Questions Relating to Information Resolutions

A/RES/57/130A-BNo PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 79Questions relating information, published in 2003.

What else is in this group?

77 documents · 1979–2025

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2025).

2025A/RES/80/84 A-BQuestions relating to information resolutionsCompare with earlier document
2024A/RES/79/93 A-BQuestions relating to information resolutionsCompare with earlier document
2023A/RES/78/80 A-BQuestions relating to information resolutionsCompare with earlier document
2022A/RES/77/128 A-BQuestions relating to information resolutionsCompare with earlier document
2021A/RES/76/84 A-BQuestions relating to information resolutionsCompare with earlier document

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

Grouped automatically by matching titles within the same organ.

What subjects does this mandate have?

12 topics

Communication Technology Digital Divide Information Centres Information Dissemination Information Policy Multilingualism Peacekeeping Operations Public Information Publications Radio Television Websites

What does this mandate say?

89 operative paragraphs

A

Urges all countries, organizations of the United Nations system as a whole and all others concerned, reaffirming their commitment to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and to the principles of freedom of the press and freedom of information, as well as to those of the independence, pluralism and diversity of the media, deeply concerned by the disparities existing between developed and developing countries and the consequences of every kind arising from those disparities that affect the capability of the public, private or other media and individuals in developing countries to disseminate information and communicate their views and their cultural and ethical values through endogenous cultural production, as well as to ensure the diversity of sources and their free access to information, and recognizing the call in this context for what in the United Nations and at various international forums has been termed “a new world information and communication order, seen as an evolving and continuous process”:

To cooperate and interact with a view to reducing existing disparities in information flows at all levels by increasing assistance for the development of communication infrastructures and capabilities in developing countries, with due regard for their needs and the priorities attached to such areas by those countries, and in order to enable them and the public, private or other media in developing countries to develop their own information and communication policies freely and independently and increase the participation of media and individuals in the communication process, and to ensure a free flow of information at all levels;

To ensure for journalists the free and effective performance of their professional tasks and condemn resolutely all attacks against them;

To provide support for the continuation and strengthening of practical training programmes for broadcasters and journalists from public, private and other media in developing countries;

To enhance regional efforts and cooperation among developing countries, as well as cooperation between developed and developing countries, to strengthen communication capacities and to improve the media infrastructure and communication technology in the developing countries, especially in the areas of training and dissemination of information;

To aim at, in addition to bilateral cooperation, providing all possible support and assistance to the developing countries and their media, public, private or other, with due regard to their interests and needs in the field of information and to action already adopted within the United Nations system, including:

The development of the human and technical resources that are indispensable for the improvement of information and communication systems in developing countries and support for the continuation and strengthening of practical training programmes, such as those already operating under both public and private auspices throughout the developing world;

The creation of conditions that will enable developing countries and their media, public, private or other, to have, by using their national and regional resources, the communication technology suited to their national needs, as well as the necessary programme material, especially for radio and television broadcasting;

iii

Assistance in establishing and promoting telecommunication links at the subregional, regional and interregional levels, especially among developing countries;

The facilitation, as appropriate, of access by the developing countries to advanced communication technology available on the open market;

To provide full support for the International Programme for the Development of Communication of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which should support both public and private media.

B

I.Introduction

Reaffirms its resolution 13 (I), in which it established the Department of Public Information, 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 a guideline that sets out the overall orientation of the public information programme for the Organization’s goals through effective communication;

Welcomes the efforts of the Secretary-General to conduct a comprehensive review of the management and operations of the Department of Public Information and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session, and encourages the Secretary-General to submit wide-ranging innovative proposals for the Department that should take into account the issue raised in the current resolution;

Requests the Department of Public Information, following the priorities laid down by the General Assembly and using the United Nations Millennium Declaration as its guide, to pay particular attention to such major issues as the eradication of poverty, conflict prevention, sustainable development, human rights, the human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/ AIDS) epidemic, the battle against international terrorism and the needs of the African continent;

Concurs with the Secretary-General on the need to enhance the technological infrastructure of the Department of Public Information to widen its outreach and to improve the United Nations web site;

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

Notes the efforts made by the Department of Public Information, in the context of the progress report of the Secretary-General on the reorientation of United Nations activities in the field of public information and communications and the ongoing comprehensive review, to articulate to Member States the challenges it faces in improving its efficiency and productivity, and encourages the Secretary-General to continue the reorientation exercise, including wide-ranging and possibly new innovative proposals, taking into account broad principles and directions contained in the present resolution, and to report thereon to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fifth session;

