[Chapter-delegates] ISOC at ITU Plenipot 2006

[Constance Bommelaer]

Dear all,

 

The Internet Society is participating in the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference
that is currently (6-24 November) held in Antalya, Turkey.

 

Please find enclosed a report summarizing the first two weeks of the
Conference.

 

Regards,

 

Constance Bommelaer

Internet Society (ISOC)

Public Policy Manager

+41 22 807 1444

 




























..

 

The ITU’s Plenipotentiary Conference (PP) is held every four years at which
the Union sets its general policies and adopts four-year strategic and
financial plans and elects the organization’s leadership, including the
Secretary General.  Importantly for the Internet community, the PP also
agrees the policy focus areas that will shape the work of the ITU for the
following four years.  This year’s PP is taking place in Antalya, Turkey
from the 6th to the 24th of November 2006. ISOC, as a sector member, was
invited to attend the Conference as observer. 

 

Most of the elections took place during week one. Work in Committees and
Working Groups was also launched during week one, but debates really started
during week two. 

 

ISOC delegation

The ISOC delegation comprised one permanent representative, Ms. Walda
Roseman, an ITU expert, and representation on a rotating basis by ISOC:
Constance Bommelaer participated during the first week; Lynn St.Amour during
the second; and, Matthew Shears during the last.

 

Opening ceremony

After the official opening ceremony and the formal meeting of Heads of
Member States delegations (sector members not invited), the ITU declared its
ambition to change its dimension. 

See their press release:
http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2006/20.html Concerning Internet
Governance, ITU declared: “The Tunis phase of the World Summit on the
Information Society recognized that the internet has evolved into a global
public facility, and that its governance should constitute a core issue of
the Information Society agenda. Moreover, it called for a multilateral,
transparent and democratic international management of the internet, with
the full involvement of governments, the private sector, civil society and
international organizations.

Proposals on the table underline the fact that the internet has spawned new
challenges that could threaten the security and stability of
telecommunication networks. For this reason, a number of countries call for
ITU to contribute constructively to the work on internet governance and
advocate a stronger ITU role in enhancing network security and stability, in
countering spam and in the smooth management of critical internet resources
including Internet Domain Names and addresses. Proposals have also been made
for the increased internationalization of the internet, in particular the
ability of developing countries to participate fully in internet-related
technical and policy processes.

Others call for the creation of a specific group (I2G: ITU Internet Group),
within the Telecommunication Standardization Sector to coordinate the
technical aspects of Telecommunication Networks that support the internet
and to deal with all other technical matters related to internet
governance.”

 

First week’s Member States’ policy statements

Countries had the opportunity to make official statements
(http://www.itu.int/plenipotentiary/2006/statements/list/index.asp)
introducing the PP’s three week meeting. Countries from the developing world
(e.g. Cuba, Senegal, Mali, etc.) systematically insisted on the need to
focus on the digital divide and the multilingualism issue. Iran’s statement
clearly insisted on its wish for a multilateral management of the Internet.


 

Elections 

Elections started the first week for the Secretary-General, the Deputy
Secretary-General as well as Directors of the three specialized arms of the
Union: the Radiocommunication Bureau (ITU-R), the Telecommunication
Standardization Bureau (ITU-T) and the Telecommunication Development Bureau
(ITU-D). The members of the Council and of the Radio Regulations Board are
also to be elected.

 

Mr Hamadoun Touré (Mali) was elected during the first week, on the 10th of
November, after 3 rounds, with 95 votes.  In his first speech as Secretary
General, he outlined his objective to focus on Access and eSecurity. Mr
Touré also declared in the following interview 

(http://www.itu.int/itunews/manager/display.asp?lang=en
<http://www.itu.int/itunews/manager/display.asp?lang=en&year=2006&issue=08&i
page=interview5&ext=html> &year=2006&issue=08&ipage=interview5&ext=html )
that the WSIS had constituted a first important step for the evolution of
ITU’s role and that its success was notably characterized by “the
recognition of the increased role of the private sector”. He added that he
“will build bridges to a digital future through the active and meaningful
participation of all stakeholders in line with the decisions of WSIS” and
that his personal belief is that “teamwork is the key to success”. 

 

Houlin ZHAO (China) was elected Deputy Secretary-General, Mr Valery Timofeev
(Russian Federation) was elected Director of the Radiocommunications Bureau,
Mr Malcom Johnson (UK) was elected Director of the Telecommunication
Standardization Bureau and Mr Sami Al-Basheer was elected Director of the
Telecommunication Development Bureau. 

 

The Council whose role is to consider broad telecommunication policy issues
and who is responsible for ensuring the smooth day-to-day running of the
Union work (programs coordination, controlling finances and expenditure) was
elected on the second week.

 

See lists of candidates:
http://www.itu.int/plenipotentiary/2006/newsroom/elections/list.html

See on-line detailed and up-dated results:
http://www.itu.int/plenipotentiary/2006/newsroom/elections/results/index.htm
l

 

 

Working groups and committees

Committee 5 “Policy and Legal matters”, chaired by Iran, launched its work
in the middle of the first week. Its work includes issues related to
Internet Governance and eSecurity issues. Each country had the opportunity
during this first week to outline its proposals. 

Working Group on Plenary (WGPL) focusing on issues related to the outcome of
the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was also launched during
the first week. 

An ITR’s ad hoc group was established. It could be decided that the review
of emerging issues for ITRs would feed the agenda of a future World
Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). 

Several important key proposals related to Internet matters and Internet
Governance have been the focus of the ISOC delegation. In all of these
proposals, the terminology that will be chosen has its importance. 

-         Proposals related to “Resolution 101: Internet Protocol (IP)-based
networks” aim at encouraging ITU and relevant organizations such as
ISOC/IETF to continue their collaborative efforts so that the growth in
IP-based networking delivers maximum benefits to the global community.

-         Proposals concerning “Resolution 102: Management of Internet
domain names and addresses” propose a variety of language related to the
ITU’s role with regard to policy issues pertaining to the Internet and the
management of Internet resources, including domain names and addresses.  

-         Proposals regarding “Resolution 130: Strengthening the role of ITU
in information and communications security” reconsider ITU’s role in this
area. 

-         Proposals regarding “Resolution 133: Role of administrations of
Member States in the management of internationalized (multilingual) domain
names” focus on the need to develop multilingualism in various areas (domain
names, email addresses and key word look-up).

 

During the PP, Member States also considered the organization of a World
Telecommunication Policy Forum (WTPF). The history of the WTPF is that all
ITU stakeholders (i.e. Member Stats and Sector Members) have equal
participation rights. Other stakeholders could also be invited to
participate. For instance, ISOC could sit next to Intel and India and have
equal rights of participation.  

 

 

Link to ITU’s PP news room:
http://www.itu.int/plenipotentiary/2006/newsroom/index.html 

 

 

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