Council 2010 wraps up having paved the way for the Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico 

The Council ended its work on 22 April having taken decisions that pave the way for the Plenipotentiary Conference, to be held in Guadalajara, Mexico, from 4 to 22 October 2010 (PP-10). In between plenipotentiary conferences that are held every four years, ITU is governed by the Council, which meets annually. The Council’s role is to consider broad telecommunication policy issues so that ITU’s activities and strategies fully respond to the dynamic world of information and communication technologies (ICT). In addition, the Council is responsible for the very important task of approving biennium budgets for ITU’s work and controlling finances and expenditure.

Now the Council’s work of the past four years is almost complete - some of its working groups will meet again in June 2010. The Council will be reporting on these years and proposing new strategies for the Union’s future to PP-10. So, Council 2010 (13-22 April) had a particularly heavy agenda, putting final touches to its preparations. It held 10 plenary meetings, as well as 6 meetings in the Standing Committee on Administration and Finance (ADM)^* and considered 68 documents, including 26 contributions from Member States.
 
In his closing statement ITU Secretary-General, Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, paid tribute to the Chairman of the 2010 session of the Council, Mr  N. Jha, Deputy Director General of India’s Department of Telecommunications. “I am very pleased that we have managed to complete this agenda and that we have achieved this in a cordial, friendly spirit throughout our discussions,” Dr Touré said. “We were honoured to have with us for this Council some ministers, deputy ministers, and ambassadors,” he commented. The Council was attended by 330 participants from its 46 Member States, along with 36 Member State Observers, and 4 Sector Member Observers.
 
Presenting Mr Jha with the ITU Silver Medal and certificate in recognition of his outstanding leadership, Dr Touré said: “You have steered our discussions with skill and ability”. All delegations, who took the floor extended their gratitude to Mr Jha for his skills and tact in bringing the Council to a successful conclusion on many key issues. 
 
Underlining some of the achievements, Dr Touré highlighted: the decision to continue the work of the Council Working Group for the elaboration of the draft Strategic Plan and the draft Financial Plan for 2012-2015; the agreement to hold the World Conference on International Telecommunications in November 2012 (WCIT-12) back-to-back with the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly 2012 (WTSA-12); agreement on ITU’s role in ICT and improving road safety; the provisional approval of a cooperation agreement between ITU and CERN; and the principles agreed upon for the future of ITU Telecom events (see full speech). The following is a summary of the conclusions reached by the Council on its final day.

 
Cooperation agreement between ITU and the European Organization for Nuclear Research
The Council has provisionally approved a draft cooperation agreement between ITU and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). It has also adopted a decision to this effect (see Decision 557, Document C10/86 when it becomes available).
 
Presenting the draft agreement in Document C10/76, Arnaud Guillot, Head of the Legal Affairs Unit, said that recent discussions between ITU and CERN had resulted in a consensus on the usefulness to establish a framework for structured relations. The provisionally approved agreement will now be sent to the Plenipotentiary Conference for review and final approval.

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN

The agreement will constitute the legal framework within which the two organizations will develop, on the basis of reciprocity, cooperation in fields which are in line with their mandates. It will also ease the carrying out of joint initiatives of mutual interest, which are expected to cover, in the not-too-distant future,  such areas as citizen cyberscience; extension of broadband communication systems to developing countries; training in “digital library” in these countries; and cybersecurity.
 
The cooperation agreement was drafted following a visit by ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré to CERN’s Director-General, Professor Rolf Heuer in February 2010. Both ITU and CERN secretariats then embarked on negotiations and jointly drafted a cooperation agreement for approval by their executive bodies.
 
In a letter dated 9 April 2010, Professor Heuer informed Dr Touré that the CERN Council, in its session of March 2010, authorized CERN to sign this cooperation agreement with ITU.
 
Professor Heuer described these developments as a milestone in CERN's policy to strengthen and make permanent the relations with its partner international organizations. “ I'm very pleased that the CERN Council also accepted my proposal to use the agreement with ITU as the model for similar agreements with other international organizations, ” he stated in his letter.
 
The Council congratulated the Secretary-General for this initiative, saying that there are clear benefits for ITU to be associated with organizations such as CERN. Some of these benefits are noted in the draft agreement. For example, while remaining within their areas of competence, ITU and CERN will “consider the possibility of preparing joint studies and publications on subjects of common interest”.
 
