The 2018 celebration of the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI), proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will take place on September 28 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Details of the event are yet to be finalized but UNESCO indicates that it will be a “Category 7” Seminar and workshop.
This year’s celebrations will be the third year of UNESCO marking September 28 as the “International Day for Universal Access to Information” since its General Conference proclaimed the Day by a resolution in 2015.
On November 17, 2015, UNESCO’s General Conference adopted resolution 38 C/70 declaring 28 September of every year as International Day for Universal Access to Information.
Last year, from September 27 to 30, UNESCO in partnership with the Information for All Programme (IFAP) hosted a Conference under the theme “Overcoming Divides and Achieving the SDGs in Africa” in Balaclava, Mauritius, in the second commemoration of the Day.
The event consisted of plenary sessions, workshops and technical sessions and brought together high-level participants from all of the 54 African countries including Presidents and Prime Ministers, Ministers for Information and Communication and Ambassadors to UNESCO.
Also, on September 28, 2017, the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) hosted the second whole-day event titled “IPDCtalks: Powering Sustainable Development with Access to Information” at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, to highlight and elaborate on the importance of Access to Information for all sustainable development efforts around the world. The event consisted of a series of talks from global public leaders, prominent journalists, young intellectuals and community leaders.
