General Conference 30th Session, Paris 1999 30 C 30 C/31 16 August 1999 Original: English Item 7.6 of the provisional agenda DRAFT RECOMMENDATION ON THE PROMOTION AND USE OF MULTILINGUALISM AND UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO CYBERSPACE OUTLINE Source: 29 C/Resolution 36, paragraph 2(d). Background: Following the series of debates on the information highways held at the Executive Board from its 150th to 155th sessions and during the 29th session of the General Conference, and the numerous initiatives taken during the past years at the national, regional and international levels, the Director-General submits this report to the General Conference. Purpose: This document reports on the implementation of General Conference 29 C/Resolution 36 in the fields of ethical, legal and societal aspects of cyberspace and proposes concrete activities at national and international levels with a view to promoting multilingualism on the information networks and encouraging partnership among governments, industry and civil society. It suggests that additional consultations be held before submitting a draft recommendation to the General Conference at its 31st session. Decision required: paragraph 40.
30 C/31 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The General Conference at its 29th session invited the Director-General to pursue UNESCO s work in clarifying the policy priorities on the balanced use of languages in cyberspace through consultations with Member States and concerned international organizations and through regional and international meetings of experts. 2. It also invited the Director-General to prepare a draft recommendation on the promotion and use of multilingualism and universal access to cyberspace to be submitted to the 30th session of the General Conference (29 C/Resolution 36, para. 2(d)). However, the first consultations undertaken to this effect by the Director-General led him to the conclusion that it would be premature to prepare such a draft recommendation for the 30th session of the General Conference. The preparation of a truly pertinent standard-setting document in this complex and rapidly evolving domain would require more extensive and diversified consultations. 3. Therefore, the present document is an interim report; it provides a summary of the work that the Secretariat has carried out for the implementation of this resolution and proposes a strategy for future action - Initiative B@bel - in support of linguistic and cultural diversity on networks such as the Internet. The draft recommendation will be prepared and submitted to the General Conference at its 31st session after complementing the available information and the results of the consultations already undertaken with the findings and recommendations of the Advisory Committee for Linguistic Pluralism and Multilingual Education. II. BACKGROUND 4. In line with Articles 19 1 and 27 (para. 1 2 ) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the ultimate goals of any society is empowerment of all its citizens through access to and use of knowledge. The right to freely participate in the cultural life and to share scientific advancement is and must remain more than ever a basic human right in the emerging information society. Its application in the digital world should not be impeded by any physical, commercial, political, linguistic, or other cultural barriers. It should be examined not only from the legal and commercial viewpoint but also from its ethical and moral aspects, especially when it concerns the relations between developed and developing countries. 5. Everyone must have, in particular, an equal chance to benefit from the cultural diversity of the world and to participate in it. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) open new vistas for this diversification, but they constitute at the same time a risk of new forms of domination and discrimination. They can increase the difference between those who have access to information and those who do not. The use of mother tongues may play a major role in closing the gap between the info-rich and the info-poor as every community will have to adapt itself to the societal mutations created by the application of ICTs. 6. In this context, the concept of cultural and linguistic diversity is at the centre of the challenge posed by an information society, if it is to remain equally open for everyone. 1 2 Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Article 27: 1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
30 C/31 - page 2 Languages are not only means for communicating our messages and thoughts; they are also means of interpreting our cultural and social identity. 7. Multilingualism is of vital and strategic importance for a true information society to develop. Promoting the use of many languages is the only satisfactory answer to the globalization process of all human activities. On the one hand, because of the essential role the mother tongue plays in the elaboration of thoughts; on the other hand, because of the necessity to preserve the cultural diversity of humanity, where the language is the primary instrument. 8. The international community needs policies to protect the linguistic and information rights of everyone in cyberspace so that they are not subject to political, economic or cultural domination. Thus, the ACC Statement on Universal Access to Basic Communication and Information Services, issued in 1997, commits the United Nations system in promoting policies that provide equitable public participation in the information society as both producers and consumers of information and knowledge. III. NEW STRATEGY: Initiative B@bel 9. UNESCO, mandated by its Constitution to free exchange of ideas and knowledge, fully subscribes to this Statement and endeavours to reaffirm the concept of universal access to information in the emerging information society. In addition, UNESCO s Constitution clearly spells out this mission in Article I(2c): the Organization will maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge by initiating methods of international cooperation calculated to give the people of all countries access to the printed and published materials produced by any of them. 10. Thus, the promotion of access to information in the public domain in a balanced use of languages was approved by the General Conference 3 at its 29th session as a basic element of this strategy and was included in its programme planning for the 1998-1999 biennium. 4 11. It was further emphasized in 29 C/Resolution 38 (para. 2.B(b)) inviting the Director- General to lend fresh impetus to linguistic diversity at all levels of education and to multilingualism in educational curricula and to assist in the further development of educational services in Member States in indigenous and minority languages. 12. Hence, UNESCO s approach is to protect the interest of the majority by promoting the universal multilingual diffusion of the global public domain of knowledge and the global information commons through networks such as the Internet. Not only is this strategic approach respecting the spirit of the Constitution and the General Conference resolutions but it also confirms that UNESCO must take a leading initiative in it. 13. Public domain information is a global public good; without active public support there will be under-provision of this good. With this in mind, UNESCO s main goal consists in redefining universal access to information in all languages in cyberspace by encouraging (1) the development of tools (translation mechanisms; terminology; protocols; etc.) that will facilitate multilingual communication in cyberspace; (2) the promotion of fair allocation of 3 The General Conference invites the Director-General... to facilitate access to information in the public domain with the ultimate aim of building up a general electronic repository of all information of a public nature relevant to UNESCO s fields of competence (29 C/Resolution 28, para. 2.A(h)). 4 UNESCO: Approved Programme and Budget for 1998-1999 (29 C/5 Approved, para. 04020).
