The IARU was admit­ted to the work of the CCIR, the fore­run­ner to today’s ITU Radio­com­mu­ni­ca­tion Sec­tor (ITU‑R) [exter­nal link], in 1932 and has been con­tribut­ing to the work of the ITU ever since. As a Sec­tor Mem­ber the IARU par­tic­i­pates ful­ly in the rel­e­vant ITU‑R Study Groups and Work­ing Parties.

The IARU is allowed to attend World Radio­com­mu­ni­ca­tion Con­fer­ences (WRCs) and Plenipo­ten­tiary Con­fer­ences, but only the telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions admin­is­tra­tions of ITU Mem­ber States can make pro­pos­als and vote.

The next WRC is expect­ed to be held in 2023 and so is known as WRC-23. The IARU Admin­is­tra­tive Coun­cil has adopt­ed pre­lim­i­nary posi­tions on the sev­er­al WRC-23 agen­da items that may affect the ama­teur and ama­teur-satel­lite services. 

The IARU is also a Sec­tor Mem­ber of the ITU Devel­op­ment Sec­tor (ITU‑D) [exter­nal link] and par­tic­i­pates active­ly in Study Group 2 on issues relat­ed to dis­as­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tions and human resource development.