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, and encourages a closer integration of functions between the Department and those offices providing spokesman services for the Secretary-General;

Requests the Secretary-General, in the context of the reorientation process, 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;

Notes the submission by the Secretary-General of his report on the reorientation of United Nations activities in the field of public information and communications,5 and welcomes the progress achieved since the commencement of the reorientation exercise in enhancing the performance and effectiveness of the Department of Public Information in accordance with the mandates established by the General Assembly and the recommendations of the Committee on Information;

Welcomes the movement of the Department of Public Information towards a new “evaluation culture” of increased performance management, based on, inter alia, an annual programme impact review, as well as feedback from Member States, where appropriate;

Welcomes also the intention of the Department of Public Information to examine further areas of duplication and fragmentation of functions in the structure of the Department as well as opportunities for greater coordination within the Secretariat as a whole and within the United Nations system in order to avoid an overlapping of efforts in the implementation of its mandates and activities;

Notes the intention of the Secretary-General to conduct a comprehensive review of the management and operations of the Department of Public Information and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session in accordance with resolution 56/253, and recognizes that the comprehensive review of the Department is intended to facilitate the process of reorientation;

Requests the Committee on Information to examine thoroughly the comprehensive review once it has been finalized and to submit its recommendations thereon to the General Assembly, and stresses in this context the importance of respecting the principal competence of the Committee to undertake the examination of the review and submit its recommendations prior to consideration by any other body;

Calls upon Member States to ensure, to the extent possible, that recommendations relating to the programme of work of the Department of Public Information originate and are considered in the Committee on Information;

Takes note of the proposed mission statement of the Department of Public Information, and emphasizes the importance, when implementing the mandates established by the General Assembly, of direct outreach activities to Member States and the public and the use of such intermediaries as the media, non-governmental organizations and educational institutions;

Encourages the Secretary-General, while maintaining the information programmes and activities mandated by the General Assembly until any alternative future decision has been taken on this matter upon the recommendation of the Committee on Information, to continue the study and consideration of certain organizational changes;

Urges the Department of Public Information to continue to exhibit transparency to the greatest extent possible, so as to increase awareness of the impact of its programmes and activities;

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;

Requests the Department of Public Information to continue consultations with the Committee on Information before taking any decision on the possible changing of its title;

Encourages the Secretary-General to strengthen the coordination between the Department of Public Information and other departments of the Secretariat, and emphasizes that public information capacities and activities in other departments should function under the guidance of the Department;

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 taken 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 feedback from Member States on the relevance and effectiveness of its programme delivery should be taken into account;

Welcomes also the report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Joint United Nations Information Committee in 2001, commends the Department of Public Information on its active and constructive participation in the Committee, particularly its efforts in promoting inter-agency coordination in the field of public information, encourages the Department to play a key role in the newly established United Nations Communications Group, takes note of the efforts being undertaken by the Group to develop further several key initiatives, and requests the Secretary-General to report to the Committee on Information at successive sessions on the activities of the Group;

Recognizes the need for the Department of Public Information to increase its outreach activities in all regions, and reiterates the need to include, in 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 that are not covered adequately and may require special attention, including the appropriate means of communication, and bearing in mind local language requirements;

Appreciates the continued efforts of the Department of Public Information in issuing daily press releases, and requests the Department to continue providing this invaluable service to both Member States and representatives of the media, while considering possible means of improving their production process and streamlining their format, structure and length, keeping in mind the views of Member States and the fact that other departments may be providing similar or overlapping services in this regard;

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 daily through the United Nations web site and are accessible to Member States without delay;

Reaffirms its request to 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;

IV.Promotional campaigns

Recognizes that promotional campaigns aimed at supporting special sessions and international conferences of the United Nations are part of the core responsibility of the Department of Public Information, and welcomes the efforts of the Department to examine creative ways by which it can organize and implement these campaigns in partnership with the substantive departments concerned;

Recognizes also the need for enhanced publicity through a targeted strategy to be developed by the Department of Public Information on the forthcoming special sessions, international conferences and promotional campaigns of the United Nations pertaining to global issues, using the United Nations Millennium Declaration as its guide;

Supports the efforts of the Department of Public Information, while ensuring respect for the priorities established by the General Assembly, to focus its promotional campaigns also on the major issues identified by the Secretary-General, referred to in paragraph 5 above;

