From an RAC Position Paper
The ITU RR S25.5 reads as follows:
Any person seeking a licence shall prove that he is able to send correctly by hand and to receive correctly by ear texts in Morse code signals. The administrations concerned may, however, waive this requirement in the case of stations making use exclusively of frequencies above 30 MHz.
Of all the issues in the Discussion Paper, Morse code has taken precedence in discussions and was high on the list of membership feedback. However, many of the respondents were not addressing the matter of whether S25.5 was really appropriate as an ITU Treaty requirement, but were in most part, expressing their feelings towards the usefulness of, and traditions surrounding Morse code in the Amateur Services.
The committee felt that the arguments advanced by the IARU FASC Discussion Paper surrounding S25.5 are convincing, but do not remind the reader that the main reason (perhaps the only reason) for including in ITU-RR a requirement for knowledge of Morse code was to ensure that an Amateur Station operator could understand an instruction from an official station to close down or move frequency.
An official station would no longer use Morse code for that purpose. In spite of the arguments about the benefits of retaining Morse code within the Amateur Services, the ITU-RR Treaty provisions should not be used to look after the needs of the Amateur Services. Therefore, the committee accepts that RR S25.5 may be deleted.