[governance] ITU sector membership

[Jean-Louis FULLSACK]

Dear Norbert and Jeremy
dear Members of the list

Since the very beginning of the WSIS process I asked the ITU to open its memberhip to the CS in respect to the multistakeholder principe which is central to the WSIS process and constituency. I didn't get a sufficient support from the CS plenary for my proposal which was in fact a requirement for me !

Therefore CS was waiting for some time (years) until the SG of the ITU accepted the principle of CS being a member of its (UN) agency and submitted the question to the Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya in 2006 (PP'06), which in turn forwarded it to the ITU Council, whose proposals were to be presented to PP'10 (Guadalajara), and so on ...

The major final result was that CS orgs were considered as candidate members under diverse criteria and limitations : they were offered (...) an Associate Member status once the ITU has examined and approved their ability ... and once they had paid a fee ranging from from more than one thousand SFr (CS orgs from DCs) to more than four thousand SFr fro the other orgs. Thus and de facto grass-root orgs didn't deserve even such a "restricted" membership. 

In fact I'm actually surprised for being told through this thread of our list that from now on the ITU is -at last !- open to CS orgs, and what's more : with a waiver on their fees ! Very good news, aren't they ? This raises for me the question : Why didn't the SG of the ITU announce this happy news solemnly during the last WSIS Forum, because this ought to be the best/right place ?

I still have in mind the opinion of the Director of the ITU BDT meeting a Swiss NGO delegation during the Geneva Summit (December 2003) who asked him why the ITU is still closed for CS orgs. His answer can be found in "Annuaire suisse de politique de developpement 2003" on page 120. Roughly translated it reads : "ITU is open for working with NGOs. Simply, they don't need to be formal Sector members for that. What we do refuse is a politisation (sic) of the ITU. We are doing development, no politics : there are other forums for discussing human rights. I am in favor of telecoms contributing to peace and to the respect of human rights, but I don't want to enter in political debates upon these questions". 

Well, why does this souvenir let me sceptical ? Simply because the Director of ITU BDT in 2003 is the current SG of the ITU.

Best

Jean-Lous Fullsack
CESIR
Unesco Chair, University of Strabourg 



> Message du 21/07/13 04:40
> De : "Jeremy Malcolm" 
> A : governance at lists.igcaucus.org, "Norbert Bollow" 
> Copie à : 
> Objet : Re: [governance] ITU sector membership
> 
> On 21/07/2013, at 3:31 AM, Norbert Bollow wrote:
> 
> > IIRC sometime last year, Touré somehow offered civil society entities
> > the opportunity to become ITU sector members free of charge, or
> > something like that - but I don't remember the specifics.
> > 
> > Can someone point me to relevant information?
> 
> 
> Consumers International recently became a sector member of ITU-T and ITU-D with a waiver of fees, and I understand that Centre for Internet and Society Bangalore has also recently joined. So yes, it is possible. You need to write to the Director, Corporate Governance and Membership Division explaining your qualifications to join and requesting a waiver of fees. The process for approval is a lengthy one, expect to wait a few months.
> 
> -- 
> Dr Jeremy Malcolm
> Senior Policy Officer
> Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers
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