Council ends in record time

More than 341 participants representing the 48 Member States of Council, 31 Member State Observers, and 7 Sector Member Observers took part in this year’s Council session, which ended ahead of schedule (12 instead of 13 July). In a total of 13 meetings – 10 Plenary Meetings and 3 meetings of the Standing Committee on Administration and Management – the Council reviewed 78 input documents, including 21 contributions from Member States and adopted 19 formal key issues. This double issue of the Highlights concludes our coverage of Council 2012.

Council in Plenary ― 11 July
Responding to global challenges

Gearing up for WCIT-12

The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) will take place for 10 working days from 3-14 December 2012, in Dubai. The Council Working Group on WCIT, chaired by Alexander Kushtuev, has held eight preparatory meetings.

A letter from a group of civil society organizations addressed to the ITU Secretary-General had been submitted to the Council for information. In that letter, the organizations call for access to WCIT documents and release of all preparatory materials.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin (SPM) and Reinhard Scholl presented Document C12/31 (Rev.2) and highlighted the points on which Council decisions were needed.

In the light of general trends towards more transparent, open access to documentation, not only among United Nations organizations but also at the national level, the Council was to decide on the following point: considering the global scope and potential long-term impact on all stakeholders of topics under discussions during the WCIT preparatory process, and in order to facilitate a global dialogue on the matters under consideration, the Secretary-General invites Council to consider taking a more transparent and open stance on the ITR revision process and to authorize public access to subsequent revisions of CWG-WCIT12/TD-64. This would also help in addressing the extensive press speculation regarding the ITR review process and proposals made to CWG-WCIT-12, bearing in mind that the first version of CWG-WCIT12/TD-64 ― containing the compilation of proposals without reference to their source ― has already been made public by unauthorized means. Also, certain countries will conduct national consultations, during which some of the outputs of CWG-WCIT-12 will anyway be made public.

Secretary-General proposes online consultation

Considering the strong public interest in the revision of the ITRs, the Secretary-General is of the view that it would be appropriate to organize an online public consultation. Such an online consultation “open to all” would start in late July 2012 and be phased sporadically in the run up to WCIT. It is the Secretary- General’s opinion that conducting the consultation online will ensure that a maximum number of interested parties can engage, thereby creating a deeper and clearer understanding of ITU, the role of the ITU secretariat, the ITRs and the WCIT process. Key objectives would include further strengthening the credibility and reputation of ITU and the WCIT process, which have been victims of a series of inaccurate media reports in recent times.

The proposed online consultation could be organized by the ITU secretariat, be moderated, and be interactive. It would direct online communities to official ITU information. A publicly available CWG-WCIT12/TD-64 could form the basis for substantive aspects of the online consultation. The ITU secretariat would assist the moderator to conduct a well-managed, transparent online consultation with the ultimate purpose of providing the membership with a good indication of the concerns being expressed by non-ITU members, civil society stakeholders and others.

WCIT discussions

The Chairman of CWG-WCIT introduced his report. Several councillors took the floor to thank the group for its work. Several stressed that it was important that translated versions of the CWG-WCIT output document be available well before the conference. The ITU secretariat confirmed that all efforts were being made to have the translations available rapidly and expected that they would be published by the end of July 2012, prior to the statutory 3 August deadline.

Brazil introduced a proposal to establish a deadline of one month prior to WCIT for the submission of proposals from Member States, so as to allow sufficient time for translation and for Member States to study the proposals. It was agreed that a Council Decision to that effect could not be inconsistent with the provisions of Plenipotentiary Resolution 165. Consequently, Brazil offered to revise its proposal, coordinating with the ITU secretariat, so as to avoid any such inconsistencies. It was agreed that Brazil would present a revised proposal for approval by the Council on Thursday, 12 July.

The Secretary-General invited the Council to allow public access to Document CWG-WCIT/TD-64, to authorize him to conduct an open consultation on WCIT, and to reflect further on how to adapt ITU policies and practices to today’s needs, taking into account that many United Nations agencies have less restrictive access rules than does the ITU, and that the access policy is not defined in the basic texts: it is derived from practice, which differs between Sectors.

During the discussion that followed, the United Arab Emirates introduced its proposal that the Council authorize it to publish, on its website, all CWG-WCIT documents, but in particular CWG-WCIT/TD-64 and TD-62.

The Council then discussed the need to look at a policy on public access to documents, taking into account 3.8 of Document C12/31. Bruce Gracie of Canada suggested to lead an informal gathering of interested countries.

There followed a frank and lively discussion, in which there was general support for allowing public access to CWG-WCIT/TD-64, but different views were expressed on the proposed open consultation.

Following various proposals by the Chairman to find a compromise solution, it was finally agreed first, regarding access to documentation, that CWG-WCIT/TD-64 will be made publicly available on the ITU website without any password restriction. And second, that a publicly accessible webpage should be established on the ITU WCIT website where all stakeholders can express their views and opinions on the content of CWG-WCIT/TD-64 or any other matter related to WCIT. Input to the webpage will be closed one month prior to WCIT (3 November). All Member States are encouraged to give due consideration to these views and opinions in their preparation for the WCIT. In the light of this decision, the United Arab Emirates withdrew its previous proposal to publish WCIT documents.

Global Standards Symposium links with WTSA

Reinhard Scholl (TSB) presented an update of the Global Standards Symposium (GSS) and the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) as contained in Document C12/31(Rev.2).

The 2nd Global Standards Symposium will take place prior to WTSA-12 on 19 November. Ministers, regulators, heads of other international, regional and major national standards bodies, and industry leaders from all over the world will discuss global ICT standards challenges with a focus on the intersection of the ICT sector with other vertical sectors such as health care, utilities, and transport. The Chairman of the GSS will present the conclusions of the GSS to the first plenary meeting of WTSA.

During WTSA there will be three side events: e-health standards; ICT innovation in developing countries; and resilience of networks to natural disasters. There will also be the opportunity for Sector Members to showcase some of the new exciting products that are being produced to ITU-T standards. On 20 November there will be an academia session.

Council agreed that, in the light of Resolution 169 (Guadalajara, 2010) “Admission of academia, universities and their associated research establishments to participate in the work of the three Sectors of the Union”, and keeping in mind that academia are dealing with matters of interest for the WTSA, academia can be invited on a trial basis to attend WTSA as observers in a non-advisory capacity.

World Telecommunication Development Conference to be held in Egypt in 2014

The Council has decided that the World Telecommunication Development Conference will be held in Egypt from 31 March to 13 April 2014 following Egypt’s confirmation that it would host the event. At its session in 2011, the Council had proposed the timing for holding this event.

ITU received an offer from the Government of Egypt on 24 January 2012 expressing its interest to host WTDC-14, along with the WSIS+10 high-level event on the Overall Review of the Implementation of the Outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society. A site visit took place from 28 to 31 May 2012 to consider possible venues.

Yury Grin presented the “Report by the Director of BDT on the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2014” (Document C12/32) summarizing the actions taken so far to organize the event. The Council also approved the proposed draft agenda found in annex to this document.

Preparatory process

In order to prepare WTDC-14, BDT is tasked with the organization, within the financial limitations established by the Plenipotentiary Conference, of one regional development conference or preparatory meeting per region, making full use of the regional offices to facilitate such conferences or meetings.

Based on the dates that were submitted to the 2011 session of the Council, negotiations are also under way with a number of potential host countries that have expressed interest in hosting a regional preparatory meeting for their region.

Connect the World Initiative

The Council noted Document C12/34, presented by Karim Boussaid, reporting on the Connect the World initiative, launched in 2005 to help mobilize partners and resources needed to implement WTDC and WSIS outcomes. A series of regional summits brings together committed stakeholders to invest in ICT.

The first in the series, Connect Africa, was held in 2007. This was followed by Connect CIS in November 2009 and Connect Arab States Summit in March 2012. The Connect Americas Summit will be held from 17 to 19 July 2012 in Panama City, while negotiations are on-going with potential hosts for the Connect Summit for Asia and the Pacific, to be held in 2013. Document C12/34 was well received, with many countries expressing appreciation for these efforts.

TELECOM World 2011

The Council noted Document C12/13, presented by Blaise Judja-Sato (ITU Telecom), who reported on TELECOM World 2011 and outlined plans for 2012.

Mr Judja-Sato thanked Member States, especially those who set up national pavilions and/or took some sponsorship items; the United Arab Emirates government for its support towards the ITU Telecom 2012 event.

The Russian Federation, Japan, Mali, and Cameroon praised Telecom for the successful preparations and staging of the 2011 event. In addition to their support, the Russian Federation encouraged ITU Telecom to explore collaboration with the Moscow event. Japan asked about the Leadership Summit, and Mali about the Manifesto for Change.

Responding to a question from Tunisia about the potential risks of organizing Telecom at the same time as GITEX, Mr Judja-Sato said “we are confident that the unique pillars of our brand – responsibility, reach, relevance, and excellence – will ensure that we compete successfully. The different positioning of the two events presents more opportunities than threats for Telecom”.

