UNESCO

This year’s edition
of The State of
Broadband report
produced by ITU
and UNESCO’s
Broadband
Commission
was released on
21 September
2015 in Geneva
(Switzerland).
Dial 12385: New hotline for people with disabilities
in the People’s Republic of China
86
countries are in school. Faced with these
facts, UNESCO celebrates this Day to
advocate that access to information and
knowledge be provided to all people
with disabilities through the use of ICT.
By contributing to the implementation
of the UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities (2006), and of
the Sustainable Development Agenda,
the Organization requests Member States
to make every effort to create a world
which is inclusive, pluralistic, open,
participatory and knowledge-based.
The People’s Republic of China has more than 85 million people with disabilities. It was one of the first countries to ratify
the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In 2015, the UNESCO Office in Beijing helped increase the access
to information of people with disabilities by supporting the creation of a hotline to provide information on laws and policies
on their rights and available services for them. The hotline covers 291 prefectural-level cities, so it can potentially benefit
all 85 million people in this category. Customers dial 12385, and are connected to a call centre hosted in each city, which
provides information on policies and services available locally in addition to those available nationally. In Beijing alone,
the hotline had received more than 10,000 calls by November, demonstrating the high demand for such rights-based
information. UNESCO helped to develop the hotline’s knowledge database and a handbook for call centre personnel, who
are expected to provide information on education, employment, accessibility, social participation, services and welfare.
© China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF)
Broadband: a promising
development tool
Our technological societies require
broadband connectivity to bridge people
and communities, and provide access to
services. In February, the 11th Meeting
of the Broadband Commission for Digital
Development took place at UNESCO
Headquarters. Commissioners participated
in UNESCO’s flagship Mobile Learning Week,
co-organized this year with UN Women,
and in a Mobile Learning Week High-Level
Policy Forum on the theme ‘Leveraging
Technology to Empower Women and Girls’.
They interacted with ministers of education
and senior representatives of international
organizations to discuss the many uses of
mobile broadband for education.
Mobile phones, tablets and e-readers
with broadband connectivity could
prove to be the long-sought answer in
the global effort to bring high-quality
education to people everywhere,
especially in the world’s poorest and most
isolated communities. Encouragingly,
most progress has taken place in the
developing world, which has accounted
for 90 per cent of global net additions
for mobile cellular, and 82 per cent of
global net additions of new Internet
users since early 2010. International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) figures
show that mobile broadband is the
fastest-growing technology in human
history. The number of mobile phone
subscriptions now exceeds the world’s
total population of around 7 billion, and
active mobile broadband subscriptions
exceed 2.1 billion – three times higher
than the 700 million wired broadband
connections worldwide.