The 2012 Paris OER Declaration was formally adopted at the 2012 World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress held at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from 20 – 22 June 2012.

Over 400 delegates including representatives of Government, educators, NGOs, and universities attended the Congress which was organized in full partnership with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and supported by a generous grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (USA).

The goals of the Congress were to:

• Release the 2012 Paris OER Declaration
• Showcase through an Open Seminar & Exhibition the world’s best practices in OER policies and initiatives and
• Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the 2002 UNESCO Forum that coined the term Open Educational Resources (OER).

The Congress was organized as an open multi-stakeholder event. Physical and remote participants were able to continually follow and participate in all sessions and directly contribute to the Paris OER Declaration via live-webstreaming or through Twitter and Identi.ca using the hashtag #oercongress.