I denne uge holder FN endnu en runde af diskussioner om, hvad der skal med i de såkaldte post-2015-mål. 195 NGOer opfordrer deltagerne til at finde en plads til frie medier og den frie adgang til information i de nye mål.
195 civil society organisations from around the world are calling on the United Nations (UN) to put government accountability and independent media at the centre of a new framework for global development.
The joint statement comes ahead of a meeting of the UN Open Working Group for Sustainable Development Goals, which takes place in New York this week – and will include further discussions on governance.
The UN is currently working to devise a global development agenda for after 2015, the target date for the Millennium Development Goals, which will set worldwide priorities for development in the coming decades.
In the statement – coordinated by ARTICLE 19 and the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) – organisations from 77 countries on all 5 continents say access to information and media freedom are vital elements for a future development plan. Systems that allow people to hold governments accountable are fundamental to achieving economic growth, social equality and environmental sustainability.
The joint statement, led by ARTICLE 19 and signed by 63 other IFEX members, follows:
Access to information and independent media are essential to United Nations Post-2015 Development Agenda
Human development in the coming decades will depend on people’s access to information. Ground-breaking new media and technology are enabling major expansion of economic, social and political progress.
We believe that freedom of expression and access to independent media are essential to democratic and economic development. Freedom of speech and the media are means to advance human development and are ends in their own right.
We, the undersigned, therefore call on the Open Working Group to fully integrate the governance recommendations of the UN High Level Panel of Eminent Persons Report (A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development) into the proposed Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, specifically in relation to its recommendations to:
- Establish a specific goal to “ensure good governance and effective institutions”
- Include as components of this goal a clause to “ensure people enjoy freedom of speech, association, peaceful protest and access to independent media and information” and to “guarantee the public’s right to information and access to government data”
Læs mere om Eighth session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals: http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?menu=1680