France asked about the size of the financial results. Mr Judja-Sato responded that “while we are not satisfied by the results, we are encouraged by improvements from the last event. We are engaged in a transformation to regain pre-eminence and leadership. This transformation is a process and will take time and require innovation and determination. We are deliberately diversifying our revenue streams and working hard to achieve break-even”.

The Republic of Korea praised Telecom for the 2011 event and asked about measures taken to improve the financial situation. Thanking the Republic of Korea for being one of the first Member States to commit to participating in the ITU Telecom World 2012 event, Mr Judja-Sato explained that the Telecom secretariat is working on both optimizing its costs and generating new revenues. He concluded by inviting all participants to join ITU Telecom World 2012 in Dubai (14-18 October 2012).

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day

Doreen Bogdan (SPM) introduced Document C12/46, reporting on the celebration of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day in 2012 under the theme “Women and Girls in ICT”. She told councillors that the World Telecommunication and Information Society Award for 2012 had been presented to three eminent laureates: President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina; Sun Yafang, Chairman of Huawei; and Geena Davis, Founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

Argentina thanked ITU for recognizing their President, and congratulated the other two laureates.

At the Chairman’s suggestion, the Council noted Document C12/46 and reconfirmed the theme “ICTs and improving road safety” for World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2013.

Gender mainstreaming

Doreen Bogdan-Martin (SPM) then introduced Document C12/49, reporting on the implementation in 2011-2012 of Resolution 70 (Rev. Guadalajara, 2010) on “Gender mainstreaming in ITU, promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women through information and communication technologies”.

The resolution called for the promotion of the international Girls in ICT Day (celebrated on the fourth Thursday of April every year). The celebration in 2012 resulted in over 30 000 young women and teenage girls participating in more than 1300 events, organized in nearly 90 countries around the world, during which the girls and young women were directly empowered with a better understanding of the exciting opportunities in terms of careers and future jobs awaiting them in the ICT sector.

ITU organized its own global event in New York, where ITU Secretary-General Dr Touré seized the opportunity to launch a new global ITU-led campaign, “Tech Needs Girls”, which is designed to raise awareness worldwide of the many exciting opportunities open to girls and women in the field of ICT.

In order to ensure smooth and coordinated implementation of Resolution 70, the ITU Secretary-General decided to establish a Gender Task Force. The role of the task force is to propose ways to ensure that gender mainstreaming and the empowerment of women is underscored in policies and programmes, and fully integrated in ITU’s work and strategic plan.

Member States and Sector Members are called upon to make voluntary contributions to facilitate implementation of Resolution 70. A dedicated fund has been set up for this purpose. Council noted the report.

Council in Plenary – 12 July

ITU's Role in implementing the outcomes of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)

A new resolution notes with satisfaction the participation of ITU both in the preparatory process of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) and during the event itself.

Through this resolution which also notes “The Future We Want”, outcome document of the Rio+20 conference, a process will be initiated to further integrate the main principles of this document into ITU´s activities, advancing in the use of ICT to promote the integration of the economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainable development.

“The Future We Want”, reflects the renewal of political commitment towards advancing sustainable development and achieving poverty eradication. This Rio+20 outcome document recognizes that ICT are facilitating the flow of information between governments and the public, highlighting the need to continue working towards improved access to ICT, especially broadband networks and services.

Brazil’s consultations with Canada, Mexico and Saudi Arabia (see Issue No. 4 of the Council 2012 Highlights) led to the adoption of the resolution (DT/10), which includes a reference to the series of ITU symposia with focus on ICT, the environment and climate change. The new resolution also mentions the “Montreal Declaration” which had been directed to the participants of the Rio+20 Conference in order to obtain clear guidance on how to move the global green agenda forward through the use of ICT.

The new resolution instructs the Secretary-General, in collaboration with the Directors of the Bureaux, to present the outcomes of the Rio+20 Conference at relevant future ITU meetings and conferences; as well as share these outcomes with the membership and other relevant stakeholders of the telecommunication/ICT sector.

Council endorses the report of its Standing Committee on Administration and Management

Blanca Gonzalez, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Administration and Management, presented the report of the Committee in Document 84. The report, including its decisions and resolutions, was approved without modification. Councillors expressed their gratitude to Ms Gonzalez for her efficiency. The work of this Committee was reported on in Issue Nos. 2 and 3 of the Council 2012 Highlights.

