Mr. Chair,
Distinguished Representatives of the DGC,
Delegates,
Italy would like to align itself to the Statement delivered by the European Union on behalf of its Member States and would like to add some additional remarks in its national capacity.
Italy is honored to serve again this year as board member of the Committee on Information and looks forward to constructively engaging with the Chair Ambassador Usman Jadoon of Pakistan and the other Board members, the distinguished colleagues from Latvia, Madagascar and El Salvador. I would also like to warmly welcome Haiti and Uganda as new members of the Committee.
The work of the DGC has probably never been as crucial as it has become today. Information manipulation and interference, including disinformation, still threaten the very fabric of our society, undermining our democracies, eroding citizens’ trust in the institutions, dividing communities, and jeopardizing the work of the UN itself. The integrity of our information system is compromised, and the consequences are dire. Against this backdrop, we must act decisively and collectively, particularly in this “election year” where almost half of the world population is expected to vote. This is why Italy stands ready to strengthen its support to the DGC’s and the Committee’s work, in the run-up to the Summit of the Future this September, and to work with our international partners to bolster the resilience of our societies.
In this context, we strongly commend the DGC’s efforts, under the leadership of the USG Fleming, to deliver before the Summit the first “Global Principles on Information Integrity”, calling for the responsibility of all stakeholders, including States, civil society, enterprises. We are particularly satisfied that the Principles address artificial intelligence, among other topics.
Artificial Intelligence, strengthening information integrity and countering disinformation are among the priorities of the current Italian Presidency of the G7. Moreover, at the national level, the Italian Government is working on a new framework on AI and by this way is willing to provide its contribution to an effective global governance. At the multilateral level, we are proactively engaging in the ongoing UN negotiations such as the ones for a Pact for the Future and the Global Digital Compact, and we have co-sponsored the recent GA resolution on AI for sustainable development. We are also proud that the Italian Professor Father Paolo Benanti has joined the new SG’s High-level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence as expert serving in his personal capacity.
Together, we must ensure that AI is addressed in an ethical, human-centric and inclusive manner that will decrease the gap in technological development.
To this end, we hope that the Resolution that we will be adopting at this CoI session will include, for the first time, explicit references to Artificial Intelligence and to the risks it poses to the global information environment.
Mr. Chair, distinguished representatives of the DGC,
We persist in supporting and valuing the DGC’s endeavors to disseminate information also in the non-official languages, and appreciate the work done by the UN Information Centre competent for Italy.
To conclude, we thank the G77 and China, in particular the delegation of Bangladesh as facilitator, for the zero draft of the resolutions under the item “Questions relating to information”. We trust that our negotiation process will be constructive and ambitious, thus allowing us to deliver a consensual text for the two annual resolutions that we are called to adopt.
Please count on Italy’s staunch support and engagement for another successful session of the Committee on Information.
Thank you.
