We are in the information age. Information is now our most precious resource, limited only by the constraints of human intelligence, innovation and imagination.

However, like most resources, it is not shared equally. I would like to see full and free sharing of information and knowledge, across all sectors, disciplines and borders, guided by the shared values and universal language of human rights.

This would enable the progress, development and transformations necessary, in such fields as science, medicine and technology, to overcome our greatest challenges and make this world a better place for all.

All progress is accelerated through greater sharing – of ideas, resources, technology and wealth - and sharing is fostered through an appreciation of our interdependence and of how much we have in common.

In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted. The shared values and responsibilities it enshrines, detail not just the rights vital to human dignity and well-being, but the means by which we can overcome even the most daunting challenges of the 21st century.

The only way we can realistically create and adopt solutions to tackle the crises of climate change, food insecurity, and lack of access to healthcare, is by working together through inclusive and transparent means.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration includes the right "to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." In our lifetime, science and technology have transformed what the enjoyment of this right to information requires.

In 2007, less than one-fifth of the world's people had access to the Internet, meaning that the majority remain unable to exercise their fundamental right to information, resulting in deprivations of many other kinds.

Access is improving, however. While computer ownership remains very low in the world's least developed countries, penetration of mobile phones is increasing rapidly. In Africa, for example, mobile phone penetration is now at 37 per cent. By 2012, it is expected to climb to more than 60 per cent.

A significant proportion of the world's population is going to be able to take part in the global sharing of ideas and solutions by accessing email and knowledge-sharing platforms on their mobile phones.

To ensure the full realisation of human rights for all, each community's unique contributions are needed. Collaboration and knowledge sharing between communities, such as science, technology and medicine, is also essential, both within countries and beyond international borders.

A human rights framework improves policy coherence across sectors and disciplines. It is vital that governments do what they can to foster increased bridge-building and exchange of ideas.

Benefits will be seen throughout all sectors and in relation to all of our greatest challenges:

• The rapid transfer of green technologies to developing countries so that water distillation, solar-powered cooking, electricity generation, advances in battery technologies for more efficient and affordable electric cars, and many other sustainable development needs, can be adequately and equitably addressed.
• By protecting free thought and exchange, governments are more likely to retain their educated professionals, such as health workers that are now haemorrhaging from countries where they are so desperately needed.
• The cautious scepticism of the scientific community merged with the vision and activism of the human rights community is enabling the evolution of climate science into the concept of climate justice: recognising that global warming is caused by human behaviour in the developed part of the world, and impacts severely on the vulnerable life chances of those in poor countries who have not contributed to the problem. January saw the launch of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition, aimed at facilitating collaboration among scientific organisations on questions of human rights. It is no exaggeration to say that everyone stands to benefit from such a project.

Mary Robinson, president of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative