New York, 29 April 2019. Cuba attended today the 41st Session of the UN Committee on Information, where Ambassador Humberto Rivero Rosario highlighted that in the century of new information and communication technologies, it is regrettable that at least 750 million young people and adults – two-thirds of them women - still cannot read and write and 250 million children fail to achieve basic literacy training. For them, he emphasized, a computer is still a pipe-dream and hence the need to use traditional means of information, so that everyone has access to timely, balanced and accurate information and in the languages that each person understands.
The representative of the island also referred to the communication campaigns on eleven important issues discussed and promoted by the United Nations. He regretted, however, that issues such as disarmament, and in particular nuclear disarmament, vital for the survival of humanity, have not been considered among the priority campaigns of the organization.
Rivero Rosario drew attention to the still existing disparity between the use of English and the other five official languages of the UN, in terms of documentation and provision of services. He gave the example of press releases, which unfortunately are only published in French and English, relegating the other languages of the Organization to a second place. He recalled that Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world and the second most widely used in websites and other United Nations products, and he emphasized that the evident interest of Spanish-speaking peoples in the work of the United Nations demands an appropriate response from the Department of Global Communications.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations