Page 11 - DIVA_1_2021

for humane treatment; ensure refugee rights in
countries of asylum; and protect them against
enforced return to danger. In 2000, UNHCR is
assisting 30 million people of concern.

The UN must also deliver a strong response to
today’s large-scale natural disasters. If the news
bulletins seem grim, they are merely reflecting
a reality: three times as many natural disasters
occurred in the 1990s as during the 1960s.
The Geneva-based International Strategy for
Disaster Reduction must therefore fulfil its
st
mandate: “A safer world in the 21 century.”
The World Meteorological Organization
(WMO) is increasingly under pressure to
buttress prevention strategies by gathering
and disseminating early-warning data on
dangerous weather patterns using satellite
technology and Internet.
The World Health Organization (WHO) will
continue its remarkable work in extending
healthcare to all. It will surely see off polio together thousands of IT experts, including
from our list of concerns, and leprosy too. Bill Gates. Almost a victim of its own success,
Just as it eradicated smallpox in the 1970s, Geneva’s hotels were so overbooked that
WHO may well find the cure for that most executives were making day trips from as far
indiscriminate and devastating public health away as London. Telecom 2003 thus promises
phenomenon: AIDS. us a vision of the cutting edge; in fact, ITU’s
presence in Geneva is so important that many
Perhaps it is the boom in information IT companies are moving here. It would not be
technology and the spread of Internet that fanciful to project that a future Silicon Valley
will most assure Geneva’s global position in may one day stretch along Geneva’s famous
the future. One of the most important stories Lake shore.
of the twentieth century is the impact of
computer and communications technology I would like to conclude my tour d’horizon
on the way we live, work and play. Individual with the following observations. Geneva is set
empowerment has been one result of the IT to meet the challenges of the next century head
revolution, radically altering our perceptions on. As a source of knowledge, innovator and
and expectations. Interactive communications nerve centre for promoting all aspects of human
allow us to span vast distances and to control security, its impact will be far-reaching. •
aspects of our lives that were previously
controlled by powerful institutions like December 2000
governments, corporations and the news
media. These changes will gather more
momentum in the new century and at the heart
of it all, the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU) will both continue its pioneering
work and help close the digital divide between
the North and South.

Every four years at Geneva, the ITU organizes
“Telecom,” the world’s largest fair for state-
of-the art technology. Telecom 99 gathered

w w w. d i va i n t e r n at i o n a l . c h