UNESCO Holds Conference on the Internet and Free Expression, Privacy, Ethics

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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) will organize an international multi-stakeholder conference in March 2015 to discuss the first draft of the Comprehensive Study on Internet-related issues at its headquarters in Paris, France.  The conference titled “CONNECTing the Dots: Options for Future Action” is a  global event  likely to attract participants from governments, civil society, academia, private sector, the technical community, inter-governmental and international organizations as well as notable thought leaders, innovators and pioneers in the Internet Governance space.

The conference is part of UNESCO’s response in support of the decision taken by its 195 Member States in 2013 at the 37th session of UNESCO’s General Conference. Member States called for a comprehensive and consultative multi-stakeholder study on Internet-related issues within UNESCO’s fields of competence. The Member States said the UNESCO study will examine current and emerging internet-related trends, challenges and opportunities around access to information and knowledge, freedom of expression, privacy, and ethical dimensions of the information society. The conference will provide a multi-stakeholder platform to explore the findings of the study and to develop possible responses and options that could orient UNESCO’s future actions.

The broad reflections and recommendations that will emerge from the conference will also inform the work of the 196th session of UNESCO’s Executive Board during its April 2015 meetings. The final outcomes of the entire study process will be presented to the 38th session of UNESCO’s General Conference in November 2015.

More information is available at http://en.unesco.org/events/connecting-dots-options-future-action#sthash.hrwqTjCj.dpuf