In addition, ITU and CERN “shall provide each other with information about the conferences, assemblies, meetings, symposia, forums, seminars and other workshops they are called upon to organize in fields of mutual interests. Subject to the relevant provisions of their respective rules, they shall invite each other to attend these events under conditions to be agreed upon in advance”. The Council noted that Member States also see the opportunities for their own participation in the activities of CERN.
 
In terms of funding, the draft agreement says that “appropriate sources of financing shall be sought by the Parties for those of the activities covered by the provisions of this agreement which they agree to carry out jointly in accordance with agreed plans and schedules drawn up for each activity; it is understood between them that no such activity shall be implemented until it has been fully funded”. In the case of ITU, all matters of budget and financing of activities will be reviewed by the Council.

 
Shaping the future of ITU Telecom events

• A global event taking place in a fixed venue [the seat of ITU] every 2 years.
  
  
• A global event taking place in another venue in the years when the event is not held in the fixed venue.”  

1. TELECOM events should be held annually, and be financially profitable

2. There will be a fixed location where Telecom events will be held every two years, and in keeping with the principle of geographic rotation at an alternate location every two years, through a competitive bidding process

3. The secretariat will develop a model host country agreement to be approved by the Council.”

 
Conclusion
The Council noted the proposed amendments to Resolution 11 (see Document C10/DT/7 Rev.1)). It agreed on the three principles outlined by the Chairman. It also noted that in planning ITU Telecom events, the Secretary-General and the Directors of the Bureaux should give due consideration to possible synergies with other major ITU and non-ITU global, regional and national conferences and meetings. The proposed amendments to Resolution 11 will be transmitted to the Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara for a decision.

 
ITU’s role in ICT and improving road safety
The Council approved a resolution on ITU’s role in ICT and improving road safety, originally contributed by the United States and discussed in Plenary on 21 April (see Issue No. 6 of the Highlights).  This new resolution was presented in Plenary on 22 April as Document C10/63 (Rev.1).  Now renumbered as Resolution 1318 C10/87, it highlights recent developments to improve road safety around the world. It takes into account Resolution A/RES/64/255 adopted in March 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly on improving global road safety. The Assembly proclaimed the period 2011-2020 as the “Decade of Action for Road Safety”. It also notes that the United Nations, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), has previously established the “United Nations Road Safety Collaboration” (UNRSC) to address the ever-growing number of road traffic deaths and injuries around the world.
 

Another development cited in the new resolution is that the UN Secretary-General has issued a UNRSC report on “Improving global road safety” (A/64/266). This report puts the number of road traffic deaths to nearly 1.3 million and injuries to between 20 and 50 million per year. In addition, it estimates at USD 518 billion the global economic loss suffered by governments and individuals from those injuries. UNRSC is now developing a draft action plan for the decade. The plan addresses road safety management, road-user behaviour and road-safety education. Driver distraction and road-user behaviour include “texting”, “text messaging” and interfacing with in-vehicle navigation or communication systems. These are cited among the leading contributors to road traffic fatalities and injuries.
 
The new resolution also says that the proliferation of integrated in-vehicle ICT and nomadic devices (including navigational information and electronic data communication devices) may contribute to driver distraction. But it also notes that other ICT, including intelligent transport systems (ITS), provide mechanisms for vehicular and passenger safety. It recognizes that these technologies have been the subject of ITU’s workshop known as the “Fully Networked Car @ Geneva International Motor Show”. In addition, ITU has on-going work in its Sectors, including the ITU-T Focus Group on Car Communications (FG CarCom), which has been identified as an appropriate place to address driver distraction. Finally, the resolution recognizes that the successful implementation of this task, including the development of an in-vehicle architecture and Vehicle Gateway Platform (VGP), requires cross-sectoral collaboration within ITU and among the World Standards Cooperation (WSC) partners.
 
As stipulated in the new resolution, the theme of “driver distraction” will be included among the themes to be addressed at the WSIS Forum 2011. It will also be considered as a theme for the “2012 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day”. All ITU Member States are invited to take practical steps to promote national and domestic policies, programmes and/or educational initiatives to increase awareness of the safety risks associated with unreasonable use of ICT and driver distraction. At the same time, they should promote the benefits of ICT and vehicular safety technologies to help improve global road safety. The Council also instructs the Director of TSB to bring the new Resolution 1318 C10/87 to the attention of relevant groups in ITU-T, in particular ITU-T Study Group 12 and its Focus Group on Car Communication.

