IFAP Special Event within the First WSIS+10 Review Meeting

 

2013-06-03

 

Special Event of the UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) took place at the UNESCO's headquarters in Paris on February 27, 2013, within the framework of the First WSIS+10 Review Meeting. This Special Event was organized by the IFAP Intergovernmental Council, which is being chaired now by the Russian Federation, and UNESCO Knowledge Society Division. Entitled Information and Knowledge for All: Emerging Trends and Challenges, this Event consisted of a set of panel sessions on several key issues: information accessibility, information preservation, media and information literacy, information for development, information ethics, and development of multilingualism in cyberspace.

 

At the opening ceremony, the audience was addressed by Mr. Indrajit Banerjee, Head of UNESCO Knowledge Society Division; Ms. Sonia Sarmiento, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Colombia to UNESCO; and Mr. Evgeny Kuzmin, Chair of the IFAP Intergovernmental Council and of the Russian IFAP Committee. The latter made a keynote speech and presided at the final session which synthesized the debates and outlined the plans for the future activities of the IFAP.

 

The audience was also addressed by several world-renowned scientists, directors of major universities, libraries, archives, and other institutions and governmental agencies operating in the fields of culture, education, science, communication and information, as well as by representatives of several international organizations: IFLA, The World Network in Support of Linguistic Diversity in Cyberspace MAAYA, International Center for Information Ethics, African Youth Network, and others. The speakers represented France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Italy, the USA, Russia, Argentina, Tanzania, Mali, Burkina-Faso, Latvia, the Philippines, Colombia, and Grenada. Ms. Pilar Alvarez-Laso, Assistant to UNESCO Director General for Social and Human Sciences, also addressed the audience.

 

Panel discussions were moderated by:

• Information for Development and Information Ethics: Mr. Mohammed Shaaban Sheya, Bureau Member, IFAP Intergovernmental Council, Deputy Permanent Delegate of the United Republic of Tanzania to UNESCO, and Mr. Andrejs Vasiljevs, Bureau Member, IFAP Intergovernmental Council, Director, TILDE Company (Latvia)
• Media and Information Literacy and Multilingualism in Cyberspace: Mr. Sonny Coloma, Vice-Chairperson, IFAP Intergovernmental Council, Head of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, the Philippines, and Mr. Evgeny Kuzmin, Chair, IFAP Intergovernmental Council and Russian IFAP Committee
• Information Preservation and Accessibility: Mr. Dietrich Schüller, Vice-Chairperson, IFAP Intergovernmental Council, Former Director, Phonogrammarchiv, Austrian Academy of Sciences.

 

Speeches were made by the following Russia's representatives: Ms. Evgenia Mikhailova, Rector, North-Eastern Federal University; Ms. Irina Trutneva, Deputy Prime Minister, Government of Sakhalin Region; and Ms. Tatiana Murovana, Executive Secretary, Russian IFAP Committee.

 

H.E. Adama Samasseku, President of the Preparatory Committee of the World Summit on the Information Society (Geneva), who took active part in the Special Event, highly praised the contribution made by IFAP to the UNESCO activity for further humanization of the global information society.

 

The participants to the Special Event often mentioned the success of the international conferences on digital information preservation, media and information literacy, linguistic and cultural diversity in cyberspace that took place in Russia in 2011−2012, as well as the contribution of their final statements to the shaping of the international and local information society policies.

 

The participants to the Special Event often expressed their confidence in the necessity to reinforce IFAP at UNESCO. An integrated approach to the consideration of interlinked challenges of the information society, which has been shaped and refined in the course of IFAP implementation and which has become one of its platforms, set the Special Event aside from other meetings and sessions held within the WSIS+10 Review Meeting. Noteworthy is that the title of the WSIS+10 final document Information and Knowledge for All: An Expanded Vision and a Renewed Commitment matches the title of IFAP and the above Special Event which was organized by IFAP within the above international gathering.  

 

Broadly publicized was the international conference Internet and Socio-Cultural Transformation in the Information Society which the Intergovernmental Council for IFAP and the Sakhalin Region Administration are going to hold in September 2013 on Sakhalin.

