Our Common Humanity in the Information Age. Principles and Values for Development

CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION

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1 
OVERVIEW 
Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General, Department of Public 
Information, United Nations
The topic of this book is “social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,” 
to use the noble words of the preamble to the United Nations Charter. The book is
organized around the six core values that form the basis of the Millennium Declaration, 
adopted by world leaders at the Millennium Summit in 2000.
These six core values are freedom, solidarity, equality, tolerance, respect for nature and 
our shared responsibility, and each will serve as the basis for a chapter.
More than forty years ago, in 1962, then-Secretary-General U Thant warned that an 
explosion of violence could occur as a result of the sense of injustice felt by those living 
in poverty and despair, in a world of plenty.
Today, both the risk and the potential for a solution have increased. Information 
technologies bring to our living rooms, and even our breakfast tables, glimpses of events 
from every corner of the globe. More people, in more places, know what is possible, and 
what is possible for each and every person has expanded almost exponentially.
Information technologies can help us to overcome the obstacles to development caused 
by isolation and by lack of information. Or they can contribute to a world where the rich 
get richer, while the poor and the disenfranchised fall further behind.
If we are to ensure that the noble aims of the Millennium Declaration are to be met, and 
that the tools we now have at our disposal are put to best use, we must think clearly, work 
cooperatively and build creative partnerships with civil society and the private sector. 
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In the introductory chapter, “Our Common Humanity in the Information Age”, Professor 
Jeffrey Sachs covers the whole spectrum of issues, challenges and solutions in the area. 
“Millennium Development Goals Partnerships” by H.E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa 
looks at the issues from the United Nations perspective, whereas in “ECOSOC’s Role in 

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2 | Our Common Humanity in the Information Age 
Our Common Humanity in the Information Age”, H. E. Ambassador Ali Hachani looks at 
the role of ECOSOC in dealing with the Millennium Declaration and MDGs.
In “Technology and Humanity”, Louise T. Blouin Mac Bain explains the pros and cons 
of a connected world. “Combating Human Trafficking and Slavery” by Julia Ormond 
addresses the difficult and in most times invisible problem of slavery as it continues in 
the modern world. In “Digital Divide & Our Common Humanity”, Katherine Sierra 
addresses the need to increase the accessibility of developing countries to end the digital 
divide.