February 16, 2022 live-streamed worldwide on UN Webcast
On February 16, 2022, OCCAM – Observatory on Digital Communication affiliated with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations – participated to the Third Committee Meeting with the Civil Society.
During the 76th Session, the Third Committee on Social, Humanitarian & Cultural Issues has approved more than 30 resolutions on questions related to the advancement of women, the protection of children, indigenous issues, the treatment of refugees, the promotion of fundamental freedoms through the elimination of racism and racial discrimination, and the right to self- determination. The Committee also addressed important social development enquiries such as issues related to youth, family, ageing, persons with disabilities, crime prevention, criminal justice, and international drug control. The meeting offered an opportunity for Member States and representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council to share thoughts and considerations on the Resolutions and outcomes of the 76th Session of the Third Committee.
During the gathering, OCCAM – Observatory on Digital Communication – has underlined the importance of identifying and discussing the current and future challenges not only related to research and studies but mostly operating on the ground in many rural villages in Africa and Latin America where the conditions of minorities, including women, children, and people with disabilities, must be necessarily improved. This enhancement could be reached through the application of Digital tools and Best Practices in the fields of telemedicine, maternal care, and e-learning so to provide job creation, food-security, and food exploitation. A good example of this application is what OCCAM did at the UN Millennium Village of Sambaina, in Madagascar, and what it is doing in several villages in East and West Sub-Saharan countries within the EU EWA-BELT Project.
In a world that is continuously and, in many cases, irreversibly changing leading to a greater digitalization in every field, understanding the direction of the digital transition processes is of the utmost importance. The Digital Revolution has provided great opportunities to the communities most in need to freely access technological innovations to communicate as well as to take advantage of the e-services oriented to solve their primary needs. But now that we have started to get to know these new virtual territories in which we have taken refuge from the risks of reality, we need to ask ourselves: are they safe and reliable?
Some ethical principal need to be granted in the Digital environment; among others, inclusiveness: young women, youth, indigenous people must have access to a digital setting that is free of discriminations and boundaries. These questions were also addressed during the 21st Edition of the Infopoverty World Conference with the title “Towards a fairer and more inclusive Digital Society” (December 3, 2021 on the UNWEBCAST) which outlined how such society is possible and in urgent need to be promoted. It also highlighted how the UN system must operate to guarantee a better virtual world, one that has become complementary to the real one, based on human rights, inclusion and honesty, principles that now seem to be lacking. Similarly, there is a need to clean the web to clean the world and regenerate the social life so to accelerate the achievement of the tasks brought forward by the Third Commission.
In this scenario, the representatives of different NGO affiliated to ECOSOC as well as State member functionaries convene on the necessity of involving the Civil Society in the meeting of the United Nations so to promote the exchange of best practices, opinions, and responsibilities. The UN have always played a key and historical role in assuring transparency in all its operating fields. Such responsibility must be renewed so to promote a new wind of change capable of creating a more inclusive and fairer Digital Society inspired by human rights and SDGs where nobody is left behind.
Rewatch online on UNWEBCAST here