4 Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER)
4 Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER)
Preamble
The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), meeting in Paris from 12 to 27 November 2019, at its 40th session,
Recalling that the Preamble of UNESCO’s Constitution affirms, “that the wide diffusion of culture, and the education of humanity for justice and liberty and peace are indispensable to the dignity of man and constitute a sacred duty which all the nations must fulfil in a spirit of mutual assistance and concern”,
Recognizing the important role of UNESCO in the field of information and communications technology (ICT) and in the implementation of the relevant decisions in this area adopted by the General Conference of that Organization,
Also recalling Article I of UNESCO’s Constitution, which assigns to UNESCO among other purposes that of recommending “such international agreements as may be necessary to promote the free flow of ideas by word and image”,
Affirming the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that all people have rights, duties and fundamental freedoms that include the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers (Article 19), as well as the right to education (Article 26), and the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts, and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits; and the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary, or artistic production of which one is the author (Article 27),
Also affirming the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples in formulating national legislation and implementing national policy,
Noting the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 24), which recognizes the rights of persons with disabilities to education, and the principles contained in the 1960 Convention against Discrimination in Education,
Referring to the recommendation adopted at the 32nd session of the General Conference of UNESCO in 2003 with regard to the promotion of multilingualism and universal access to information in cyberspace,
Also referring to the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel as well as the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which stresses that as part of academic and professional freedom teachers “should be given the essential role in the choice and the adaptation of teaching material, the selection of textbooks and the application of teaching methods”,
Reaffirming the importance of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which underlines that the “spread of information and communications technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the dig