United Nations A/RES/56/183 General Assembly Distr.: General 31 January 2002 Fifty-sixth session Agenda item 95 (c) Resolution adopted by the General Assembly [on the report of the Second Committee (A/56/558/Add.3)] 56/183. World Summit on the Information Society The General Assembly, Recognizing the urgent need to harness the potential of knowledge and technology for promoting the goals of the United Nations Millennium Declaration 1 and to find effective and innovative ways to put this potential at the service of development for all, Recognizing also the pivotal role of the United Nations system in promoting development, in particular with respect to access to and transfer of technology, especially information and communication technologies and services, inter alia, through partnerships with all relevant stakeholders, Convinced of the need, at the highest political level, to marshal the global consensus and commitment required to promote the urgently needed access of all countries to information, knowledge and communication technologies for development so as to reap the full benefits of the information and communication technologies revolution, and to address the whole range of relevant issues related to the information society, through the development of a common vision and understanding of the information society and the adoption of a declaration and plan of action for implementation by Governments, international institutions and all sectors of civil society, Recalling the contributions to international consensus in this field achieved by the Millennium Declaration and the agreements reached at other international conferences and summits in recent years, Taking note of the action plan presented by the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union to the Administrative Committee on Coordination 2 for the holding of the World Summit on the Information Society and the creation, by the Administrative Committee on Coordination, of a high-level Summit organizing committee, chaired by the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union and consisting of the heads of United Nations bodies and _______________ 1 See resolution 55/2. The Administrative Committee on Coordination was renamed the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination pursuant to Economic and Social Council decision 2001/321 of 24 October 2001. 2 01 49183