United Nations Public Information Policies and Activities

A/RES/56/64[B]View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 90 Questions related to information, published in 2002.

What other versions does this mandate have?

25 versions · 1976–2018

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/73/102[B]

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2018	A/RES/73/102[B]	United Nations public information policies and activities	—	—
2017	A/RES/72/90 [B]	United Nations public information policies and activities	—	—
2016	A/RES/71/101 [B]	United Nations public information policies and activities	—	—
2015	A/RES/70/93[B]	United Nations public information policies and activities	—	—
2014	A/RES/69/96[B]	United Nations public information policies and activities	—	—

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

44 reports · 2002–2019

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2019	A/74/283	Questions relating to information report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/73/102[B]
2019	A/AC.198/2019/2	Activities of the Department of Global Communications strategic communications services : report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/73/102[B]
2019	A/AC.198/2019/3	Activities of the Department of Global Communications news services : report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/73/102[B]
2019	A/AC.198/2019/4	Activities of the Department of Global Communications outreach and knowledge services : report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/73/102[B]
2018	A/73/288	Questions relating to information report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/72/90 [B]

What subjects does this mandate have?

18 subjects

Advertising Communication Technology Digital Divide Information Centres Information Dissemination Information Systems Information Technology Internet Library Information Services Mass Media Multilingualism Official Languages Peacekeeping Operations Public Information Publications Radio Broadcasting Television Broadcasting Websites

What’s in this document?

68 operative paragraphs

A/RES/56/64 [B]

B

I.Introduction

Reaffirms its resolution 13 (I) of 13 February 1946, in which it established the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat, and all other relevant General Assembly resolutions related to the activities of the Department;

Calls upon the Secretary-General, in respect of the public information policies and activities of the United Nations, to continue to implement fully the recommendations contained in paragraph 2 of its resolution 48/44 B of 10 December 1993 and other mandates as established by the General Assembly;

Emphasizes the importance of the medium-term plan for the period 2002–2005, as approved by the General Assembly in its resolution 55/234 of 23 December 2000, as a guideline that sets out the overall orientation of the public information programme for the Organization’s goals through effective communication;

Welcomes the United Nations Millennium Declaration,⁵ the ministerial declaration adopted by the Economic and Social Council at the high-level segment of its substantive session of 2000⁶ and the Secretary-General’s millennium report,⁷ which indicate clearly that there is a great amount of hope and concern in the field of information and communications;

⁵See. resolution 55/2.

⁶See Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 3 (A/55/3/Rev.1), chap. III, para. 17.

⁷A/54/2000.

Calls upon States, in accordance with their laws, to make every effort to prevent the use of the traditional media and new information and communication technologies that undermine legitimate Governments and democracy, fan ethnic strife and xenophobia, incite hatred and violence and contribute to any manifestations of extremism;

Acknowledges the important work carried out by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and its collaboration with news agencies and broadcasting organizations in developing countries in disseminating information on priority issues;

II.General activities of the Department of Public Information

Reaffirms that the Department of Public Information is the focal point for information policies of the United Nations and the primary news centre for information about the United Nations and its activities and those of the Secretary-General;

Welcomes the development of the United Nations News Service by the Department of Public Information, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to exert all efforts to ensure that publications and other information services of the Secretariat, including the United Nations web site and the United Nations News Service, contain comprehensive, objective and equitable information about the issues before the Organization and that they maintain editorial independence, impartiality, accuracy and full consistency with resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly;

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the reorientation of United Nations activities in the field of public information and communications,⁸ encourages him to continue the reorientation exercise, while stressing the need to take into account the views of Member States, and requests him to report thereon to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session;

⁸A/AC.198/2001/2.

Emphasizes that, through its reorientation, the Department of Public Information should maintain and improve its activities in the areas of special interest to developing countries and, where appropriate, other countries with special needs, including countries in transition, and that such reorientation contributes to bridging the existing gap between the developing and the developed countries in the crucial field of public information and communications;

Concurs with the view of the Secretary-General that the development of a strategic vision linking all the components of the Secretariat with emphasis on planning cooperation within the Organization constitutes the central element for continuing reorientation, and encourages the Department of Public Information to maintain, improve and expand its activities in the areas of special interest to developing countries;

Encourages the Secretary-General to strengthen the cooperation between the Department of Public Information and other departments of the Secretariat, in particular those dealing with priority issues;

Welcomes the initiatives that have been taken by the Department of Public Information to strengthen the public information system of the United Nations, and, in this regard, stresses the importance of a coherent and results-oriented approach being undertaken by the United Nations, the specialized agencies and the programmes and funds of the United Nations system involved in public information activities and the provision of resources for their implementation, and that this be done taking into account feedback from Member States on the relevance and effectiveness of its programme delivery;

Requests the Department of Public Information to continue to ensure the greatest possible access for United Nations guided tours and to ensure that displays in public areas are kept as informative, up-to-date, relevant and as technologically innovative as possible;

Recognizes the need for the Department of Public Information to increase its outreach activities in all regions, requests the Secretary-General to include, in his next report on the reorientation of United Nations activities in the field of public information and communications, an analysis of the present reach and scope of the Department’s activities, identifying the widest possible spectrum of audiences and geographical areas which are not covered adequately and which may require special attention, including the appropriate means of communication, and bearing in mind local language requirements;

III.Multilingualism and public information

Emphasizes the importance of ensuring the full, equitable treatment of all the official languages of the United Nations in all activities of the Department of Public Information, and stresses the importance of fully implementing its resolution 52/214 of 22 December 1997, in section C of which it requested the Secretary-General to ensure that the texts of all new public documents in all six official languages, and information materials of the United Nations, are made available through the United Nations web site daily and are accessible to Member States without delay;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit updated figures on the use and command of all six official languages by the staff of the Department of Public Information to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session;

Also requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the Department of Public Information has appropriate staffing capacity in all official languages of the United Nations to undertake all its activities;

Reminds the Secretary-General of the need to include in future programme budget proposals for the Department of Public Information the importance of using all six official languages in its activities;

Takes note of the Internet Publishing Guidelines,⁹ and in this regard requests the Department of Public Information and the Working Group on Internet Matters to include in these guidelines specific recommendations towards achieving the goal of making all documentation on the web sites available in all six official languages of the Organization;

⁹See ST/AI/2001/5.

IV.Promotional campaigns

Recalls its resolutions 53/202 of 17 December 1998 and 54/254 of 15 March 2000, concerning the designation of the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly as the Millennium Assembly of the United Nations and the convening, as an integral part of the Millennium Assembly, of the Millennium Summit of the United Nations, takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the millennium promotional campaign,¹⁰ and commends the Department of Public Information for the important role that it played in implementing the promotional campaign;

¹⁰A/AC.198/2000/10.

Appreciates the Secretary-General’s initiatives in promoting 2001 as the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations and, mindful of the importance of drawing international attention to the impact that dialogue among civilizations could have on promoting mutual understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, encourages the Secretary-General to intensify the promotional campaign through the use of as many broadcasters and languages, in addition to the official languages, as possible, to spread coverage, with special emphasis on publicizing the findings of the Group of Eminent Persons for the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session;

Recalls paragraph 10 of General Assembly resolution 55/47 of 29 November 2000, entitled “International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World, 2001–2010”, and, in this context, encourages the Department of Public Information to undertake specific dissemination of information on a culture of peace, keeping in mind the ongoing Decade;

Recognizes the need for enhanced publicity through a targeted strategy to be developed by the Department of Public Information on the special sessions and conferences, including on the least developed countries, children, illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), racism, the environment, financing for development, sustainable development, and ageing, which will address issues crucial to the international community, particularly the developing countries, as well as on the ongoing Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism, and requests the Secretary-General to take the necessary action in this regard and report to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session in the context of his report on the reorientation of United Nations activities in the field of public information and communications;

Recalls its resolutions 53/59 B of 3 December 1998 and 54/82 B of 6 December 1999, and urges the Department of Public Information to take the necessary measures, through the provision of relevant and objective information, towards achieving the major objectives set forth in the report of the Secretary-General on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa,¹¹ and to publicize the activities of the open-ended working group established for that purpose;

¹¹A/52/871-S/1998/318.

