Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Paris, 3 June 1996
N° 2

MPs START WORLD CONFERENCE ON CHALLENGES OF 21st CENTURY

The first "Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Education, Science, Culture and Communication on the Eve of the 21st Century" opened in Paris today, with the President of the Egyptian Parliament and Conference Chairman, Dr Ahmed Fathy Sorour, calling it the "starting point for a fresh dynamic in relations" between the conference's co-organizers -- the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the world organization of parliaments, and UNESCO.

The four-day conference, which will end on 6 June, aims at bringing world legislators together to identify the main challenges for the next century in education, science, culture and communication.

In opening the meeting in his capacity as President of the Inter-Parliamentary Council (IPU governing body), during an inaugural ceremony in the UNESCO building, Dr Sorour told the 185 parliamentarians from 75 countries present that it is only "through the meeting of minds that peace can be achieved. Culture, education and science are the driving force for such a meeting while communication is its ultimate vehicle."

"A challenging but noble mission was conferred upon UNESCO by its founders, that of working to spread culture and education for all with a view to justice, freedom and peace," he said, pledging that "in accomplishing that mission, it can count on the resolute support of parliamentarians who are political decision-makers, thinkers and citizens of the world."

The Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Federico Mayor, told the inaugural session that it was "UNESCO's mission, as an organization devoted to intellectual co-operation, to assist parliaments and parliamentarians. Yet to do so effectively, we must know your problems and concerns, know them as you see them," he said. "That is the purpose of this conference."

Calling poverty, exclusion, mass migrations, rural exodus, urban degradation and pollution today's main threats to peace and security, Mr Mayor said: "Today, the greatest danger is no longer that of nuclear explosions, but of social implosions: of societies collapsing into chaos and senseless violence." Dealing with these problems requires recognizing the fact "that the foundations of peace must be built upon democracy and development. It is in the great school of democracy that the lessons of tolerance and mutual respect are taught and learned," he said.

In his speech, the French Minister of Education, Mr François Bayrou, said that including education in the agenda of the Conference demonstrated that "education has become the major challenge of our societies". He said that education had to go beyond the mere transmission of knowledge and "form men and women for a citizens' democracy" and help people "learn to live together".

"What would be the point of transmitting knowledge without teaching the values which accompany such knowledge, of trying to improve people's lives without helping them give a meaning to life, of integrating the young into our societies without sewing the seeds of idealism?" Mr Bayrou asked.

The President of the French National Assembly, Mr Philippe Séguin, warned of the possibility that modern information technology could create "a communication society with two levels" -- one for the modern industrialized countries and the other for the developing countries which make up three-quarters of the world but only account for 5% of telephone lines.

"Let us make sure that these new tools will serve to help the least-developed countries leave their intellectual isolation by connecting their universities and laboratories to the world networks," he said. In this area, the role of parliamentarians is capital -- "it is up to them to make the choices in the field of education, but also to decide on how and where new technologies will be introduced."

The President of the French Senate, Mr René Monory, said that as a result of the information revolution, "parliamentarians have a new role to play: explain and imagine. Explain what is happening under our very eyes and imagine what is awaiting us down the road, in order to make our citizens players in this progress and not just passive observers."

Moreover, "new technologies must serve the values and principles to which we are attached. Information without frontiers can be a new chance for democracy, if we grasp it now", he said.

The Executive President of the French Inter-Parliamentary Group, Senator Claude Huriet, later told a press conference that all three topics, education, culture, and communication, were at the same time "a source of progress and a source of contradiction", and warned of the risk of the information highways imposing a "uniform culture" in the future if parliamentarians and decision-makers did not debate in depth these issues now.