The 11th meeting of the ITU Council working group on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held last 13-14 June at the Union's head offices in Geneva. It was attended by 80 delegates representing the Member States, Sector Members and Associate Members.
The chairman reminded those present that the Council had mandated this group to provide contributions and orientation with a view to implementing the WSIS results and to draft proposals for the Council. Based on the debate at the meeting, the following proposals for the Council are thus worth mentioning:
- To ask the Secretary General to prepare an Action Plan to implement the WSIS results by 2015, which should be presented to the 2008 Council via WG WSIS and also to UNGIS;
- To identify extra-budget resources, besides the regular budget resources applied to the ITU Strategy plan, with a view to implementing the WSIS results;
- Should the proposal to set up a high level segment in the Council be approved, same should be used to prepare for the 2015 WSIS.
The meeting also discussed results of the consultation on the ITU's role in following up on the World Summit on the Information Society (Resolution 102). Given the various opinions on the subject, an ad hoc group was set up to deal with this issue and drafted the proposals for the Council, of which the following stand out:
- The ITU has a major role to play in Internet Governance, as one of the most important organisations in the WSIS context. As such, the ITU's activity should include the following areas, among others:
- Communication infrastructures (C2 action line of WSIS), including service quality, trust and telecommunication protocols;
- Building trust and security in ICT usage (action line C5 of WSIS), including control and action against spam and cyber-security;
- Naming, numbering and addressing, including ENUM and the internationalised domain names;
- Capacity-building and technical assistance;
- IPv6;
- Internet exchange points (IXPS);
- International internet connectivity.
- The ITU should encourage collaboration with other bodies, within the framework set by the Union's Constitution and Convention, such as UN agencies (World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and UNESCO) and organisations such as ICANN and the IGF;
- The ITU should actively participate in the IGF, particularly in its advisory group, using the opportunities of this Forum, specifically the possibility of holding Open Forums, workshops and good practices sessions. The ITU should also promote these initiatives and urge members to take part in same;
- The ITU's priorities in implementing the WSIS results should basically cover the areas where it acts as a facilitator, especially actions lines C2 (communication infrastructures) and C5 (cyber-security);
- When implementing WSIS, the ITU should continue to play an active role in the public policy issues involving the internet, and provide the necessary assistance in the process with a view to furthering co-operation, which should be initiated by the United Nations Secretary General;
- The WSIS Task Force should co-ordinate all areas associated to the ITU Secretariat's efforts to implement the WSIS results, including areas such as Resolution 102.
The next meeting of this working group (proposed to last two days) will take place in February 2008.
