Legal Information Center opened in Moscow under IFAP’s aegis

2005-17-10 (Moscow)

 

A Legal Information Center opened on 7 October at the Association of Indigenous People of the North of the Russian Federation in Moscow, under the aegis of the National Committee of Russia of UNESCO’s Information for All Programme (IFAP). One of the main objectives of the Center is its sustainability, and this is substantially determined by effective cooperation between federal and regional authorities, municipalities libraries, the media, the private sector and NGOs.

 

Some Centres are already operational and others are being established under the aegis of the National IFAP Committee in regions where indigenous communities live, for example in Kamchatka, Iuryatiya, Yakutia, the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region and the Kemerovo area.

 

One of the essential functions of the Centres is to provide access to information of local government institutions, stressed Marx Usachyov, representing the Russian Federal Agency of Culture and Cinematography.

 

According to the Russian IFAP Committee, there are more than 2.000 information centers in Russia and other countries belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States, that are operating under the aegis of the Committee.

 

UNESCO’s Information for All Programme (IFAP) provides a framework for international co-operation and international and regional partnerships. It supports the development of common strategies, methods and tools to build inclusive, open and pluralistic knowledge societies and to narrow the gap between the information rich and the information poor.

 

National IFAP Committees have been so far established on 51 countries as permanent forum to facilitate the flow of information between UNESCO/IFAP and interested national institutions. Their main tasks are to identify and motivate national institutions concerned with the various objectives and activities of IFAP.