1.
Takes note of the interim report of the Secretary-General
and the Director-General of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, entitled "Progress
towards the goal of education for all: the year 2000
Assessment";17
2.
Reaffirms that basic education for all is essential
for achieving the goals of eradicating poverty, reducing
child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving
gender equality and ensuring sustainable development,
peace and democracy;
3.
Acknowledges the efforts and the preparatory work
at national and regional levels for the year 2000
assessment of progress towards achieving the goals
of education for all in identifying both continuing
and emerging challenges, and stresses the need to
meet those challenges and to accelerate the efforts
to meet the basic needs of people of all age groups,
particularly girls and women;
4.
Appeals to all Governments to step up their efforts
to eradicate illiteracy and to direct education towards
the full development of the human personality and
to the strengthening of respect for all human rights
and fundamental freedoms;
5.
Also appeals to all Governments to redouble their
efforts to achieve their own goals of education for
all by setting firm targets and timetables, where
possible, including gender-specific education targets
and programmes to combat the illiteracy of women and
girls, and, by working in active partnership with
communities, associations, the media and development
agencies, to reach those targets;
6.
Appeals anew to Governments and to economic and financial
organizations and institutions, both national and
international, to lend greater financial and material
support to the efforts to increase literacy and achieve
education for all goals, through, inter alia, the
20/20 initiative, as appropriate;
7.
Invites Member States, the specialized agencies and
other organizations of the United Nations system as
well as relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations to further intensify their efforts to
effectively implement the World Declaration on Education
for All,18 the Amman Affirmation, the 1997 Hamburg
Declaration on Adult Learning and Agenda for the Future
of Adult Learning, and the relevant commitments and
recommendations to promote literacy contained in recent
major United Nations conferences and their five-year
reviews with a view to better coordinating their activities
and increasing their contribution to development;
8.
Welcomes the convening of the World Education Forum,
to be held in April 2000 in Senegal, with a view to
assessing the implementation of the Education for
All goals and adopting an agenda for education in
the twenty-first century;
9.
Requests the Secretary-General, in cooperation with
the Director-General of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization and Member States
and with other relevant organizations and bodies,
to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth
session, through the Economic and Social Council,
a proposal for a United Nations literacy decade, with
a draft plan of action and possible time-frame for
such a decade, on the basis of the outcomes of the
World Education Forum and the special session of the
General Assembly for the five-year review of the World
Summit for Social Development;
10.
Also requests the Secretary-General to bring the present
resolution to the attention of all Member States as
well as the relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations;
11.
Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its
fifty-sixth session the question of a United Nations
literacy decade.
Recalling that in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights13 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child14
the right of every individual to education is recognized
as inalienable,