30 C/31 - page 3 public resources to public information providers; and (3) the promotion of access to multilingual public domain information and knowledge. 14. The programme Initiative B@bel proposes to do this by implementing concrete activities at national and international levels, with the objective to develop multilingualism on the information networks and to encourage full partnership between governments, industry and civil society. The programme could be oriented in several directions: creation of the infrastructure: establishment of UNESCO Chairs, associating universities with industry, for strengthening research in and development of multilingual search engines, multilingual gateways, virtual libraries and archives, etc.; development of multilingual tools: adapting multilingual indexing of websites, thesauri, standards, lexicons and terminology existing in the European Union, UNESCO, ISO, UNU, Union Latine, Infoterm, etc., to other languages including local ones; strengthen interoperability: supporting the development of automatic translation tools, including the production of translation free software, the application of translation schools work to the webpages, the on-line development of multilingual encyclopedia, upgrading of routers, etc.; formulation of national and international policies and regulations: encouraging the use of many languages on the information networks, the on-line teaching of foreign languages in the education systems, the development of multilingual websites (with a web prize), etc. 15. This approach can be implemented, however, only with a strong political consensus and cooperation from the Member States. Global public goods provide a central rationale for international collective action in the collective interest of all. This is the ultimate objective of the draft resolution in paragraph 40. IV. SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES International Symposium on Multilingualism in an Information Society (4-6 December 1997) 16. The symposium was organized with the financial and technical support of UNESCO, the European Union and the French Government to make proposals for a strategic plan of action for the promotion of multilingualism in the information society. It unanimously confirmed the need to preserve linguistic diversity and identified a number of priority areas concerning the promotion of languages in the information society (translation, education, right and multilingualism, communication systems). 17. Concrete actions were suggested with regard to raising awareness on the importance of linguistic issues, the language as a common heritage, the technical means for translation, the language and development, the learning processes and the right and multilingualism. The participants concluded that emphasis should be laid on the promotion of language teaching, automated translations and the development of community and regional networks using local languages.
30 C/31 - page 4 Asia-Pacific Regional Expert Meeting on Cyberspace (8-10 September 1998) 18. The meeting, organized with the generous support of the Government of the Republic of Korea, recommended a number of universal principles for UNESCO s consideration. One of these principles is to make cyberspace available for scientific and educational use as well as for the general public good by encouraging universal access, particularly for developing countries, in order to bridge the gap between the world s information rich and information poor. INFOethics 98 - Second UNESCO International Congress on Ethical, Legal and Societal Challenges of Cyberspace (1-3 October 1998) 19. UNESCO organized INFOethics 98, in cooperation with several National Commissions for UNESCO and ACCT. Its objective was to lay down the basis for an international reflection on the fundamental ethical principles that should inspire a transnational political action in the cyber era context. An efficient access to information falling into the public domain and the question of multilingualism were among the three issues considered by the Congress as major future challenges for the cyber-society. Access to information. Promotion of the world public information domain 20. The public domain in the information society includes all public data (laws, governmental reports, data produced from public funds, etc.), as well as all information that becomes public (classic works, works of authors who died more than 50 or 70 years ago), theses or scientific articles published by public laboratories, non-proprietary standards and software. 21. This constitutes the global public common good within the information society framework that needs to be accessible to the largest possible number of users, thus reducing the gap between those who, being well informed and connected, get the best out of information technologies for their work, for the creation of pressure groups, for prospecting the new markets or for speculating, and those who are cut off not only from physical access to the networks, but also from the capacity to understand the new world economy mechanisms and to influence them. 22. The Congress firmly supported all activities aimed to improve the access to public information and to provide freedom of access to means of getting to this information and processing it, e.g. to computer software programmes. Emphasizing that guaranteeing access to the benefits of the information society for all humankind was a fundamental right, the Congress considered that the role of the public sector in making electronic networks (principally the Internet) accessible to all on equal terms should be increased and national policies should be formulated to this end. 23. The Congress reaffirmed that because of its moral and ethical responsibility, UNESCO should play a unique role in the search for world ethics in the access to information in its fields of competence (education, science, culture, communication), in the interest of its Member States and of their users (educators, researchers, scientists, public in the developing countries).