 

 

References:

• IFAP Special Event Handout
• WSIS+10 Review Meeting Program (Day 3, February 27) 
• Final WSIS+10 Review Meeting Statement 

 

 

 

 

 

Opening of the IFAP Special Event

 

 

Addressing the audience: Mr. Evgeny Kuzmin, Chair, Intergovernmental Council for IFAP and Russian IFAP Committee. Left: Mr. Indrajit Banerjee, Director, Knowledge Society Division, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO. Right: Ms. Sonia Sarmiento, Embassador and Permanent Delegate of Colombia to UNESCO

 

 

Mr. Andrejs Vasiljevs, Bureau Member, Intergovernmental Council for IFAP; Chair, Working Group on Information Ethics; Director, TILDE Company (Latvia)

 

 

Mr. Daniel Da Hien, General Coordinator, African Youth Network

 

 

Mr. Rafael Capurro, Director, International Center for Information Ethics (Germany)

 

 

Ms. Susana Finquelievich, Senior Researcher, National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (Argentina)

 

 

Mr. Sonny Coloma, Vice-Chairperson, Intergovernmental Council for IFAP; Head of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (the Philippines)

 

 

Ms. Pilar Alvarez-Laso, Assistant to Director General, Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO

 

 

Ms. Maria-Carme Torras Calvo, Chair, IFLA Information Literacy Section; Library Director, Bergen University College (Norway)

 

 

H.E. Adama Samasseku, President, International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies; President, the MAAYA World Network for Linguistic Diversity; President, Preparatory Committee of the WSIS, Geneva (Mali)

 

 

Ms. Sharon Mader, Dean, Library Services at the University of New Orleans (USA)

 

 

Ms. Evgenia Mikhailova, Rector, Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University (Russia)

 

 

Mr. Daniel Prado, Executive Secretary of the World Network for Linguistic Diversity - MAAYA (France)

 

 

Mr. Dietrich Schüller, Vice-Chairperson, Intergovernmental Council for IFAP; Former Director, Phonogrammarchiv, Austrian Academy of Sciences

 

 

Ms. Tatiana Murovana, Executive Secretary, Russian IFAP Committee; Project Coordinator, Interregional Library Cooperation Center (Russia)

 

 

Mr. Alfredo M. Ronchi, General Secretary, European Commission-MEDICI Framework (Italy)

 

 

Ms. Christiane Baryla, Director, IFLA-PAC Core Activity (France)

 

 

Mr. Jonas Palm, Director, Swedish National Archives

 

 

Ms. Irina Trutneva, Vice Prime Minister, Government of Sakhalin Region (Russia)

 

 

Mr. Paul Hector, Program Specialist, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO

 

 

Prize drawing at the Special Event: Mr. Dmitry Bratynenko, Deputy Governor of the Sakhalin Region, Russia, awards the Certificate for Participation in the International Conference «Internet and Socio-Cultural Transformation in the Information Society» to Mr. Mohammed Shaaban Sheya, Bureau Member, Intergovernmental Council for IFAP, Deputy Permanent Delegate of the United Republic of Tanzania to UNESCO

 

 

Mr. Sergey Bakeykin, Deputy Chairman, Information for All UNESCO Programme; Executive Director, Interregional Library Cooperation Center, Russia (left), and Mr. Pyotr Lapo, Director, Fundamental Library, Belarus State University

 

 

Mr. Nikolay Khaustov, Second Secretary, Russian Federation Foreign Ministry; Member, Secretariat of the Russian Commission for UNESCO

 

 

Dr. Serap Kurbanoglu, Dean, Department of Information Management, Hacettepe University (Turkey)

 

 

Representatives of Sholokhov State University of Human Sciences (Russia): Ms. Irina Zhilavskaya, Chair, Department of Journalism and Media Education (left), and Ms. Tatyana Vladimirova, Chair, Department of Journalism

 

 

Representatives of the Sakhalin Regional Administration, Russia (from left to right): Ms. Irina Trutneva, Deputy Prime Minister, Regional Government; Mr. Dmitry Bratynenko, Deputy Governor and Chief of the Governor and Government's Staff; and Ms. Irina Gonyukova, Minister of Culture

 

 

Mr. Boyan Radoykov, Chief, Universal Access and Preservation Section, UNESCO (left) and Mr. Sergey Bakeykin, Deputy Chairman, Information for All UNESCO Programme; Executive Director, Interregional Library Cooperation Center, Russia 

 

 

Participants

 

 

Participants

 

 

Participants

 

 

Participants

 

  

Participants

 

 

Participants

 

 

Behind the scenes

 

 

Behind the scenes

 

 

Ms. Eleonora Mitrofanova, Permanent Delegate of the Russian Federation to UNESCO, is greeting the guests at the reception given after the IFAP Special Event

 

 

Ms. Ekaterina Kotova, Minister for Investments and Foreign Relations, Sakhalin Region, Russia, is making presentation of the Region at the reception given after the IFAP Special Event