The ITU Council’s ad hoc working group events held a meeting last 23 May in Geneva which focused on the Telecom events host country agreement model. The group was created by the last Plenipotentiary Conference (Guadalajara, 2010) with the goal of finalising a model document to serve as basis for the agreement between the ITU and countries organising Telecom events.
Although this group’s work is mostly done by correspondence, the importance of organising a attended meeting where the parties could share their proposals for this document was noted.
During the discussions, some members indicated their concerns about some obligations imposed on the member states, specifically:
- The limited period for granting visas;
- The availability of privileged conditions for high level participants;
- The prohibition on holding telecommunications sector events six months before and six months after the Telecom event;
- The obligation to comply with provisions of the 1947 Vienna Convention regarding privileges and immunities (some ITU member states are not party to that convention).
The ITU legal expert recalled that the document is only a model and that when negotiated with the host country it can be adjusted to take national conditions into account. The document will be forwarded to the 2011 session of the ITU Council where it should be adopted.
