Re-Visiting Multilingualism in Diplomatic Fora

The phenomenon of multilingualism may be described by considering it as a linguistic ability/ behavior of the members of a speech community which may alternately use two, three or more languages depending on specific circumstances. It may be understood also as the use of several languages by an individual or within a speech community. As a UN specialized agency and an active institution in the field of cultural diplomacy, UNESCO pursues the promotion of the right of each and every individual to self-development in the language and culture of his/her own origin and choice. Language rights are treated as a component of human rights. States have the duty not to take discriminatory measures on language grounds and to act in conformity with major international standard-setting or legal instruments. A significant event was the World Conference devoted to language rights, organized with the support of UNESCO in Barcelona, in June 1996. Its main achievement was the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights. UNESCO has taken initiatives for encouraging research and developing actions aimed at solving language problems of specific groups and is also involved in the preparation of an international convention on linguistic rights, as well as in the adoption of national and regional arrangements for the protection of linguistic diversity. In 2001 the UN General Assembly had on its agenda the item entitled Multilingualism and a report of the UN Secretary-General on that issue which establishes the framework for the question by distinguishing between official and working languages in various parts of the United Nations system. All are some combination of Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, which are both the official and working languages of the General Assembly and Security Council. The article examines in detail the diplomatic consideration of this item which led on 15 February 2002 to the adoption by consensus of resolution A/RES/56/262 which states that genuine multilingualism promotes unity in diversity and international understanding. The author emphasizes the topicality of UNESCO’s recommendations concerning the importance of multilingualism for the promotion of multiculturality on global information networks and comes to the conclusion that relevant nongovernmental organizations in the field of higher education can bring a valuable contribution to enlarging cooperation between universities at the international, regional, sub-regional and national levels in a promising multilingual environment

Information for All? The emergence of UNESCO's policy discourse on the information society (1990-2003)

The dissertation analyses the emergence of UNESCO’s policy discourse on the information society between 1990 and 2003. Taking into account the historical, political and institutional background of UNESCO and its history in the field of information and communication, the empirical analysis focuses on three different policy processes that contributed to this policy discourse: the INFOethics conference series; the creation of UNESCO’s intergovernmental Information For All Programme (IFAP); and the preparation of the Recommendation concerning the promotion and use of multilingualism and universal access to cyberspace. The empirical research is based on an analytical framework that combines Argumentative Discourse Analysis (ADA) with selected concepts and tools from Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Building on extensive archive research and interviews, these approaches are combined in such a way as to make possible a detailed account of UNESCO’s policy-making and to analyse the emergence of its policy discourse on the information society as the outcome of discursive struggles among networks of actors

Principles for governing the Internet: a comparative analysis

As the sixth edition in the UNESCO Internet Freedom series, this study encompasses both quantitative and qualitative assessments of more than 50 declarations, guidelines, and frameworks. The issues contained in these documents are assessed in the context of UNESCO’s  interested areas such as access, freedom of expression, privacy, ethics, Priority Gender Equality, and Priority Africa, and sustainable development, etc. This publication shows that while each of the reviewed Internet documents has its own value, none of them fully meet UNESCO’s interests and mandate. The study proposes therefore the concept of “Internet Universality” as the Organisation’s own clear identifier for approaching the various fields of Internet issues and their intersections with UNESCO concerns. Internet Universality highlights the contribution that can be made by an Internet that is based on four principles, recognised by UNESCO governing bodies. An Internet developed on these principles would be: human Rights-based; Open; Accessible to all; and governed through Multi-stakeholder participation (summarized in the acronym R.O.A.M.). This concept has relevance to the Organization’s work in many areas – including online freedom of expression and privacy; efforts to advance universality in education, social inclusion and gender equality; multilingualism in cyberspace; access to information and knowledge; and ethical dimensions of information society

Keystones to foster inclusive knowledge societies: access to information and knowledge, freedom of expression, privacy, and ethics on a global internet

The transnational and multi-dimensional nature of Cyberspace and its growing importance presents new frontiers with unparalleled opportunities and challenges for access to information and knowledge, freedom of expression, privacy and ethics. The Internet Study being undertaken by UNESCO is seeking to provide the necessary clarity to support holistic approaches to addressing this broad range of interrelated issues as well as their short and long-term effects. The study was built on a year-long multistakeholder consultation process, which involved several rounds of consultation with member states and other actors, as well as almost 200 major responses to an online questionnaire. The Study includes the Options for future actions of UNESCO in the Internet related issues, which has served as a basis for the Outcome Document as adopted by the CONNECTing the Dots Conference on 3 and 4 March 2015. The Study also affirmed that the same rights that people have offline must be protected online, and good practices are shared between Member States and other stakeholders, in order to address security and privacy concerns on the Internet and in accordance with international human rights obligations. The Study also supports the Internet Universality principles (R.O.A.M) that promote a human rights-based approach, including freedom of expression, privacy, open Internet, accessible to all and characterized by multistakeholder participation

Internet Governance: the State of Play

The Global Forum on Internet Governance held by the UNICT Task Force in New York on 25-26 March concluded that Internet governance issues were many and complex. The Secretary-General's Working Group on Internet Governance will have to map out and navigate this complex terrain as it makes recommendations to the World Summit on an Information Society in 2005. To assist in this process, the Forum recommended, in the words of the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations at the closing session, that a matrix be developed "of all issues of Internet governance addressed by multilateral institutions, including gaps and concerns, to assist the Secretary-General in moving forward the agenda on these issues." This paper takes up the Deputy Secretary-General's challenge. It is an analysis of the state of play in Internet governance in different forums, with a view to showing: (1) what issues are being addressed (2) by whom, (3) what are the types of consideration that these issues receive and (4) what issues are not adequately addressed

The Domination of the English Language in the Global Village: Efforts to Further Develop the Internet By Populating It With Non-Latin-Based Languages

At the top of the homepage of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a choice of nine different languages in which to read information about the organization; four of them are languages written in non-Latin script (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian). Clicking upon any of the language options brings the reader to a new website in that language and, presuming the reader has a computer and screen that can handle non-Latin script, the webpage reads legibly and clearly. The Uniform Resource Locator (URL), however, still reads in Latin script despite the webpage’s content being in a foreign script. This article will examine the current state of affairs in policy-oriented Internet realms and suggest that the cohesive development of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), which are domain names in character sets other than American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), is a critical step to take in order to more fully utilize the potential the Internet offers for international communication