the service
of development for all,
Recognizing also
the pivotal role of the United Nations system in promoting development,
particularly with respect to access to and transfer of technology, especially
information and communication technologies and services, inter alia, through
partnerships with all relevant stakeholders,
Convinced of the
need, at the highest political level, to marshal the global consensus and
commitment required to promote the urgently needed access of all countries to
information, knowledge and communication technologies for development so as to
reap the full benefits of the information and communication technologies
revolution, and to address the whole range of relevant issues related to the
information society, through the development of a common vision and
understanding of the information society and the adoption of a declaration and
plan of action for implementation by Governments, international institutions and
all sectors of civil society,
Recalling the
contributions to international consensus in this field achieved by the
Millennium Declaration and the agreements reached at other international
conferences and summits in recent years,
Taking note of
the action plan presented by the Secretary-General of the International
Telecommunication Union to the Administrative Committee on Coordination for the
holding of the World Summit on the Information Society and the creation, by the
Administrative Committee on Coordination, of a high-level Summit organizing
committee, chaired by the Secretary-General of the International
Telecommunication Union and consisting of the heads of those United Nations and
other international organizations interested in participating in the process
leading to the Summit,
Considering that
the Summit is to be convened under the patronage of the Secretary-General of the
United Nations, with the International Telecommunication Union taking the lead
role in its preparation, in cooperation with interested United Nations and other
international agencies and the host countries,
Recalling the
ministerial declaration concerning information and communication technologies,
adopted by the Economic and Social Council at the high-level segment of its
substantive session of 2000 [2], and the subsequent work done
in this regard, including the creation of the Information and Communication
Technologies Task Force, as well as the welcoming of the forthcoming Summit by
the Council in its agreed conclusions 2001/1 [3],
Recognizing the
need to harness synergies and to create cooperation among the various
information and communication technologies initiatives, at the regional and
global levels, currently being undertaken or planned so as to promote and foster
the potential of information and communication technologies for development by
other international organizations and civil society,
1. Welcomes the resolution adopted
by the Council of the International Telecommunication Union at its 2001 session,
in which the Council endorsed the proposal of the Secretary-General of the
International Telecommunication Union to hold the Summit at the highest possible
level in two phases, the first in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003 and the
second in Tunis in 2005, pursuant to resolution 73 (Minneapolis, 1998) of the
Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union;
2. Recommends that the preparation
for the Summit take place through an open-ended intergovernmental preparatory
committee, which would define the agenda of the Summit, finalize both the draft
declaration and the draft plan of action, and decide on the modalities of the
participation of other stakeholders in the Summit;
3. Invites the International
Telecommunication Union to assume the leading managerial role in the executive
secretariat of the Summit and its preparatory process;
4. Invites Governments to
participate actively in the preparatory process of the Summit and to be
represented in the Summit at the highest possible level;
5. Encourages effective
contributions from and the active participation of all relevant United Nations
bodies, in particular the Information and Communication Technologies Task Force,
and encourages other intergovernmental organizations, including international
and regional institutions, non-governmental organizations, civil society and the
private sector, to contribute to, and actively participate in, the
intergovernmental preparatory process of the Summit and the Summit itself;
6. Invites the international
community to make voluntary contributions to the special trust fund established
by the International Telecommunication Union to support the preparations for and
the holding of the Summit, as well as to facilitate the effective participation
of representatives of developing countries, in particular the least developed
countries, in the regional meetings to be held in the second half of 2002, in
the preparatory meetings to be held in the first half of 2002 and in 2003, and
in the Summit itself;
7. Invites the Secretary-General of
the United Nations to inform all heads of State and government of the adoption
of the present resolution;
8. Invites the Secretary-General of
the International Telecommunication Union to submit to the General Assembly, at
its fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth sessions, through the Economic and Social
Council, for information, a report on the preparations for the Summit.
_________________________
[1] See resolution 55/2.
[2] See Official Records of the General Assembly,
Fifty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 3 (A/55/3/Rev.1), chap. III, para. 17.
[3] Ibid., Fifty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 3
(A/56/3/Rev.1), chap. V, agreed conclusions 2001/1, para. 7.
Resolution A/RES/56/183
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