Qatar Attaches Great Importance to UN Documents Digitization
New York / information office / 06 November 2017/
The State of Qatar has said that it attaches great importance to the digitization of the old United Nations documents for over 70 years, considering that the United Nations is the only international organization that maintains all documents and records on issues of international peace and security as well as economic development and law, international humanitarian affairs, education, health and other important documents for all States and peoples. It stressed the need to preserve all the old United Nations and historical documents subject to damage.
This came in a statement delivered today by Ghanim bin Abdulrahman Al-Hudaifi, second secretary of Qatar's Permanent Mission to the United Nations before the Fifth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly at its 72nd session on the item on the "Pattern of Conferences.
Al-Hudaifi said the State of Qatar considered that the implementation of the digitization project of the United Nations documents has the advantage of preserving the institutional memory of the Organization, in addition to facilitating access to United Nations documents, not only as a major reference for Member States and the Secretariat, but to make these materials available to a wider audience using a variety of search tools, including the digital library, the index of speeches, voting records, the index of meeting proceedings and search guides in United Nations documents.
He noted the State of Qatar considers the United Nations the best platform for mobilizing international opinion to address the problems of the past, present and future. This has helped the United Nations acquire an institutional memory of Member States' input and views on the system-wide issues, he added.
He said that the State of Qatar commended the joint efforts of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management and the Department of Public Information aimed at increasing access to the historical United Nations documents through the Internet, which was an essential source of information, research and historical documents.
The State of Qatar initiated support for the digitization project and announced its commitment in 2013 to donate $ 5 million to the project, to be paid in a period of five years and an amount of $ 4 million had been deposited during the last period, Al-Hudaifi said . He added that the State of Qatar would continue its commitment to this project in order to provide a full documentary record in the Official Document System of the Organization and would also continue to support all vital activities and programs of the United Nations.
Concluding, expressed the hope that the digitization project would be realized and could be previewed by opening the new United Nations Digital Library web site within the Dag Hammarskjold Library, looking forward to the completion of this vital project in order to serve the Member States, researchers and all interested in the work of the United Nations around the world.(