Also recalls its resolutions concerning the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, in particular resolutions 51/138 B of 13 December 1996 and 52/172 of 16 December 1997, and encourages the Department of Public Information, in cooperation with the countries concerned and with the relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, to continue to take appropriate measures to enhance world public awareness of the consequences of that disaster;

Further recalls its resolution 55/44 of 27 November 2000, concerning international cooperation and coordination for the human and ecological rehabilitation of the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan, which has been affected by nuclear tests, and encourages the Department of Public Information, in cooperation with relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, to take appropriate measures to enhance world public awareness of the problems and needs of the Semipalatinsk region;

V.Bridging the digital divide

Commends the Secretary-General for the establishment of the United Nations Information Technology Service, the Health InterNetwork and the Information and Communications Technology Task Force with a view to bridging the digital divide and as a response to the continuing gulf between developed and developing countries, welcomes the contribution of the Department of Public Information in publicizing the efforts of the Secretary-General in closing the digital divide as a means of spurring economic growth and as a response to the continuing gulf between developed and developing countries, and, in this context, requests the Department further to enhance its role;

VI.United Nations information centres

Stresses that the United Nations information centres and information components should continue to play a significant role in disseminating information about the work of the Organization to the peoples of the world, in particular in the areas of economic and social development;

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General entitled “Integration of United Nations information centres with field offices of the United Nations Development Programme: implementation of the views of host Governments”,¹² welcomes the action taken by the Department of Public Information to implement the views of those host Governments as expressed in their replies to the questionnaire provided by the Secretariat, and requests the Secretary-General to take the necessary steps for the continued implementation of those views and to report thereon to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session;

¹²A/AC.198/2001/4.

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session on any possible proposal to continue, if feasible and on a case-by-case basis, the integration policy in a cost-effective manner, while maintaining the operational and functional independence of United Nations information centres, taking into account the views of the host countries to ensure that the information functions and the autonomy of United Nations information centres are not adversely affected, to meet the policy’s stated objective of improving the provision of information by the United Nations;

Also requests the Secretary-General to include in his report on the reorientation of United Nations activities in the field of public information and communications, to be submitted to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session, information on the involvement of the Department of Public Information in the context of the implementation of his recommendations on the establishment of United Nations houses;

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the equitable disbursement of resources to United Nations information centres,¹³ emphasizes that further efforts are needed to ensure the most equitable disbursement possible of resources to United Nations information centres, and stresses that particular attention should be paid to the concerns of developing countries and, where appropriate, other countries with special needs, including countries in transition;

¹³A/AC.198/2001/5.

Emphasizes that the United Nations information centres, as the “field voice” of the Department of Public Information, should promote public awareness and mobilize support for the work of the United Nations at the local level, and recognizes the appeal made by the Secretary-General to the host Governments of United Nations information centres to facilitate the work of the centres in their countries by providing rent-free or rent-subsidized office space, while taking into account the economic condition of the host Governments and bearing in mind that such support should not be a substitute for the full allocation of financial requirements for the United Nations information centres in the context of the programme budget of the United Nations;

Reaffirms that the United Nations information centres should continue to publicize United Nations activities and accomplishments in the areas of economic and social development, poverty eradication, debt relief, health, education, the elimination of illiteracy, women’s rights, children’s rights, the plight of children in armed conflict, the sexual exploitation of children, the eradication of drug trafficking, environmental issues, peace and security, and other relevant issues;

Also reaffirms the role of the General Assembly in relation to the opening of new United Nations information centres, invites the Secretary-General to make such recommendations as he may consider necessary regarding the establishment and location of such centres, and, in this regard, welcomes the requests by the Governments of Croatia, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Jamaica and Kyrgyzstan for information centres or information components;

Takes note of the efforts by some United Nations information centres to develop their own web pages in local languages, and, in this respect, encourages the Department of Public Information to provide resources and technical facilities, in particular to United Nations information centres whose web pages are not yet operational, to develop web pages in the respective local languages of their host countries, and encourages host Governments to respond to the needs of United Nations information centres;