Appreciates the work of the Department of Public Information in promoting, through its campaigns, issues of importance to the international community, such as sustainable development, children, HIV/AIDS and decolonization, as well as the dialogue among civilizations and the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, and encourages the Department, 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 these and other important global issues;

Encourages the Department of Public Information to continue to work within the United Nations Communications Group to coordinate the implementation of communication strategies with the heads of information of the agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system;

V.Bridging the digital divide

Welcomes the decision, endorsed in its resolution 56/183 of 21 December 2001, to convene the World Summit on the Information Society at Geneva in December 2003 and at Tunis in December 2005;

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 to close 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, including in the areas outlined in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, and emphasizes that the information centres, as the “field voice” of the Department of Public Information, should promote public awareness of and mobilize support for the work of the United Nations at the local level, bearing in mind that information in the local languages has the strongest impact on the local populations;

Requests the Secretary-General to include in his comprehensive review of the management and operations of the Department of Public Information the results of the ongoing review by the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the Secretariat on this matter and information on the involvement of the Department in the United Nations houses initiative;

Notes the efforts by some United Nations information centres to develop their own web pages in local languages, and encourages the Department of Public Information to provide resources and technical facilities, in particular to those 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 the information centres;

Welcomes the efforts by the Department of Public Information to restore additional resources to those United Nations information centres that have suffered reductions in staffing and other resources as a result of budget reduction exercises undertaken in the past several years;

Recalls 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 premises, 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 resources for the information centres in the context of the programme budget of the United Nations;

Welcomes the ongoing efforts of the Department of Public Information to review the allocation of both staff and financial resources to United Nations information centres with a view to possibly transferring resources from information centres in developed countries to those in developing countries;

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: continued implementation of the views of host Governments”, welcomes the consistent implementation by the Department of Public Information of the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly with respect to the integration of United Nations information centres with the field offices of the United Nations Development Programme, and reaffirms that any proposal in this regard should be implemented only if feasible and on a case-by-case basis, while maintaining the operational and functional independence of the information centres, taking into account the views of the host countries to ensure that the information functions and the autonomy of the centres are not adversely affected, to meet the integration policy’s stated objective of improving the provision of information by the United Nations;

Notes the possibility of creating regional information centre “hubs”, especially but not exclusively in areas where linguistic commonalities facilitate regionalization, stresses the need for the Committee on Information to consider proposed guidelines and criteria relating to the advisability of implementing this option, and stresses also that, subject to the General Assembly endorsing the guidelines and criteria, such “hubs” should be created in a flexible manner, if feasible, on a case-by-case basis and only with the express approval of all host countries concerned;

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

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General on the role of the Department of Public Information in United Nations peacekeeping;

Commends the efforts of the Secretary-General to strengthen the public information capacity of the Department of Public Information for the establishment and functioning of the information components of peacekeeping operations and of political and peace-building missions of the United Nations, including its promotional efforts and other information support activities, and requests the Secretariat to continue to ensure the involvement of the Department from the planning stage of future operations through interdepartmental consultations and coordination with other departments of the Secretariat, in particular with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations;

Requests the Department of Public Information to continue its efforts to strengthen its capacity to contribute significantly to the functioning of information components in United Nations peacekeeping operations, including through the development of a coherent information strategy with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations;

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

Notes 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 notes also the efforts of 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;

Requests the Secretary-General to include in his comprehensive review of the management and operations of the Department of Public Information the results of the overall review of library services of the United Nations system, including the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, the libraries in the United Nations Offices at Geneva and Vienna, the libraries in the regional commissions, departmental libraries, libraries at United Nations information centres and depository libraries called for by the General Assembly in its resolution 56/253;

Notes 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;

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

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;

Recalls paragraph 47 of its resolution 56/64 B, in which it decided, building upon the success of the pilot project on the development of an international radio broadcasting capacity for the United Nations 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;

Appreciates that the Department of Public Information, as stated in paragraph 32 of the report of the Secretary-General on the reorientation of United Nations activities in the field of public information and communications,5 has managed to establish partnerships with over 265 radio stations to carry its broadcasts, with a potential to reach as many as 180 million listeners worldwide;

Looks forward to the report of the Secretary-General to be submitted to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fifth session on the implementation of the United Nations international radio broadcasting capacity, including information that can be obtained from the local, national and regional radio partners about the estimated number of listeners reached and the cost-effectiveness of radio as an instrument in United Nations activities, so that the Committee may decide on the future of this capacity;

