ITU/94-14
10 May 1994
Original: English
South Africa to resume its full rights in the International 
Telecommunication Union
The ITU Council adopted unanimously today a resolution authorizing the 
Government of National Unity of South Africa to resume its full 
participation in the conferences, meetings and activities of the Union with 
immediate effect. The Chairman of the Council, Mr Souleymane Mbaye 
(Senegal) informed the entire membership of the Union the same day.
The Council is the management body which meets once a year and acts on 
behalf of the Plenipotentiary Conference when the latter is not in session. 
The ITU Plenipotentiary Conferences had successively adopted resolutions in 
1973, 1982 and 1989 which excluded the Government of the Republic of South 
Africa from the Plenipotentiary Conference and from all other conferences 
and meetings of the Union. Resolution 12 adopted in 1989 by the Nice 
Plenipotentiary Conference - which was until today in force - had provided 
for the continued exclusion of the Government of the Republic of South 
Africa until the elimination of the apartheid policies. 
The most recent developments in South Africa culminating in the holding of 
the first free democratic elections last week, led the Council to consider 
that the apartheid policies had ended and hence to decide to repeal 
Resolution 12.
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