Accessibility for people with disabilities, including age-related disabilities

ITU has made tremendous progress in response to Resolution 175 (Guadalajara, 2010) on “Telecommunication/information and communication technology accessibility for persons with disabilities, including age-related disabilities”. Presenting Document C12/76, Doreen Bogdan-Martin highlighted some of the key achievements:

• ITU has set up an Accessibility Task Force, chaired by the Deputy Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, to coordinate the implementation of Resolution 175.
• ITU has set up an Accessibility Fund for Digital Inclusion for persons with disabilities.
• Technical work on accessibility to ICT has progressed within ITU-T Study Groups 2 and 16, ITU-D Study Group 1 and ITU-R Study Group 6. Key milestones so far include a report on “Accessibility to broadcasting services for persons with disabilities” and the launch of the new ITU-T Focus Group on Audio-visual Media Accessibility (FG-AVA).
• Several Projects to promote accessibility to ICT have been implemented in a number of countries (Armenia, Ethiopia and Mali in 2011 and Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka in 2010). ITU has also shared best practices and provided capacity building on the e-Accessibility toolkit in a series of regional events. It has carried out a number of activities with external partners including with the World Standards Cooperation (WSC), as well as the G3ICT.
• The report “Making TV Accessible” was released in December 2011 on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Internally, ITU has continued to improve its facilities and provided accessibility features for technical meetings, events and workshops related to accessibility to ICT. The ITU Accessibility Task Force will work in the coming months to produce an ITU-wide accessibility policy.

Comments from the floor

Many countries led by Mexico, and backed by Canada, Argentina, Ghana and the United States, commended ITU for its work in this all-important area. Mexico and New Zealand chair the Group of Staten Friends of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Mexico said the group would invite ITU inputs on the role of ICT to improve the lives of persons living with disabilities. Meanwhile, Mexico is studying the possibility of contributing to the Accessibility Fund and encouraged all countries to do the same.

Canada highlighted the work conducted within ITU-T and echoed the invitation made to the entire ITU membership to contribute to the Fund. Argentina spoke of activities being conducted in the country within the plan “Connected Argentina”. These include several ambitious goals to improve access to ICT to all persons living in Argentina. The plan has a strong component on training and capacity building. Argentina invited ITU to look at the lessons learned from this initiative.

The Russian Federation underscored the need to continue working in improving the accessibility of ITU websites, putting more emphasis on the translation of content into the six official languages, and encouraging ITU to work closer with regional organizations and with ITU regional offices for best practice to be better shared among the ITU membership.

Ghana, noting that the high-level segment of the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2013 will focus on disabilities, requested ITU to share any further progress on the development on the ITU Accessibility Policy ahead of that meeting. This will enable the ITU membership to draw on the lessons learned from ITU and use this policy as a benchmark to develop their own policies.

Mr Zhao affirmed that the new ITU Accessibility Task Force would take on board all the comments. The Council then noted Document C12/76 and encouraged all countries to contribute to the ITU Accessibility Fund. “The document is a compilation of the work of the whole of ITU, and we encourage ITU to continue this great work and report back to us next year,” concluded the Chairman of the Council.

ITU’s 150th anniversary in 2015

Reaching 150 years is a significant milestone that gives ITU the opportunity to:

• Raise awareness for its outstanding record of universal cooperation in the field of telecommunications.
• Draw public attention and shine a positive spotlight on the organization during the celebration year.
• Reinforce and validate its mission and strategic goals.
• Honour the past, but also launch the future.
• Launch new initiatives.

These, and other ideas contained in Document C12/12 presented by Doreen Bogdan-Martin (SPM) were endorsed by the Council, which also instructed the Secretary-General to begin preparations for the Union’s 150th anniversary. Saudi Arabia requested, in addition to the Secretary-General’s actions, that all Member States begin to take actions to honour the celebration in 2015.

Facilitating the transition from IPv4 to IPv6

The “imminent exhaustion” of IPv4 addresses was considered in 2010 by the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference held in Guadalajara, Mexico. This conference adopted ITU’s first Plenipotentiary resolution on IPv6, Resolution 180 on “Facilitating the transition from IPv4 to IPv6”. Earlier decisions taken to ensure the stability, growth and development of the Internet include:

• Resolution 64 on “IP address allocation and encouraging the deployment of IPv6”, adopted by the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (Johannesburg, 2008), and which led Council 2009 to approve the establishment of an ITU IPv6 Group.
• Resolution 63 on “IP address allocation and encouraging the deployment of IPv6 in the developing countries”, adopted by the World Telecommunication Development Conference (Hyderabad, 2010).