Notes the efforts being made 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 this regard, stresses the need for impartiality and objectivity concerning information activities of the United Nations;

Emphasizes that United Nations Radio and Television should take full advantage of the technological infrastructure made available in recent years, including satellite platforms, information and communication technologies and the Internet, and requests the Secretary-General, as a part of the reorientation of the Department of Public Information, to consider a global strategy for broadcasting, taking into account existing technologies;

Notes the importance of the continued implementation by the Department of Public Information of the ongoing programme for broadcasters and journalists from developing countries and countries in transition as mandated by the General Assembly, and encourages the Department to consider how best to maximize the benefits derived from the programme by reviewing, inter alia, its duration and the number of its participants;

Reiterates 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, and, in this regard, requests the Secretary-General to include in his comprehensive review of the management and operations of the Department the relevant results of the larger review of United Nations publications and information materials called for by the General Assembly in its resolution 56/253;

X.United Nations web site

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the continued development, maintenance and enrichment of the United Nations web site in the six official languages, and notes the possible courses of action outlined therein;

Reiterates its appreciation for the efforts of the Department of Public Information in creating a high-quality, user-friendly and cost-effective web site, noting that this is especially noteworthy considering the scope of the undertaking, the budget constraints within the United Nations and the remarkably rapid expansion of the World Wide Web, reaffirms that the web site remains a very useful tool for media, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, Member States and the general public, and welcomes the creation of the United Nations web site on terrorism;

Notes with concern that the multilingual development and enrichment of the United Nations web site has been slower than expected because of a lack of resources, among other factors;

Notes that content-providing offices have not, in general, been making their materials on the United Nations web site available in all six official languages;

Stresses the need for adopting a decision on the multilingual development, maintenance and enrichment of the United Nations web site, considering, inter alia, the possibility of organizational restructuring towards separate language units for each of the six official languages within the Department of Public Information, in order to achieve full parity among the official languages of the United Nations;

Reaffirms its request to the Secretary-General to ensure, until such a decision has been taken and implemented, to the extent possible and 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, and to make every possible effort to ensure that all materials contained on the web site that do not change and do not need regular maintenance are made available in all six official languages;

Reaffirms the need to achieve full parity among the six official languages on the United Nations web site, and, in this regard, takes note of the proposal of the Secretary-General, as contained in paragraph 33 of his report,10 to translate into all official languages all English materials and databases posted on the United Nations web site by the respective content-providing offices of the Secretariat, and requests the Secretary-General to report to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fifth session on the most practical, efficient and cost-effective means of implementing this proposal;

Requests the Secretary-General to include in his report to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fifth session proposals relating to the designation of a date by which all supporting arrangements would be in place for the implementation of this concept and after which parity would continue and relating to the exemption from translation of specific items on the web site;

Stresses the importance of access for the public to the United Nations treaty collection and United Nations parliamentary documentation;

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;

Notes that the High-Level Committee on Management of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination has requested its Technical Adviser to prepare and submit to it a preliminary study on the issue of one central Internet portal for the United Nations system, and requests the Department of Public Information, as the manager of the Organization’s web site, to convey the considerations of the Committee on Information on this matter and to report thereon to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fifth session;

Takes note of the reports of the Secretary-General on the re-engineering of the Optical Disk System, now called the Official Document System of the United Nations, and on the simultaneous availability of parliamentary documentation in electronic form in the six official languages on the United Nations web site;

Commends the Information Technology Services Division of the Office of Central Support Services of the Secretariat on its efforts 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, and commends also the Department of Public Information for addressing issues of content management relating to the System;

Notes that the integration of the Official Document System with the United Nations web site will significantly enhance the multilingual nature of the United Nations web site and will lead to efficiencies throughout all Secretariat departments through the elimination of duplicate formatting and posting of documents;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fifth session on the impact on the functioning of the Official Document System following implementation of the full multilingual support function and on the feasibility of providing free, public access to the System through a linkage with the United Nations web site, including options with a view to revising the current subscription policy established in General Assembly resolution 51/211 F of 15 September 1997, and expresses its intention to take a decision on the subscription policy during the main part of its fifty-eighth session;

Notes with interest the electronic mail-based United Nations News Service distributed worldwide by e-mail by the Department of Public Information, appreciates the plan of the Department to provide this service in all official languages in 2002, 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;

XI.Final remarks

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fifth session and to the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth 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-eighth session;

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

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