Fundamental nature of the Summit
1998 November: ITU plenipotentiary conference (PP-02) Res 73
resolves to instruct the Secretary-General
to place the question of holding a world summit on the
information society on the agenda of the United Nations
Administrative Committee on Coordination, with a view to
meeting the necessary conditions for holding such a summit before
the next plenipotentiary conference;
2000 October: Action plan for the preparation of the Summit endorsed by UN ACC meeting
The Action Plan called for the creation of a High Level Summit
Organizing Committee (HLSOC) with a mandate to monitor summit
preparation, determine agenda and output, consider reports of
Executive Secretariat.
Executive Secretariat’s mandate is to set a timetable for Summit
preparation and to develop and implement a detailed Summit
preparation plan
The Summit organized by
the UN agencies (HLSOC)
Executive Secretariat under
HLSOC takes responsibility
of organization
2001 June: ITU council endorsed above-mentioned approach.
2001 December: UN Resolution 56/183
2. Recommends that the preparations for the Summit take
place
through
an
open-ended
intergovernmental
preparatory committee, which would define the agenda of the
Summit, finalize both the draft declaration and the draft plan of
action, and decide on the modalities of the participation of other
stakeholders in the Summit;
3. Invites the International Telecommunication Union to
assume the leading managerial role in the executive
secretariat of the Summit and its preparatory process;
The Summit is organized by
the Member States.
ITU was invited to play the
leading managerial role and it
accepted the invitation.
ITU became Executive
Secretariat itself
2003 October: ITU Council Resolution 1214
instructs the Secretary General
5. to take appropriate measures to ensure that the ITU
involvement in the WSIS process be consistent with its core
mission
ITU shall be involved in the
summit process only within
its core mission for the
Second phase
2003 December: WSIS the Arrangements for the Tunis Phase of the Summit
We decide to hold a preparatory meeting in the first half of
2004 to review those issues of the information society which
should form the focus of the Tunis phase of the WSIS and to
agree on the structure of the process for the second phase on
the basis of contributions from delegations. The Bureau of the
Tunis phase of the WSIS under the leadership of its Chairman
should commence preparation of this preparatory meeting.
If the Preparatory meeting
decides the Summit only within
the core mission of the ITU,
ITU will play the leading
managerial role. If not, who will
play the role?