The ITU IPv6 Group, the ITU-BDT and ITU-TSB have worked on issues related to Resolution 180. Mario Maniewicz (BDT) reported to the Council on the progress of the work carried out by ITU (Document C12/30). This document provides an overview of BDT activities in capacity building, including an update of the Project on “IPv6 Country Readiness Assessment and Capacity Building” to facilitate the deployment of IPv6 infrastructure in accordance with regional and national needs and training and workshops planned and organized on facilitating the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. Xiaoya Yang (TSB) informed the Council about the closure of the ITU IPv6 Group following the completion of its work (Document C12/62).

Councillors commended BDT for its “IPv6 Country Readiness Assessment and Capacity Building” project and training activities. They recommended cooperation between ITU and the Internet technical community. They also encouraged ITU to continue its efforts to contribute to IPv6 deployment, especially facilitating the transition in developing countries.

Follow-up to discussion on eventual review and revision of ITU document access policies

This informal gathering, led by Bruce Gracie, agreed that the mandate of this group is not to make decisions, nor to discuss the substance, nor to reach conclusions on any matter, but to exchange views and ideas on the complex issues associated with document access policy, and the rules governing the establishment of such a policy. It was also agreed that the exchange of views and ideas would provide background information to generate possible contributions to Council-13 and eventually PP-14 which would establish the policy direction for public access to documentation. It was noted that there is a link to future discussions on free online access to certain ITU documents. It was recognized that there is a need to review and compare access policies of other United Nations agencies. Interested countries were invited to work with Mr Gracie.

Strengthening ITU capabilities for electronic meetings and means to advance the work of the Union (Resolution 167) – Status report on implementation of action plan

The Council commended the efforts being made by the secretariat to expand its capabilities for remote participation, while noting that there is more progress to be made. Document C12/21 presented by A. Norsker (IS) was well received. It highlights the gains that have been achieved through the use of more efficient electronic working methods, and provides statistics on the number of remote participants in ITU
meetings. For example – WSIS Forum 2012 offered remote participation facilities in more than 100 sessions and with over 500 remote participants. It also provides information on multilingual remote participation, describes the improvements, technical upgrades, and training provided, at both headquarters and in Regional Offices in order to widely facilitate remote participation.

ITU is studying the impact of remote participation on existing rules of procedure. An ad-hoc working group including Member States will soon be established.

World Café – a first for ITU

A short summary of the outcome of the World Café on “Engendering Change” – the first event of its kind to be held in conjunction with a session of the Council – received the support of many councillors. Sweden, recalling discussions on gender equality at the Council two years ago, called on ITU to amend its staff rules and align its policies with those of other organizations in the UN family. “We note that there are still amendments necessary to the staff rules in order to grant all employees the same right,” the Swedish councillor said, adding that they looked forward to the report to the next Council on the steps taken to guarantee gender equality in ITU and its work on the implementation of Resolution 70 (Rev. Guadalajara). It was further requested that World Café events on gender be organized during WTSA, WCIT and other future events of the Union. The results of the event will be published as an information document.

In brief

• A schedule of future conferences, assemblies and meetings of the Union was approved for 2012-2015 (Document 39 (Rev.1)).
• Free online access will be provided to the Administrative Regulations on a trial basis.
• ITU’s role in the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society has been fine-tuned.
• Host country agreements have been signed with the United Arab Emirates for the ITU Telecom World 2012, WTSA-12 and WCIT-12 events later this year.

Closing

“Our Council session this year has been brilliantly chaired by Ahmet Cavusoglu from Turkey, who not only led the Council to a successful conclusion, but did so in record time,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré. He also congratulated Blanca Gonzalez, the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Administration and Management, and the Vice-Chairmen, Caroline Greenway from Australia and Petr Krasuski from Poland. “As a team, they finished the work of the Standing Committee well ahead of schedule.”

Listing the achievements (see statement), Dr Touré said “I am absolutely delighted that we have successfully embraced the true spirit of ITU: The spirit of agreement not discord; The spirit of consensus not contentiousness; The spirit of reconciliation, not antagonism; And the spirit of trust, not scepticism. This Council was an excellent demonstration of how we continue to build on our long and honourable history of working together, to facilitate technical and technological progress, with trust and faith in one another.” Dr Touré was joined by many councillors in thanking ITU staff for their dedication and hard work that contributed to the success.

Not an official document – For information only.>