The proposal that the UN should call a World Conference on Communication was one of the recommendations made by the global human rights forum "Vienna + 5", that took place in Ottawa, Canada, on June 22-24. This Conference would involve broad participation of civil society, and would aim to analyse and develop arguments for the right to communicate.
The human rights defenders that gathered to evalue the situation of human rights in the world, five years after the Vienna World Conference and 50 after the adoption of the Universal Declaration, also took up the initiative that came out of the Latin American Meeting on Human Rights and Communication (Quito, February 1998), to include the INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON COMMUNICATION AND CITIZENSHIP among the follow-up activities to Vienna + 5.
The human rights organizations in Ottawa requested that a specific space be created in this Forum (San Salvador, 9-11 September 98), to be able to develop proposals around the right to communicate as a human right and subsequently chanel them to the UN.
We adjoint the proposal on the UN World Conference on Communication, submitted by Latin America.
THE RIGHT TO COMMUNICATE
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"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 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights
Fifty years ago, in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the Right to Information was consecrated as a fundamental human right, which in later United Nations documents has been considered one of the central rights.
The Right to Information implies: at the individual level, the right to inform and be informed, freedom of opinion and expression, protection of privacy and free access to information; at the institutional level, the right to publish or emit information and opinions, free access to information sources and the right to professional secrecy and to reserve identity of sources; at the collective level, the right to free and balanced information flow, the right to reply and the preservation of cultural integrity.
The Right to Information results from a historical development that began with the recognition of the rights of media owners, then of those who are employed in these media, and finally, of all people. Half a century later, it is imperative to incorporate a more extensive right: the Right to Communicate.
The giddy development of new communication technologies, coupled with economic globalization, has transformed the contemporary world and, as a result, social processes of communication on a planetary scale. Never before has humanity had such potential to communicate, and yet this potential is diminished by the persistent imbalance in access to and distribution of even the most basic technology.
This has reached the point where countries are now referred to as "info rich" or "info poor". On the international scene, this means that the latter, which coincide with lower levels of development, have a further disadvantage. Meanwhile, in the realm of culture, the way in which the new communication resources are being managed is threatening the existence of many communities.
This new reality in the field of communication has direct consequences on peaceful co-existence and governance, both within nations and globally. Since the UN is called upon to deal with these issues, we urge it to convene a WORLD CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATION, involving broad participation of civil society, with the mandate to analyze the issues and argue for the recognition of the Right to Communicate.
