Declaration of 2020 as International Year of Sound

The International Commission for Acoustics has announced to its Member Societies and International Affiliates that an International Year of Sound will be held throughout the year 2020. It is hoped that the importance of sound in today’s world will reach every part of our planet in 2020. 

The International Commission for Acoustics has started preparations for the celebration of an International Year of Sound for the 2020 (IYS 2020). The IYS 2020 will have a similar format to international years sanctioned by UNESCO, with events centrally organized by an IYS 2020 Liaison Committee, events organized by the ICA National Societies and International Affiliates and possibly events organized by the Week of Sound (WoS). It was this French non-governmental organization which had the initiative to approach to convince UNESCO to approve the Resolution 39 C/49 25 September 2017 “THE IMPORTANCE OF SOUND IN TODAY’S WORLD” . The IYS 2020 will make reference to the necessity for promoting best practices in the framework of this resolution and we have already informed UNESCO about that.

In order to prepare the events of the IYS 2020 in the most efficient way, each of the ICA Members and International Affiliates have been asked to appoint one representative to be in direct contact with the ICA/IYS 2020 steering committee. The contact person will have the responsibility to communicate all the planned events by his/her organization to the ICA/IYS 2020 steering committee and also to convey and discuss with them any ideas or suggestions about the events and activities to be included in the IYS 2020.