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THE CZECH REPUBLIC IN THE WCITǧ12
for Asia and the Pacific, due to its high diversity) had common views throughout
the process on many issues. The European region works under the umbrella of the
European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT)
in the Committee called Com-ITU. The CEPT consists of 48 Member States, where
the EU/27 form the basis – but there are others, like Turkey and countries that
are also members of the CIS, headed by the Russian Federation. The preparatory
process started in October 2010 and finished in June 2012. Nevertheless, regional
organizations, ITU Sector Members and Member States had an opportunity to
submit further contributions; so there was no clear picture on how the proposal of
amended or a new ITRs would look like until the start of the WCIT-12.
The Czech Republic’s participation in the preparatory process
The Czech Republic was actively involved in the preparatory process right from
the beginning, especially through the CEPT sessions. Due to a number of proposals
aiming only at particular and/or regional interests, the CEPT countries elaborated
principles for negotiation:
•
Criterion 1:
As an International Treaty, the ITRs should address high level strategic
and policy issues.
•
Criterion 2:
Consistency with the ITU Constitution, in particular its Preamble and
Article 1.
•
Criterion 3:
Consistency with International agreements / legislation adopted by
CEPT members.
•
Criterion 4:
Exclusion of Areas related to Member States’ application of legal or
policy principles which are within their sovereign rights.
•
Criterion 5
: Exclusion of areas not related to the Purpose and Scope of the ITRs.
1
All these were of a great importance during the whole process. Some other
regions and single states were of a similar view.
Already during the preparatory process,views over major questions were diversified.
The European countries, supported by some others, wanted to stick to the original
range of ITRs, not intending to enlarge their scope. Other countries, namely the
Russian Federation and other CIS countries, the Arab region, many of the African
countries, and the Asian countries, headed by China, advocated the opposite view
while bringing ICT, Internet and its governance and security to the table. All matters
had been discussed and dealt with in the ITU for a long period of time; it might
have therefore seemed logical to include them in the ITRs. The main concern that
the Western countries, including the Czech Republic, repeatedly pointed out was
that these topics are already covered by other international organizations, including
the UN and its agencies, within their respective scopes. The ITU, as a specialised
UN agency for telecommunications and as telecommunications is defined as “Any
1
For details see Document No. 16, dated 12 October 2012 – European Common Proposals for the
Work of the Conference –
http://www.itu.int/md/meetingdoc.asp?lang=en&parent=S12-WCIT12-
121203-C&PageLB=50.