 |
STATEMENT
OF THE DELEGATION OF MOROCCO, DELIVERED BY MRS. SOUAD EL ALAOUI,
FIRST SECRETARY, ON BEHALF OF THE G-77 AND CHINA, ON AGENDA ITEM
ENTITLED 86: QUESTIONS RELATING TO INFORMATION (FOURTH COMMITTEE)
(New York,
27 October 2003) |
Mr. Chairman,
On behalf of the G-77 and China, allow me at the outset to congratulate Mr. Shashi
Tharoor, Under-Secretary General for Communication and Public information for
his comprehensive and enlightening introductory statement on the work carried
out by the Department of public Information during the last year.
We would like also to welcome the institution of a new DPI structure and operating
methods and congratulate the Under- Secretary General and his Staff for the tremendous
and invaluable efforts they have invested in this regard.
Mr. Chairman,
The ongoing reform of the Department of Public Information is a crucial and
necessary step towards the strengthening of the United Nations System. The
DPI, as the public voice of the U.N., should ensure a wider communication
of the UN activities, thus leading to the establishment of a real interactive
dialogue with the different actors in the world society. The restructuring
of the DPI and its new operating model should aim at making of the information
a real stimulus of reactions on the part of the world populations to the
UN decisions in order to ensure an active participation and involvement of
every single actor in the world society in carrying out these decisions.
In other terms, the effectiveness of the new DPI should be evaluated on the
basis of how much response to the UN decisions the information stimulus will
generate.
Therefore, the challenge ahead of the new DPI is not only to ensure a wider
outreach of the communication strategies but also their contribution in the
concretization of the UN goals and objectives.
The Secretary General underlined in his report that "at the core of
the renewed Department of Public Information is the new mission statement: "The
Department of Public Information's mission is to help fulfill the substantive
purposes of the United Nations by strategically communicating the activities
and concerns of the Organization to achieve the greatest public impact".
The DPI's new mission statement should therefore be viewed as a new reinforced
and action-oriented strategy of communication, which should be guided by
the priorities already fixed by the intergovernmental processes, in particular
the United Nations Millennium Declaration. It should be recalled in this
context that the latter has recognized that poverty eradication remains the
greatest challenge facing the world community today.
In this respect, the contribution of the DPI in building an effective global
strategy of partnership for a real and effective sustainable development
is of paramount importance.
Allow me in this context to highlight an important follow-up event to the
World Summit on Sustainable Development and the foreseeable role of the DPI
in this respect. Next year, the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)
will hold a review session to evaluate the progress made in the implementation
of the activities related to Water, Sanitation and Human settlement. These
issues will be further examined in 2005 in order to decide on the additional
measures to enhance their implementation. We believe that the DPI can play
a crucial role through the thematic communications campaigns with regard
to these vital issues.
Mr. Chairman,
The African Continent remains the mostly affected by the scourge of poverty,
famine, deadly diseases and armed conflicts. While welcoming the range of
activities undertaken by the DPI to enhance the UN activities in support
of the sustainable development of Africa, the DPI new strategy of communication
should contribute to ensure a significant and concrete response on the part
of all actors to the special needs of the African populations. A long-term
action-oriented strategy of communication is critically needed to ensure
the DPI's involvement on a regular basis in the international community's
joint efforts to alleviate the suffering of millions of people in this Continent.
Mr. Chairman,
The tragic evolution of the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
calls for a reinforced and permanent outreach strategy of communication with
the aim to stimulate strong action on the part of the international community
to put on track the peace process and to end the long lasting suffering of
the Palestinian people.
Dialogue among civilizations is more than ever a theme, which necessitates
special attention within the frame of the DPI's strategy of communication.
Mr. Chairman,
With regard to the restructuring of the United Nations information centers,
the Group would like to reiterate the importance of these centers for developing
countries, especially the least developing countries, as valuable sources
of information and means of communication and interaction with the host countries
which suffer from an acute shortage of the necessary infrastructure and human
resources to benefit from the new information and communication technologies.
We therefore believe that the foreseeable restructuring of the UN information
centers should be undertaken on a case by case basis and in due consultation
with the concerned countries.
Mr. Chairman,
Pending the bridging of the digital divide and the dissemination of the new
information technologies which will be the focus of deliberations at the World
Summit on information in its two phases to be held in Geneva and Tunis, the
G-77 and China would like to emphasize the importance of preserving and consolidating
the traditional means of communication such as radio broadcasting, which continue
to have an undeniable impact in remote areas particularly in developing countries.
Mr. Chairman,
The fulfillment of the DPI's new mission statement depends to a great extent
on ensuring the use of multilingualism in DPI's communication activities. Given
the linguistic diversity of the world's community, a wider outreach of DPI's
new communication strategies can only be realized through a balanced and equitable
use of the UN six official languages. We welcome the Secretariat endeavors
in this respect and hope that the financial constraints will not continue to
hinder the use of multilingualism as an indispensable step for the DPI to carry
out its new mission statement.
Mr. Chairman,
We believe that UN reform including the revision of the organizational structure
and the operating model of the DPI is a process, which should be continuously
enhanced and reinforced on the basis of performance measures in order to make
the work of the DPI a real contribution to the fulfillment of the UN goals
and objectives while ensuring the largest possible outreach of the communication
strategies.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.