VII.Role of the Department of Public Information in United Nations peacekeeping

Takes note with appreciation of the efforts of the Secretary-General to strengthen the public information capacity of the Department of Public Information for the establishment and day-to-day functioning of the information components of peacekeeping and other field operations of the United Nations, and requests the Secretariat to continue to ensure the involvement of the Department from the planning stage of such future operations through interdepartmental consultations and coordination with other departments of the Secretariat, in particular with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and to report thereon to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session, including any possible proposals for enhancing the role of the Department of Public Information in this regard;

Notes the ongoing discussion on the report of the Secretary-General¹⁴ on resource requirements for implementation of the report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, and, in this regard, stresses that the Department of Public Information should continue its efforts to strengthen its capacity to contribute significantly to the functioning of information components in United Nations peacekeeping operations, and requests the Secretary-General to report to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session in the report requested in paragraph 38 above;

¹⁴A/55/507 and Add.1.

Stresses the importance of enhancing the public information capacity of the Department of Public Information in the field of peacekeeping operations and its role in the selection process of spokespersons for United Nations peacekeeping operations or missions, and, in this regard, encourages the Department to second spokespersons who have the necessary skills to fulfil the tasks of the operations or missions, and to consider views expressed, especially by host countries, when appropriate, in this regard;

VIII.Dag Hammarskjöld Library

Takes note of the continuing efforts of the Secretary-General to make the Dag Hammarskjöld Library a virtual library with world outreach, making United Nations information and other acquired materials accessible electronically to a growing number of readers and users, and, at the same time, requests the Secretary-General to enrich on a multilingual basis the stock of books and journals in the Library, including publications on peace and security and development-related issues, to ensure that the Library continues to be a broadly accessible resource for information about the United Nations and its activities;

Encourages the Dag Hammarskjöld Library to alert its clientele, including Member States through their missions, for example, via electronic mail, of any new publications and collections;

Welcomes the training courses conducted by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library for the representatives of Member States and Secretariat staff on Cyberseek, web search, the Intranet, United Nations documentation, UN-I-QUE and the Official Document System of the United Nations, and, in that regard, encourages the Library to further develop such courses;

Also welcomes the role of the Department of Public Information in fostering increased collaboration among libraries of the United Nations system, particularly in establishing one central system-wide online catalogue that will allow for the searching of the bibliographic records of all print holdings of all United Nations system libraries and the searching of all electronic holdings and electronic databases maintained by all United Nations system libraries, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session in the context of his report on the reorientation of United Nations activities in the field of public information and communications;

Requests the Department of Public Information to ensure the continued development of the integrated library system in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session in the context of his report on the reorientation of United Nations activities in the field of public information and communications;

IX.Traditional means of communication: radio, television and publications

Welcomes the progress report¹⁵ and the final report¹⁶ of the Secretary-General on the implementation of the pilot project on the development of an international radio broadcasting capacity for the United Nations, and also welcomes the extensive network of partnerships established with local, national and regional broadcasters in Member States, and concurs with the Secretary-General that the project has contributed to the overall goal of the Department of Public Information of generating understanding about the United Nations among millions of listeners across the globe and has been one of the more successful examples of the reorientation of the Department;

¹⁵A/AC.198/2001/7.

¹⁶A/AC.198/2001/10.

Decides, building upon the success of the pilot project as well as the scope of its programme distribution and established partnerships, to expand the international radio broadcasting capacity of the United Nations in all six official languages;

Requests the Secretary-General to convey the necessary justification of the resource requirements, including information on the possibility of extrabudgetary financing and/or the redeployment of resources, concerning the expansion of the international radio broadcasting capacity for the biennium 2002–2003 for consideration by the relevant committees of the General Assembly;

Also requests the Secretary-General to submit a report on the implementation of the United Nations international radio broadcasting capacity to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fifth session, including information that can be obtained from the local, national and regional radio partners about the estimated number of listeners reached, in order for the Committee to decide on the future of this capacity;

Stresses that radio remains one of the most cost-effective and far-reaching traditional media available to the Department of Public Information and an important instrument in United Nations activities, such as development and peacekeeping, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 48/44 B;

