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THE TAMPERE CONVENTION ON THE PROVISION OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESOURCES FOR DISASTER MITIGATION AND RELIEF OPERATIONS

The Official Position on the United States on the Tampere Convention.

 

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  1. The United States has signed the Convention.
  2. Because of the rising loss of lives and property from disasters and other emergencies, we urge all other nations to also sign.
  3. Negotiations were under the auspices of Finland, the ITU and the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) with special leadership provided by the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), who has the UN lead on implementation.
  4. The convention has been deposited with the Secretary General and thus can be signed at any time; however because of the urgent nature of the subject, and at the suggestion of the Intergovernmental Conference on Emergency Telecommunications in Tampere, Finland," all governments should sign as soon as possible.
  5. The convention is urgently needed in order to expedite the provision of emergency telecommunications across national boundaries during disasters. The convention provides reasonable protections for relief workers providing telecommunications assistance. The rights of host nations are also protected in that telecommunications assistance is limited to operational functions. In addition, the host government retains the right to supervise the assistance. The rights of host nations and relief workers will be further protected when the assistance uses contracts based on standard language developed by the Convention's implementing committee. "Best implementing practices" will be developed by disaster and telecommunications experts on the Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications (WGET) managed by OCHA, Geneva. Disasters happen without warning. To avoid delay in the delivery of assistance to your nation, best practices will be codified into common implementing language known as "model agreements" that will be posted on the internet by the WGET, along with contacts that might provide assistance.
  6. We urge all governments to participate in the work of the WGET so that the unique nature of your legal system is taken into account. Examples of best practices are: providing frequencies and operating licenses for radios, maintaining import duties to a level no higher than imposed on domestic nationals, identifying licensing officials and relevant regulations.
  7. We urge all relief organizations to also participate in the work of the WGET.

 

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