Membership issues
The Council reviewed and adopted proposals in Documents C10/37, C10/38 and C10/39 Rev.1. It also confirmed the measures taken by the Secretary-General regarding the admission of three "other entities" as Sector Members in ITU-D. It granted exemptions of financial contributions to five organizations of an international character, which will participate as Sector Members in ITU-T and ITU-D. In addition, the Council decided that all exemptions granted to date by the various sessions of the Council should be submitted to the Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara, in accordance with the procedure adopted by its session in 2000.  The Secretary-General stressed the importance of exploring new ways of attracting membership to broaden and strengthen the Union. He requested that the Council make proposals on this issue and submit them for discussion at PP-10.

 
Obsolete resolutions and decisions of the Council
At each ordinary session of the Council, a list of Resolutions and Decisions that are obsolete are presented for review and abrogation. The Council approved the list of Resolutions and Decisions contained in Document C10/11. These have now been abrogated and will thus be removed from the Volume of Council Resolutions and Decisions. The document was presented by Marie-Odile Beau, Head of the Membership Division.

 
Activities of the Union for the period 2007-2010 (Part 4 of Document C10/35)
During the Plenary on 22 April, the Council was requested to approve Part 4 of its report on the activities of the Union for 2007-2010 contained in Document C10/35. As reported in Issue No. 1 of the Highlights, the Council had considered this document, presented by Deputy Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. The Council had approved Parts 1, 2 and 3, subject to revision as appropriate in the light of further deliberations during this session, as well as likely additional input from some of its working groups that were still to meet in June 2010. In addition, the Council had agreed to note Part 5 of the report, requesting that this be published as a separate document for Council 2010. Recalling this chain of events, Mr Zhao requested that the Council now approve its full report. It was so agreed and the Chairman of the Council was tasked to finalize Document C10/35, with the assistance of the secretariat, in accordance with past practice.

Dates and agenda for the World Conference on International Telecommunications in 2012
As reported in Issue No.5 of the Highlights, the Council had set up a drafting group to prepare a  resolution fixing the dates and agenda for the World Conference on International Telecommunications in 2012 (WCIT-12).  The group was chaired by Dr Alexander Kushtuev, who is also Chairman of the Council Working Group on WCIT-12. Dr Kushtuev presented the draft resolution in Document C10/DT/6 (later revised as Document C10/DT/6(Rev.1)). Following some discussion and revisions of the text, the Council approved an amended resolution fixing the dates and agenda for this conference. It says that in line with Resolution 146 (Antalya, 2006), WCIT-12 will be held in Geneva in the period 5-30 November 2012, following the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly. This Resolution will be renumbered as Resolution 1317 C10/84).
 
 
Submission of documents to Council
The Council has decided that all contributions to its sessions should be submitted no later than twenty one calendar days before the opening of a session. The decision was taken following presentation of Document DT/5 from the drafting group chaired by Canada’s Bruce Gracie (see Issue No. 3 of the Highlights). This decision will be published as Decision 556 (Document C10/85).

Meet the laureates of the 2010 ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award

In his closing statement to the Council, Dr Touré announced three eminent winners of the 2010 ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak was recognized for making connectivity one of his priorities. In particular, he has made strengthening ICT infrastructure a top priority. His administration is contributing to making cyberspace a safer place for users everywhere. It is supporting ITU’s work in strengthening global cybersecurity through the IMPACT Centre in Cyberjaya.

China Mobile’s Executive Director, Chairman and CEO, Wang Jianzhou, is connecting the world via mobile phones. Mr Wang runs a company that operates the world’s largest mobile network, with over 500 million subscribers today. The China Mobile network covers all major cities in China, as well as rural and remote areas.

Dr Robert Kahn, President and CEO of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), “played a key pioneering role in the development of the Internet. He laid the foundations of the TCP/IP protocol architecture, which is a standard operating feature of the Internet. CNRI is a non-profit organization that focuses on the strategic development of network-based information technologies and Kahn has continued to nurture the evolution of the Internet, steering the development of new standards,” as announced in the Press release of 23 April 2010.

The three laureates will be honoured during a global ceremony, to be organized in conjunction with World Expo 2010 in Shanghai to mark the 145th anniversary of ITU (see Issue No. 6 of the Highlights).

* The Standing Committee on Administration and Management (ADM) held 6 meetings and the conclusions of its work, along with a set of recommendations, were presented by its Chairman Reynaldo C. González Bustamante to the Plenary on 22 April. These conclusions will be brought to you under separate cover.