Recognizing WSIS Impacts

PP RESOLUTION 184 (Guadalajara, 2010)

Facilitating digital inclusion initiatives for indigenous peoples

The Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (Guadalajara, 2010),

• considering
  • a) that Resolution 46 (Doha, 2006) of the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) recognizes the importance of issues of concern to indigenous peoples worldwide in the determination of priority activities for the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D), and requests the Secretary-General to bring the assistance provided by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) to indigenous peoples through its activities to the attention of the Plenipotentiary Conference (Antalya, 2006), with a view to providing appropriate financial and human resources for the relevant actions and projects to be implemented in the framework of the telecommunication sector;
  • b) that Resolution 68 (Hyderabad, 2010) of WTDC resolves to support digital inclusion of indigenous peoples in general, and in particular their participation in workshops, seminars, forums and training on information and communication technology (ICT) for social and economic development, and instructs the Director of BDT to carry out the necessary actions to reinforce the implementation of the special initiative for indigenous peoples, establishing collaboration mechanisms with the Member States, other relevant regional and international organizations and cooperation agencies;
  • c) that the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society establishes, as a priority, the achievement of its goals with respect to indigenous peoples and communities;
  • d) that Article 16 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides the following: “Indigenous peoples have the right to establish their own media in their own languages and to have access to all forms of non-indigenous media without discrimination”;
  • e) that the first Report of the State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (2010) contains alarming statistical data on the state of these peoples in the areas of health, human rights, education and employment, among other aspects, placing them in a situation similar to that of least developed countries (LDCs), despite the fact that some of these peoples are found in areas within the territory of developed countries;
  • f) the ITU rules for awarding fellowships,
• recalling
  • a) that Article 41 of the above-mentioned declaration provides that “The organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations system and other intergovernmental organizations shall contribute to the full realization of the provisions of this Declaration through the mobilization, inter alia, of financial cooperation and technical assistance”;
  • b) the commitment by ITU and its Member States to achieving the Millennium Development Goals,
• observing
  • that, in the implementation of projects for indigenous peoples, difficulties have been encountered in allocating fellowships to these peoples,
• resolves
  • 1 to adapt the rules governing the ITU fellowships to the existing ITU-D initiatives for digital inclusion, and extend the provision of ITU fellowships to indigenous peoples, considering that their special situation is equivalent to that of LDCs, so they can attend workshops, seminars, events or other types of capacity-building events organized by ITU for these specific groups towards facilitating their digital inclusion;
  • 2 to establish collaboration and validation mechanisms with the administrations and any other relevant organization within the United Nations system, as well as with any regional and national organizations dealing with indigenous peoples, in order to facilitate the implementation of Resolutions 46 (Doha, 2006) and 68 (Hyderabad, 2010) and better identify indigenous participants in ITU events as potential beneficiaries of the said fellowships,
• instructs the Secretary-General
  • to inform the Council on the implementation of this resolution,
• instructs the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau
  • to take the necessary measures to fully implement Resolutions 46 (Doha, 2006) and 68 (Hyderabad, 2010), regarding the participation of indigenous peoples in workshops, seminars, forums and training on ICT,
• invites Member States
  • to promote and enable the participation of indigenous peoples in ITU workshops, seminars and events, and thus facilitate their digital inclusion.