30 C/31 - page 5 Multilingualism 24. While English is still a dominating language on the Internet today and is more and more imposing itself as the common communication language, the presence of other languages is expanding at an increasing rate. This expansion, nevertheless, is limited to those countries that have the financial, technical and human resources to do so. Multilingualism will be achieved when every culture will be able to express itself in its mother tongue and not in a language foreign to it. The Unicode, is a universal coding system that in principle allows digital coding of all the languages of the world. In reality, a few problems subsist such as for the agglutinating languages such as Tamul or Singalis. 25. The issue, however, does not concern only the coding standards. The participants to the Congress estimated that, if the present trend of one language domination in the information society is maintained, there will be no real cultural and social exchanges. Cultural diversity will be hindered creating a situation of citizens of a second zone and discriminated populations, leading to possible serious social, cultural and scientific consequences. 26. The national authorities, UNESCO and other international organizations were encouraged to watch that the world balance be maintained in matters concerning access and production of information on the Internet by developing multilingualism on the Internet, developing intelligent linguistic systems (recognition of languages, automated translation, TAO, etc.), together with the adoption of techniques for the drafting of original articles so that they are correctly translated by machines. 27. The necessity to participate in the implementation of a world policy for character coding and for information input-output procedures and for encouraging the diffusion of cultural heritage, particularly in less used languages, was emphasized. 28. The participants issued a statement which recommended that, in the light of the Congress conclusions, UNESCO, in cooperation with the United Nations and other international organizations, promote and extend access to the public domain of information and communication support cultural diversity and multilingualism in cyberspace and take measures which allow every individual, every culture and every language to contribute to and benefit from the new store of world knowledge. (http://www.unesco.org/webworld/infoethics_2/index.htm) Experts Meeting on Cyberspace Law (29-30 September 1998) 29. The Experts Meeting on Cyberspace Law was organized by UNESCO in cooperation with the Principality of Monaco in conformity with resolution 36 of the General Conference of UNESCO at its 29th session. The meeting had for objective to exchange views and ideas on how cyberspace and in particular its main component, the Internet, could promote human rights and fundamental freedoms, encourage freedom of expression and access to knowledge, further cultural and linguistic diversity, and contribute to the common welfare of humankind. The experts were invited to advise the Director-General on the feasibility of elaborating progressively, under the auspices of UNESCO, a universal ethical and legal framework in this domain. 30. The experts recognized that, in conformity with its constitutional mandate, UNESCO has a unique role within the United Nations system as the sole international organization able to build a world consensus on the principles, laws and codes that should govern the emerging information society.
