H.E "the artist" Mr. Faroq Housni, Minister of Culture, the sponsor of this event.
Dear guests,
The Heads of Arab Document Centers,
Dear attendants;
The Arab Club for Information "Arabcin" has the pleasure to hold this central celebration on Arab Document Day in Egypt, the center of civilization cultural and human creativity for the nation. "Arab Misr" that has always been a pioneer and forerunner in organizing and preserving Arab documents. It was in Egypt, that the first "Khan" was established in 1828 as an institution. It developed and extended to become today the National Document Center, which we are today honoring on the occasion of the Arab Document Day. And today, Egypt is rebuilding the Alexandria library which preserves some of the oldest Arab manuscripts. These manuscripts that allow the world to get a glance on the Arab civilization. A beacon for Arab culture, helping to activate the dialogue among civilizations and cultures in an age of conflicts and tensions. For the world is in great need of dialogue and understanding.
Dear attendants,
During the year 2002, Arabcin took the initiative step to mark the Arab Document Day. Most Arab organizations and document centers agreed to adopt this initiative, and a formal decision was taken by the Arab League of Education, Culture and Science Organization on the issue.
In 2001, a central celebration in Damascus marked the 1st anniversary. On this occasion, and on behalf of Arabcin, we thank Syria for hosting the headquarter of Arabcin. In addition to supporting and providing all the needed facilities for this Arab NGO. Today, we are celebrating this important event, the second anniversary in Cairo. For Egypt, which always host and support large Arab initiatives, is today hosting this event. Our colleagues in Egypt are playing an essential role at Arabcin, and the relevant document centers are sharing their experiences, helping to promote the work of Arabcin.
Starting from 16/10/2002 till this day, several important activities seminars and document exhibitions were held to mark the occasion in most Arab countries. We find that the celebrations marking the Arab Document Day is increasing and expanding, which shows that this initiative has come to fill a large gap in the Arab scientific and cultural life.
Dear attendants;
The main objective for specializing an Arab Document Day, is to bring to mind the importance of Arab Document. For a document is the main element that provides an accurate information on our history. It is the only true witness on the reality we are living. It is the active tool that is able to foresee future horizon. Document is also an instrument that helps to support Arab rights, and help to establish permanent and comprehensive peace and justice, based on international recommendations. The need to preserve documents is also an answer to the attempts of our enemies to infame our history and falsify it.
There are several international experiences in the field of documents that we have not made use of in the field of Arab cooperation at least, such as; "The Memory of the World" program, adopted by the UNESCO. This program aims at collecting all the Document Heritage to form a collective documented memory for the nations of the world. That is all document heritage that forms an important part of the cultural heritage in the world, and which draws a real picture of the historic, intellectual and scientific development of humanity, including discoveries and achievements.
This project aims at preserving the scientific documentary heritage through the use of the most updated techniques, and the right to make these documents available for all researchers. This can be achieved by digital archiving and homepages for documents on the internet. This will help to spread awareness on the importance of documents and human document heritage. The utmost importance of the program is that it aims at deepening dialogue, understanding and bringing together the nations of the world.
There is also another world scientific initiative not less important than the "World Memory" Program, namely the "Budapest for free exchange of Information. This initiative came as an answer to the UNESCO request, that lasted several years, for a free media and flow of information, and the right of all researchers to have free access to all updated researches. Most academics and researchers have agreed to publish their researches and contributions free of charge on the internet. This will for sure help to enhance the dialogue among civilizations and understanding among nations, eliminate economic boundaries and distribute knowledge between the well-developed, developed and underdeveloped countries.
It is worth noting that we have an important responsibility set before us, namely the preparatory process for the World Summit on the Information Society, to be held in Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005. For this we have two large challenges ahead of us : the first; to make the Arab Document qualified to enter the information society. Second; effectively contributing in passing on the Arab point of view on these two important events. For if we are to sit as observers, the summit might come out with conclusions that may contradict with our orients and principles. And our reaction will be unacceptable.
Due to all the above mentioned circumstances, and as a request to the need and necessity of developing Arab documents, and confronting all the challenges that we are facing, Arabcin has come up with two important large initiatives, that deserve to be supported and encouraged by all of us. The first: the establishment of a virtual Arab document center. This decision was taken by the executive bureau of Arabcin. The aim of the center is to publish archives of the Arab document on the internet. By this, we can participate in letting others know what is Arabcin, and serve researchers and all those who are interested according to their different specialization and interest. It also enables all document centers to publish their important documents on the virtual site of Arabcin, which will for sure increase the benefits. This project is in the process of implementation. We hope that all centers, institutions and researchers from the Arab countries cooperate with us to achieve this project.
The second initiative was the outcome of the seminar that Arabcin held under the title: "The Morals of the Information Society". This seminar was held on 16th - 17th October 2002 in Amman. It discussed a publication that Arabcin published, in addition to valuable lectures and reach creative dialogue. At the end, the seminar concluded to the following project: "Honor Declaration for a Moral Information Society". An Arabic committee was formed to discuss this project and activate the dialogue, by choosing the right step towards a real Arab participation in the "World Summit on the Information Society". The recommendations will be discussed during the meeting of the executive bureau to be held in Cairo, and a joint Arab plan will be formed for Arab participation to adopt the "Honor Declaration for a Moral Information Society".
Dear attendants,
Let our celebration today be a call to take needed measures to upgrade Arab document. For this will allow it to enter the Information Society. Let us preserve our documents, organize them and allow easy access to them. Let our celebration be a call to all Arab counterparts, to stimulate them to form Arab legislations for the document sector of each Arab country, to organize and preserve our documents, and find a way to coordinate among national laws and legislations at the Arab level. This will help to facilitate the easy flow of information and document copies among the Arab countries.
Let our celebration be a call to take interest in the spiritual value that Arab documents carry and help build the capacity of those working in the field of documents, help them to improve their career by providing document centers with the state of art techniques able to link Arab together. Thus, the document centers will for sure become a beacon of culture in front of the world.
Let our celebration today also be a call for Arab document centers to cooperate and coordinate in order to achieve several joint technical projects, the most important is the establishment of Arab document database wherever it may be available in the Arab world or abroad for all researchers to have access to.
Last but not least, let our celebration today also honor the national document center in Egypt, the eldest and most valuable document center in the Arab world, where documents are well preserved by a well experienced staff.
On this occasion also, let us stand in respect and honor of prof. Abdel Latif Ibrahim, who was and will always be an Arab pioneer due to his efforts, and work towards Arab document, and the many studies and researches on Arab documents which he provided us with. In addition to his achievement to establish the Arab archives institutions.
Dear attendants,
Allow me at the end to corely thank H.E Mr. Farouq Husni, Minister of Culture in Egypt for sponsoring this event, and the intellect and National document Center for hosting it.
I would also like to thank all heads of Arab Document Centers and cultural personnel who have participated in commemorating Arab Document Day.