Takes note of the efforts under way by the Department of Public Information to disseminate programmes directly to broadcasting stations all over the world in the six official languages as well as in other languages, and, in that regard, stresses the need for impartiality and objectivity concerning information activities of the United Nations;

Requests the Department of Public Information, in view of the need for efficiency and for a wider dissemination of information services of the United Nations Radio, to enhance where necessary the use of non-official languages to meet the information needs of its audiences;

Encourages the Department of Public Information to continue to include in its radio and television programming specific programmes addressing the needs of developing nations;

Expresses its appreciation to the Department of Public Information for the ongoing programme for broadcasters and journalists from developing countries and countries in transition, and calls for its further continuation along the lines of its current implementation, while including a larger number of trainees from those countries;

Emphasizes that all publications of the Department of Public Information, in accordance with existing mandates, should fulfil an identifiable need, should not duplicate other publications of the United Nations system and should be produced in a cost-effective manner;

X.United Nations web site

Notes, while appreciating current efforts, that there is a need for the Secretary-General to continue to develop proposals for the multilingual development, maintenance and enrichment of the United Nations web site in order to lead ultimately to achieving full parity among the official languages of the United Nations, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session;

Requests the Secretary-General in the meantime and until a decision has been taken on the proposals to be submitted for the multilingual development, maintenance and enrichment of the United Nations web site, to ensure, to the extent possible, while maintaining an up-to-date and accurate web site, the equitable distribution of financial and human resources within the Department of Public Information allocated to the United Nations web site among all official languages on a continuous basis;

Requests the Department of Public Information, as the manager of the Organization’s web site, to take the lead in developing a proposal for the establishment of one central Internet portal that will encompass all web sites of the United Nations system, preferably through system-wide cooperation, and that will allow for the search and retrieval of information from all web sites in the United Nations system from one central search facility, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session in the context of his report on the reorientation of United Nations activities in the field of public information and communications;

Stresses the importance of access to United Nations Treaty Collection and United Nations parliamentary documentation for the public;

Commends the efforts of the Information Technology Services Division of the Office of Central Support Services in ensuring that the required technological infrastructure is in place to accommodate the imminent linkage of the Official Document System to the United Nations web site;

Recognizes the far-reaching impact that the linking of the Official Document System with the United Nations web site will have in furthering the goals of the Organization by making all parliamentary documents in the six official languages publicly available, and stresses that the integration of the Official Document System with the United Nations web site will represent one of the steps towards significantly enhancing the multilingual nature of the United Nations web site and will lead to efficiencies in all Secretariat departments;

Takes note with interest of the electronic mail-based news alert service distributed worldwide by the Department of Public Information, and emphasizes that extra care needs to be taken to ensure that news-breaking stories and news alerts are accurate, impartial and free of any bias;

Encourages the Secretary-General, through the Department of Public Information, to continue to take full advantage of recent developments in information technology, including the Internet, in order to improve, in a cost-effective manner, the expeditious dissemination of information on the United Nations, in accordance with the priorities established by the General Assembly and taking into account the linguistic diversity of the Organization;

Encourages an increase in the number of programmes of United Nations Radio, in all available languages, on the United Nations web site;

XI.Final remarks

Recognizes the need for constructive interaction between the management of the Department of Public Information and members of the Committee on Information, and requests the Department to arrange, in consultation with the Chairman, informal meetings with the members of the Committee every three months to discuss the ongoing work of the Department, and in this regard requests the Department, in preparation for these meetings, to invite members of the Committee, no later than two weeks prior to their convening, to propose topics for discussion;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session and to the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session on the activities of the Department of Public Information and on the implementation of the recommendations contained in the present resolution;

Requests the Committee on Information to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-seventh session the item entitled “Questions relating to information”.

Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 21 (A/56/21); and ibid., Supplement No. 21 A (A/56/21/Add.1).

A/56/411.

See United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Records of the General Conference, Twenty-first Session, Belgrade, 23 September to 28 October 1980, vol. 1, Resolutions, sect. III.4, resolution 4/21.