Internet names:
a matter for both government and private sector
The Working Group of the Plenary approved a resolution on the management of
internationalized multilingual domain names. This resolution aims at helping
promote the role of Member States in the
internationalization of domain names and addresses of their respective
languages. This will be increasingly important in the coming years as a majority
of Internet users is expected to prefer to conduct online activities in their
own language. It is also important because the current Domain Names System
(DNS) mapping does not reflect the growing language needs of all. The resolution
stresses that the registration and allocation of Internet domain names and
addresses should reflect the geographical and functional nature of the Internet
with an equitable balance of interests of all stakeholders. It also emphasizes
that the non-discriminatory access to Internet domain names and addresses, and
more generally to the Internet, should be available to all citizens and that the
management of Internet Domain Names and addresses is of concern to both
governments and the private sector. It also reiterates the need to fully
maintain country code numbering plans and addresses as in ITU-T recommendation
E.164 which defines the international public telecommunication numbering plan.
Under this resolution, ITU will be providing assistance to its Member States to
promote the use of their languages for domain names and addresses and will
cooperate with the World Intellectual Property Organization whose role includes
protection against misuse of intellectual property rights in the use of
countries’ languages for domain names and addresses.
Secret Ballot Resolves Impasse on Amount of Contributory Unit
The Conference set CHF 330 000 as the definitive upper limit of the amount of
the contributory unit, based on a 3-part proposal from France. The decision was taken
by a secret ballot vote (for results, click here) as no consensus could be reached.
The French proposal offered a package according to which the the definitive
upper limit of the amount of the contributory unit would be set at CHF 330 000
in accordance with Provision
161E and a decision would be adopted to instruct the Council that when
determining the budget for 2004-2005, the contributory unit should not exceed
CHF 315 000 and the Secretary-General would so inform the membership.
The upper limit of the contributory unit for the biennium 2006-2007 would be CHF 330 000.
The United States proposal was to maintain the level of the
contributory unit at CHF 315 000.
Following the outcome of the vote, the Secretary-General will invite Member
States to announce by Tuesday, 15 October 2002 (18h00, Marrakesh time) their
definitive class of contribution.
While all countries that took the floor agreed to continue to look for
efficiencies to put the Union on a sound financial base, those supporting the
French compromise proposal stressed that the CHF 315 000 was not realistic. As
one delegation put it: "We all want activities to be maintained at high
level yet, at the same time, we are facing a financial crunch." Another
added: "Do we want to carry out activities that help humanity or do we
simply want to make savings"? Others stressed that given the downturn in
the telecommunication sector, what was listed in the Financial Plan was a
survival Programme for the Union to stay afloat.
Before the vote, the Vice-Chairman of the Staff Council made a vibrant appeal
to the Conference on behalf of the staff of the Union. "Resolution 51 from
Minneapolis states the staff are a key element in achieving the Union's
objectives. I would expand this to say that staff motivation and efficiency is
the key to achieving the objectives that you set. Your decision will affect
ITU's dedicated workforce. We would plead for flexibility and realism in the
decision that you are about to make. We do not want to see a declining ITU but a
strong ITU that responds to your needs", the Vice-Chairman of the Staff
Council told delegates. He added that staff understand and are sympathetic to
the severe financial difficulties affecting most Member States at this time and
that this, together with the downturn in the telecom industry, was to translate
into a a severe financial crisis at ITU over the next few years, whatever the
decision taken. "We do know that, with the projected level of funding,
there will be hardship ahead. It will be first and foremost the staff that will
suffer from this situation. But we must not forget that staff members already
have had to take on increased workloads because of budgetary restrictions in the
last 4 years", adding "The ITU staff council will continue to be
receptive to change, to work constructively for reform in order to increase
efficiency and stretch the limited resources available". He thanked
delegates who have realized that the severity of the financial crisis is such
that flexibility is required and this is why the upper limit was to be set at a
higher level. "What is being discussed here is a ceiling. Setting a higher
limit does not mean that ITU would get a cent more in funding. What it would do
is to allow Council a little more flexibility to take into account realities
that are difficult to evaluate for the next 5 years."
Unfunded Mandated Activities under the hammer
Several delegations commented on the difficulty of establishing priorities in
the absence of a plan based on activities. They expressed the wish for the Union
to move away from purely financial budgeting towards activity-based
budgeting in the future. The Committee then moved on to consider the concept of
"unfunded mandated activities" or UMACs. This concept was proposed to
the Conference in order to highlight a number of activities within the overall
programme of work mandated by different ITU conferences for the period
2004-2007. However, these UMACs could not be accommodated within the limits of
income decided by the Council at the time the financial plan was being drawn up.
The UMACs in question are listed in Annex B of Document
71 which was said to be neither definitive nor exhaustive. This document
concludes that UMACs would constitute one useful form of option available to the
Council to authorize the implementation of these activities (based on
priorities), provided that savings are achieved or additional income generated.
During the discussion, delegations decided to delete virtually all the UMACs in
Annex B, except for those in the Istanbul Action Plan, which are mainly in
support of developing countries. Some CHF 5 million is required in addition to
the level presented under Telecommunication Development Activities in order to
implement, in full, the Istanbul Action Plan. On the insistence of the Algerian
delegation, the UMAC on ICT is to be maintained pending the report of the
external auditor, which is to be presented to the Council next year.
Reducing expenditure begins
Moving to real cuts in the draft Financial Plan, the Committee agreed to
reduce the next Plenipotentiary Conference from four to three weeks, subject to
a review by the Council to determine methods that would guarantee the efficiency
of the event which should be facilitated by the adoption of a resolution
concerning the regional
preparatory process for plenipotentiary conferences.
Support for the Palestinian Authority
A resolution to provide assistance to the Palestinian Authority for its
telecommunications network was adopted. The resolution reaffirms the continued assistance
and support to the Palestinian Authority in rebuilding and developing its
telecommunication infrastructure, re-establishing institutions for the sector,
developing telecommunication legislation and regulatory framework including
numbering plan, spectrum management, tariff and human resource development and
all other forms of assistance. The resolution also calls for the Member States
to facilitate the establishment by the Palestinian Authority of its own
international gateway networks including satellite earth stations, submarine
cables, optical fibres and microwave systems and to assist it in recovering its entitlements accruing from incoming and outgoing international traffic. It
also invites the Council to allocate the necessary resources to implement the
resolution. For the complete resolution click here.
Satellite Backlog Turbulence
A European Common proposal resolved to deal with the backlog in Satellite
filings by adopting the provisional rules already approved by the Radio
Regulations Board. The resolution recognizes that some Member States feel these
provisional rules may not be consistent with the Radio Regulations and it was on
this point it ran into turbulence. Nevertheless, the provisional rules seem to
have had the desired effect. The Secretariat reported that in the three months
since they were implemented, the Radiocommunication Bureau has been able to
process 328 filings and attributed this speed to improved software technology
and additional human resources. The Islamic Republic of Iran questioned the
validity of the way these improvements were measured, while Russia confirmed it
has already noticed an improvement.
The Chairman proposed to send the resolution to the Plenary so that it could
be dealt with in the context of the work that Committee 6 is doing on this
matter. However, a number of delegations (Algeria, Colombia and Saudi Arabia)
were reluctant to support this. The Chairman then asked those concerned to meet
outside of the meeting and to come back with a compromise resolution.
A World Summit of Consultations
The Working Group of the Plenary considered the resolution prepared by the Ad
Hoc Group on WSIS. The resolution calls for national consultations of all
stakeholders, in particular private sector and civil society, in the preparatory
process of the Summit. The discussions centered around whether the initiatives
to be taken into account in the preparation of the Summit should be listed
individually or referred to collectively. Many considered the list to be too
long and that it was preferable to leave it out. Others considered that it would
not be appropriate to include initiatives, the content of which might not be
available to delegates, and which may not necessarily fit ITU’s objectives. It
was decided to approve the resolution
with this provision left in square brackets for consideration by the Plenary.
The Chairman invited delegates to provide the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Group with
initiatives deemed relevant should the Plenary decide to include a list in the
resolution.
Revisiting Gender Issues
The revised text of the resolution on gender mainstreaming, which the
sponsors had requested to revisit, was approved. However, many of the proposed
amendments did not receive majority support. Among them were the provisions
concerning the creation of a Gender Unit within the General Secretariat, the
allocation of resources from the ITU budget and the definition of its mandate.
A number of countries, led by Germany, did not think the creation of such a
Unit was required to ensure the incorporation of gender policies at ITU. Neither
did they believe that this Unit could play the proposed watchdog role. It was
also felt that monitoring was already covered through the reporting process to
the Council. The compromise agreed to places the emphasis on the incorporation
of gender policies in all ITU activities, on the implementation of a Gender Plan
and on the possible creation of a Gender unit. It was also decided that any
terms of reference of the Unit along with appropriations would be left to the
Council to decide should a Unit be created.
It Shall be Resolved
After much discussion on whether proposals to amend the Constitution or
Convention ‘should’ or ‘shall’ be submitted 6 or 8 months in advance of
the Plenipotentiary, it was decided that the status quo ‘shall’ prevail. The
original conflict arose between delegations wanting the earliest possible
notification in order to prepare their positions and those who aren’t able to
meet the deadline for reasons such as a lack of sufficient human resources. In the end the
Committee chose to endorse the decision of PP-98, which specifies that
provisions 224 of the Constitution and 519 of the Convention be ‘interpreted
to encourage Member States to submit their proposals (for amendments) as early
as possible and, preferably, eight months before the opening of the conference.’
A ‘Giga Hertz’ Decision
It was decided that a radio wave is a radio wave, even when it’s above 3
000 GHz. At least that’s the spirit of a resolution adopted by Committee 5.
Scientific sensibility prevailed, allowing the Radiocommunication Bureau to
continue to study telecommunication technologies that are already operating
above 3 000 GHz. This resolution was adopted despite the fact the ITU Convention
will continue to define the upper limit on radio waves for regulatory purposes
to be at 3 000 GHz. The resolution allows World Radio Conferences to include, in
future agendas, items relevant to spectrum regulation above 3 000 GHz and
to revise the relevant Radio Regulations if necessary.
An Electronic Council
Venezuela and the United States proposed an online electronic forum through
which Member States of the Council could interact in advance of its meetings. The
objective of this forum is to increase the transparency, accountability and
efficiency of the Council. Uganda noted that this provided an example of ‘e-governance’
in action, while other delegations such as Germany questioned the efficiencies
that this would create if the Chairman were expected to interact with 189 Member
States. Germany then suggested that ‘read only’ access might be appropriate
for those delegations not on the Council. The Chairman asked the parties to discuss
this outside of Committee and to return with a compromise solution if possible.
Sworn In
The newly elected Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau, Mr Vladimir
Timofeev, was sworn in. The term of office for elected officials and Members of the Radio Regulations
Board will start on 1 January 2003.
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