Agreement Reached on Emergency Telecommunications Convention

Tampere, Finland, 18 June 1998 — Thirty-three countries today signed a new international convention that should greatly facilitate the use of telecommunications equipment in disaster relief and humanitarian aid operations.

The Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Relief and Mitigation was adopted this morning at the Tampere Hall international conference centre. The agreement to accept the treaty followed three days of deliberations and debate between the 225 delegates representing 75 countries who participated in the Intergovernmental Conference on Emergency Telecommunications (ICET 98).

The purpose of the high-level conference, which was held at the invitation of the Finnish government in Tampere, Finland, about 200km north of Helsinki, was to finalize and approve a new, legally binding international convention which would help facilitate the use of latest telecommunications equipment by humanitarian agencies and disaster response units in times of emergency.

The Conference was chaired by Ms Kirsti Lintonen, Under-Secretary of State for the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and, on the closing day, by Mr Pekka Haavisto, the Minister of Development and Cooperation of Finland.

After some minor tweaks, and occasional substantial redrafting to ensure the rights of states would be protected under the treaty, the delegates of ICET 98 agreed to accept the text of the Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations at the conference’s final session this morning, Thursday June 18.

The Tampere Convention will officially come into force under international law 30 days after an official ratification, or ‘consent to be bound’ has been received from required number of 30 nations. It will remain open for signature by other governments at the office of the United Nations in New York until 21 June, 2003.

The Convention is a legal instrument which empowers countries requesting external assistance following a natural or man-made disaster to waive normal licensing and importation provisions covering communications equipment such as mobile phones or radios. For humanitarian agencies such as the Red Cross, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, it represents a breakthrough which will permit the latest communications equipment to be deployed at the scene of a disaster without complicated legal entanglements and the lengthy delays these often entail.

"In emergency situations, telecommunications saves lives," said Dr Pekka Tarjanne,
Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, the UN specialized agency for telecommunications which, along with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has been a driving force in drafting and promoting the new Convention. "It is encouraging to see that many of the world’s nations have been quick to recognize the benefits today’s communications equipment can offer, and have chosen to lend their support to what, I believe, will be a great boon to humanitarian efforts all around the world."

"For the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and other organizations operating under the United Nations charter, the importance of the Tampere Convention is that it offers our NGO and implementing partners an instrument to facilitate the use of telecommunications when engaged in supporting our work," said Jay Rushby, Senior Telecommunications Officer with UNHCR in Geneva and a veteran field worker who has lent communications support to peace-keeping missions and refugee relief in regions ranging from the Sinai desert to the remote mountains of Afghanistan.

The drafting group which prepared the Convention was led by Professor Fred Cate, a specialist in the field of disaster response at the Indiana University School of Law. Articulate and urbane, Professor Cate worked hard throughout the conference to bring clarity to the text of the document and to quell national concerns about possible loss of rights of sovereignty.

"The Tampere Convention recognizes publicly that telecommunications are essential to dealing with disasters, not just because telecommunication infrastructure is most vulnerable to disasters, but also because reliable telecommunications are a critical underpinning of all disaster mitigation and relief efforts," he said.

"The Convention is a framework for managing requests for telecommunication assistance, for minimizing the impediments to that assistance before disasters occur, and for identifying and evaluating best practices, model agreements and other valuable resources currently in use by disaster mitigation organizations."

For further information about this news release, contact:

or consult the ICET 98 Web site at http://www.itu.int/icet