5.5 The Tampere Convention

The Purpose and Principles of the Tampere Convention

The Tampere Convention is the result of a long process, initiated by the First Conference on Emergency Telecommunications in Tampere, Finland, 1991, followed by discussions in and decisions by international Conferences of the International Telecommunication Union and the United Nations. The partners in international humanitarian assistance, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations, participated in this work through the Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications (WGET), convened by the United Nations, and subsequently legal experts drafted the final text of a Convention for adoption by the Intergovernmental Conference on Emergency Telecommunications (ICET-98) in Tampere, Finland, 1998.

• The Convention has the purpose of expediting and facilitating the use of emergency telecommunications within the framework of international humanitarian assistance.  Such telecommunication assistance can be provided as a direct assistance, provided to national institutions and / or directly to the population of region affected by a disaster, and / or as part of or in support of other disaster mitigation and relief activities.
• The Convention defines the status of the personnel of the various partners in international humanitarian assistance, including not only staff of government entities, international organizations, but also the volunteers of non-governmental organizations and other non-state entities, and defines their privileges and immunities.
• The Convention fully protects the interests of the States requesting and providing the assistance.  The host government retains the right to supervise the assistance.
• The Convention foresees the establishment of bilateral agreements between the provider(s) of assistance and the State requesting/receiving such assistance.  To avoid delay in the delivery of assistance, "best practices" will be codified into common implementing language.  The use of model agreements will allow the immediate application of the Tampere Convention in any sudden impact disaster.

The Contents of the Tampere Convention

As an international legal document, deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Tampere Convention has to follow a standard format. The document therefore contains 17 articles, of which 7 (Articles 2-9) contain the substance of the treaty, while the others contain the references to related documents and the required standard provisions.

• The Preamble of the Convention notes the essential role of telecommunications in humanitarian assistance and the need for its facilitation, and recalls the major legal instruments, such as the respective resolutions of United Nations and of the International Telecommunications Union, which prepared the way for the Tampere Convention.
• Article 1 defines the terms used in the Convention. Of particular significance are the definitions of non-governmental organizations and non-State entities, as the Tampere Convention is the first treaty of its kind, which attributes privileges and immunities to their personnel.
• Article 2 describes the operational coordination, to be carried out by the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator in cooperation with the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union.
• Article 3 defines the overall framework for the cooperation among States Parties and all partners in international humanitarian assistance, including non-State entities.
• Article 4 describes the procedures for request and provision of telecommunications assistance, specifically recognizing the right of a State Party to direct, control and coordinate assistance provided under this Convention within its territory.
• Article 5 defines the privileges, immunities, and facilities, to be provided by the Requesting State Party, again emphasizing that nothing in this Article shall prejudice rights and obligations pursuant to international agreements or international law.
• Articles 6, 7 and 8 define specific elements and aspects of the provision of telecommunication assistance, such as Termination of Assistance, Payment or Reimbursement of Costs or Fees, and establishment of a Telecommunications Assistance Inventory.
• Article 9 can be considered as the core element of the Tampere Convention, as the Removal of Regulatory Barriers has been the primary aim of the work towards this treaty since 1990.
• The remaining Articles, 10 to 17, contain the standard provisions concerning the relationship between the Convention and other international agreements, as well as dispute settlement, entry into force, amendments, reservations, and denunciation. They state that the Secretary-General of the United Nations is the depositary of the Convention and that the Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts of the Convention are equally authentic.