30 C/31 - page 6 31. Noting, in particular, that current international debates on issues linked to cyberspace tend to emphasize economic interests more than social and cultural ones, they recommended that UNESCO reaffirm the application to the emerging information society of some important principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 32. Considering that the right of communication is a fundamental human right and that every citizen should have the right to meaningful participation in the information society the experts proposed several principles (the universal service principle ; the multiculturalism and multilingualism principle ; the ethics principle ; the education principle ; the free expression principle ; the privacy and encryption principle ; the access to information principle ; the [job] training principle ; and the international cooperation principle ). 33. Among these the multiculturalism and multilingualism principle urges that States and users should promote cultural and linguistic diversity in cyberspace by the promotion of regional and local participation in Internet activities, information collections, and new information services. The access to information principle proclaims that public bodies should have an affirmative responsibility to make public information widely available on the Internet and to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the information. [ ] The traditional balance between the rights of authors and limitations on these rights, including the free use of ideas in published works, should be maintained in cyberspace in the interests of the public and of the authors. States should preserve and expand the public domain in cyberspace. 34. To this end the experts recommended that UNESCO carry out studies on the following topics: the application to cyberspace of each article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ; the realities, significance and consequences of all barriers to access, whether publicly or privately created ; the actual economic cost of piracy on the Internet and the degree to which the resulting disincentive has reduced the supply of works desired by the public ; the significance of jurisdictional issues and conflicts of law and promote harmonization of national laws. Creation of an Advisory Committee for Linguistic Pluralism and Multilingual Education (1998) 35. In accordance with 29 C/Resolution 38 (para. 2.B(b)) UNESCO established an Advisory Committee for Linguistic Pluralism and Multilingual Education in 1998 designed to replace the LINGUAPAX International Committee. It is composed of 12 highly competent and experienced experts in various disciplines relating to linguistic pluralism and multilingual education. 36. The mandate of the Advisory Committee is to advise the Organization on the preparation and implementation of programmes relating to all UNESCO s activities in the field of languages involving all of the Organization s fields of competence, and more precisely on the promotion of multilingual education and respect for linguistic and cultural diversity, the preservation of lesser-used languages, the prevention of language discrimination, the promotion of multilingualism in electronic networks, and the strengthening of its action in the fields of languages and multilingual education and assist the Organization in raising extrabudgetary resources. The Committee will become operational very soon. Intersectoral Task Force on Cultural Policies for Development (5 May 1999) 37. First meeting of the Intersectoral Task Force on Cultural Policies for Development held on 5 May 1999 proposed activities for the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity in and
30 C/31 - page 7 for the information society, one of the five sets of policy objectives of the Stockholm Conference Action Plan. Expert Meeting on Multilingualism in the Information Society (15 April 1999) 38. The meeting, organized by the International Forum of Human Sciences in close collaboration with UNESCO, the European Union and the Conseil supérieur de la langue française, examined the issue of multilingualism under four aspects: strategies for active use of languages on the networks and in digital memories; strategies for linguistic interoperability; translation strategies; and learning of foreign language strategies. 39. Recommendations emphasized, first of all, the need to develop the practice of multilingualism in the digital presentation of cultural and public resources and to define a strategy facilitating free and affordable access to these resources that constitute par excellence a global public domain. It was also considered that research, awareness campaigns, training sessions and participation of specialists in rare languages were necessary to promote the techniques of multilingual interoperability. The latter depends on the improvement of automatic translation mechanisms, of multilingual linguistic resources (lexicons, terminology, etc.), of their widespread usage and of training; equally important is to carry out studies on the cost of language barriers, to encourage institutions dealing with norms to diffuse them in the public domain. 40. The General Conference may wish to adopt the following draft resolution: The General Conference, Having examined the report submitted by the Director-General, in accordance with 29 C/Resolution 36, on the implementation of activities on the ethical, legal and societal aspects of cyberspace, Taking note of the conclusions of activities carried out by the Organization on the promotion and use of multilingualism and universal access in cyberspace as reported in document 30 C/31, Taking note of the establishment by the Director-General of the Advisory Committee for Linguistic Pluralism and Multilingual Education, as recommended by the General Conference at its 29th session (29 C/Resolution 38, para. 2.B(b)), Recognizing the importance of multilingualism for the promotion of universal access to information, particularly to information that falls into the public domain, Recognizing also the importance of multilingualism for the promotion of multiculturality on global information networks, Reiterates its conviction that UNESCO should have a leading international role in promoting access to information that belongs to the public domain, especially by encouraging multilingualism and cultural diversity on global information networks; Invites Member States, non-governmental organizations, the world intellectual community and the scientific institutions concerned to support and participate actively in the development of multilingualism and cultural diversity on the global information networks by facilitating free and universal access to information of public domain;
30 C/31 - page 8 Invites Member States to approve, in this light, the proposed new strategy Initiative B@bel as outlined under paragraph 14; Invites the Director-General to undertake the following concrete actions for the promotion of languages and cultural diversity on global information networks: (a) (b) (c) (d) strengthen activities to make public domain cultural heritage preserved in museums, libraries and archives, freely accessible on the global information networks; support the formulation of national and international policies and principles encouraging all Member States to promote the development and use of translation tools and terminology for better interoperability; encourage the provision of resources on linguistic pluralism over global networks, including the reinforcement of the international observatory; pursue further consultations with Member States and competent international governmental and non-governmental organizations for closer cooperation on linguistic rights, respect for linguistic diversity and multiplication of multilingual electronic resources on the global information networks; Further invites the Director-General to report on the implementation of the abovementioned actions and to submit a draft recommendation on the promotion of multilingualism and universal access to cyberspace to the General Conference at its 31st session.