We must pay tribute to Secretary-General Kofi Annan and recently Dr Brundtland for their pronouncements on the need for free and uncontrolled access to information and the importance of knowledge. There should be more action from the UN agencies to implement this copyleft policies 1. With information on our side, with knowledge a potential for all, the path to poverty can be reversed. Knowledge is power. Information is liberating.
Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.
We at the United Nations are convinced that information is a great democratizing power waiting to be harnessed to our global struggle for peace and development. We believe this because we are convinced that it is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes enemies of men. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes fighters of children. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that leads some to advocate tyranny over democracy. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes some think that human misery is inevitable.