History

The ICT4Peace project was launched in December 2003 by Amb. (ret.) Daniel Stauffacher, former Delegate of the Swiss Federal Council for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS),  with the support of the Swiss Government, which lead to the groundbreaking Report in 2005: “Information and Communication Technology for Peace – The Role of ICT in Preventing, Responding to and Recovering from Conflict” published  by the UN ICT Task Force  with  a Foreword by  Kofi Annan and to the approval of Paragraph  36 of the Tunis Commitment of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2005.

Paragraph 36 of the Tunis Commitment states that:

We (the Heads of State and Government) value the potential of ICTs to promote peace and to prevent conflict which, inter alia, negatively affects achieving development goals. ICTs can be used for identifying conflict situations through early warning systems preventing conflicts, promoting their peaceful resolution, supporting humanitarian action, including protection of civilians in armed conflicts, facilitating peacekeeping missions, and assisting post conflict peace- building and reconstruction.

This paragraph was proposed and introduced to the WSIS negotiations by Daniel Stauffacher, in his capacity as Ambassador and Delegate of the Swiss Federal Government for WSIS) and with the support of the Government of Tunisia, the host of the WSIS in Tunisia in 2005.

ICT4Peace was incorporated as a Swiss non-for-profit Foundation in Geneva in spring 2006. The ICT4Peace Foundation is a Foundation under the Swiss Law and under the supervision of the Swiss Federal Government in Bern. Each year the ICT4Peace Foundation has to report on its audited financial results and activities, to ensure it is in compliance with the objectives of the Foundation.

On 27 July 2012 the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) granted ICT4Peace Special Consultative Status. The ECOSOC Consultative Status enables ICT4Peace it to actively engage with the ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies, as well as with the United Nations General Assembly, Secretariat, UN Agencies, funds and programmes, including consulting with Member States and the United Nations system at large, based on the nature and scope of work that ICT4Peace undertakes. Consultative relationship with NGOs also enables the Council or one of its bodies to seek expert information or advice from organizations with special competence in a subject matter.

An overview of the work of ICT4Peace since 2004  can be found here: ICT4Peace In Action Since 2004:

ICT4Peace Website Archive

Website until 2016   see this version online

Website until 2013   see this version online

Website until 2010   see this version online

Website until 2006   see this version online