The 16th UNESCO Chairs Program in Cyberspace and Cyber Culture: Dual-Spacization of the World meeting was held in Iran Hall of the Faculty of World Studies, the University of Tehran, on Tuesday, November 28, 2017.
Dr. Younes Shokrkhah, Head of the Department of European Studies of the Faculty of World Studies spoke at the meeting. He reported on the World Summit on the Information Society in which he has attended since 2003 as a member of Iran WSIS.
He began his speech by discussing the two meetings of World Summit on the Information Society on December 10-11, 2003, in Geneva, and November 16-18, 2005, in Tunis. The Director of Iranian Association on Information Society Studies also introduced the 11 WSIS Action Lines according to the Geneva Plan of Action:
- The role of public governance authorities and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development
- Information and communication infrastructure
- Access to information and knowledge
- Capacity building
- Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs
- Enabling environment
- ICT Applications:
- E-government
- E-business
- E-learning
- E-health
- E-employment
- E-environment
- E-agriculture
- E-science
- Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content
- Media
- Ethical dimensions of the Information Society
- International and regional cooperation
Dr. Shokrkhah continued his speech by focusing on the main issues after the Tunis Summit and the role of UNESCO in this matter. Discussing the role and position of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), he said, “The Commission is a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council and its objective is to attend affairs related to science and technology and their applications in the development of related policies especially in developing countries.
Member of the UNESCO Chairs Program introduced the mission of the United Nations Group on the Information Society (UNGIS) as promoting the planning and policymaking in relation to the information society and to be the leader of information society affairs at the UN.
Dr. Shokrkhah concluded his speech by discussing the main trends after the two summits and focused on the similarities between the principal concerns of the 2003 and 2005 World Summits on the Information Society and the 2018 WSIS Forum.
At the end of the meeting, Dr. Saeid Reza Ameli, Director of the UNESCO Chairs Program, spoke about the meeting and said, “Countries must not underestimate international organizations because they ratify trends and finalize regulations at the UN which will be binding later on. Today, it is the international institutions that administer the world with their decisions. Attending these international summits is positively important.”
“We should try to be a primary decision-maker, not a follower. Iran enjoys a meaningful and effective independence and must be able to form alliances around its own ideologies. Dominative powers like the United States have claimed the internet as their own and have transformed their domination from the first world to the second one,” Dean of the Faculty of World Studies added.
The meeting was concluded by a Q&A session and presenting a Memorandum of Appreciation to Dr. Younes Shokrkhah by Dr. Saeid Reza Ameli.
