RESOLUTION 99 (Rev. Guadalajara, 2010)

Status of Palestine in ITU

The Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (Guadalajara, 2010),

recalling

a) the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

b) Resolution 52/250 of the United Nations General Assembly, on the participation of Palestine in the work of the United Nations;

c) Resolutions 32 (Kyoto, 1994) and 125 (Rev. Guadalajara, 2010) of the Plenipotentiary Conference;

d) Resolution 18 (Rev. Hyderabad, 2010) of the World Telecommunication Development Conference;

e) that Nos 6 and 7 of Article 1 of the ITU Constitution provide " to promote the extension of the benefits of the new telecommunication technologies to all the world's inhabitants" and "to promote the use of telecommunication services with the objective of facilitating peaceful relations ",

considering

a) that the basic instruments of the Union have as a purpose to strengthen peace and security in the world by means of international cooperation and better understanding among peoples;

b) that, to achieve the above purpose, ITU needs to have a universal character,

considering further

a) the outcomes of both the Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005) phases of the World Summit on the Information Society;

b) the participation of Palestine in the Regional Radiocommunication Conference (Geneva, 2006), and the acceptance of Palestinian requirements in the digital broadcasting plan, subject to its notifying the ITU Secretary-General that it accepts the rights and commits to observe the obligations arising therefrom;

c) successive developments and changes in the information and communication technology sector under the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority, towards restructuring and liberalization of the sector and competition;

d) that Palestine is a member of the League of Arab States, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership;

e) that many, but not all, ITU Member States recognize Palestine as a State,

bearing in mind

the basic principles in the preamble to the Constitution,

resolves

that, pending any further change in the current status of Palestine as observer in ITU, the following shall apply:

1 the provisions of the Administrative Regulations, and related resolutions and recommendations, shall be applied to the Palestinian Authority in the same manner as they are applied to administrations as defined in No. 1002 of the Constitution, and the General Secretariat and the three Bureaux shall act accordingly, in particular in relation to international access code, call signs and the processing of frequency assignment notifications;

2 Palestine shall participate in all ITU conferences, assemblies and meetings and in treaty-making conferences with the following additional rights:

- the right to raise points of order;

- the right to co-sponsor proposals;

- the right to participate in debates;

- Palestine shall have the right to be included on the list of speakers under agenda items other than Palestinian and Middle East issues at any plenary or committee meeting of the above conferences, assemblies and meetings;

- the right of reply;

- Palestine shall have the right to attend the heads of delegation meeting;

- Palestine shall have the right to request the verbatim insertion of any declaration made during the course of the debate;

3 the Palestinian delegation shall be seated immediately after Member States;

4 Palestinian operating agencies, scientific or industrial organizations and financial and development institutions dealing with telecommunication matters may apply directly to the Secretary-General to participate in the activities of the Union as Sector Members or Associates, and said requests will be duly acted upon; notwithstanding the above, the provisions of Nos 28B and 28C of the Constitution (to the extent the provisions of the latter pertain to the adoption of questions and recommendations having policy or regulatory implications, and decisions relating to the working methods and procedures of the Sector concerned) shall not apply,

instructs the Secretary-General

1 to ensure the implementation of this resolution and all other resolutions adopted by plenipotentiary conferences on Palestine, particularly decisions relating to international access code and processing of frequency assignment notifications, and to report periodically to the Council on progress in these matters;

2 to coordinate activities of the three Sectors of the Union in accordance with resolves above in order to ensure maximum effectiveness of actions taken by the Union in favour of the Palestinian Authority and to report progress in these matters to the next session of the Council and the next plenipotentiary conference.