Recognizing WSIS Impacts

WTDC RESOLUTION 46 (Doha, 2006)

Assistance and promotion for indigenous communities in the world: Information society through information and communication technology

The World Telecommunication Development Conference (Doha, 2006),

• recognizing
  • a)the need to achieve the goal of digital inclusion, enabling universal, sustainable, ubiquitous and affordable access to information and communication technologies (ICTs)for all, including disadvantaged, marginalized and vulnerable groups and indigenous peoples, and to facilitate accessibility of ICTs for all, in the framework of access to information and knowledge;
  • b)the need to ensure the inclusion of indigenous peoples in the information society, as outlined in the Geneva Declaration of Principles and the Tunis Commitment, and to contribute to the development of their communities using ICTs, based on tradition and self-sustainability,
• considering
  • a) that the World Telecommunication Development Conference (Istanbul, 2002) decided to include relevant provisions in the work programmes of the Istanbul Action Plan, with a view to supporting Member States in addressing the special needs of indigenouspeoples, to create dedicated actions and projects with respect to equitable access, use and knowledge of ICT, based on the preservation of their heritage and cultural legacy;
  • b) that, as proof of the specialattention which ITU in general and the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) in particular give to assistance to indigenous peoples’ initiatives, during the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in November 2005, ITU signed with the Navajo Nation and the Observatory for Cultural and Audiovisual Communication (OCCAM) a memorandum of understanding (MoU) targeting the development of projects for indigenous peoples worldwide, as well as the provision of ICTsto their communities, while respecting their traditions and cultural patrimony,
• taking into account
  • that the WSIS phase 1 and 2 statements, the Geneva Plan of Action, the Tunis Commitment and the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society have expressly reinforced several activities related to indigenous peoples,
• recognizing
  • that the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) and the International Indigenous Steering Committee (IISC) delivered a multistakeholder report to the Tunis WSIS plenary in November 2005, highlighting, among other things, that:
  • – there are more than 370 million indigenous people around the world;
  • – the development of indigenous-specific needs through ICTs must be affirmed by all stakeholders if the digital divide is to be truly bridged;
  • – public-private partnerships and multistakeholdercooperation are essential to meet the needs of indigenous groups more effectively toward their integration in the information society;
  • – that the indigenous issue represents by itself a complex activity of BDT,
• invites the World Telecommunication Development Conference and the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau
  • 1 to ensure, within the available resources and partnerships to be implemented, that the necessary financial and human resources are allocated within BDT to respond to the existing global initiative for indigenous peoples;
  • 2 to recognize the importance of issues of concern to indigenous peoples worldwide in the determination of priority activities for the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector;
  • 3 to encourage Sector Members to promote the integration of indigenous peoples in the information society worldwide and to promote ICT projects that respond to their specific needs;
  • 4 in line with the above, the ITU mandate, the WSIS outcomes and the Millennium Development Goals, to recognize the global initiative of the assistance to indigenous peoples worldwide as an integral partof the activities of BDT,
• requests the Secretary-General
  • to bring the assistance provided by BDT through its activities to indigenous peoples to the attention of the Plenipotentiary Conference (Antalya, 2006), with a view toproviding appropriate financial and human resources for the relevant actions and projects to be implemented in the framework of the telecommunication sector.