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human rights-related debate, which quickly changed the atmosphere in the room.
Upon Iran’s request, a proper voting took place with the results: 33 Member States
against, 8 abstentions, 77 Member States in favour of the text: “
Member States affirm
their commitment to implement these Regulations in a manner that respects and upholds
their human rights obligations. These Regulations recognize the right of access of Member
States to international telecommunication services
”. The Czech Republic voted against.
The late night applauding and happy laughs of many delegations that voted for
this Preamble were suddenly cut off by a statement by the US Secretary of State,
declaring that the USA was
“not able to sign the agreement in the current form. The
Internet has given the world unimaginable economic and social benefit during these
past 24 years. All without UN Regulation.”
A number of other States, including the
Czech Republic, followed with interventions in the same sense. Our position was
perfectly articulated by the head of the UK delegation: “
I’m extremely concerned that the
language just adopted for the Preamble opens the possibility of Internet and content issues”
.
Current state of the ITRs
All delegations intended to formulate new ITRs, and nobody had predicted
the option of not signing the Treaty. Based on the provisions of Article 55 of the
ITU Constitution and Articles 31 and 32 of the ITU Convention, representatives of
89Member States signed the new ITRs on the last day of theWCIT-12 (14 December
2012), 55 out of a total 144 represented and duly accredited Member States did not
join them, including all EU Member States, the Czech Republic among them: