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<div>On Oct 9, 2013, at 12:00 AM, parminder <<a href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net">parminder@itforchange.net</a>></div>
<div> wrote:</div>
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana">John,<br>
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Your principal issue with the Oversight Board we proposed is that - it seeks to ensure that ICANN works as per international law and legally developed policies, rather than, as you say is the present oversight function, merely ensure that ICANN fulfils its
mandate properly. My response is as follows. <br>
<br>
One, the new IANA contract seeks a public interest justification for any root modification, and that directly puts IANA authourity holder - the US government - in a position of making judgements over what constitutes public interest, which is a much more unclear
term, and open to subjective interpretations, than seeking adherence to international law and legally developed and communicated international policies etc. So, if your bottom line is - dont go beyond the current US oversight function, I am fine with it.
But in our proposal, we are being clearer (and milder) than the current US oversight function is.
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<div>It is not apparent that the theoretical approval of root changes ever actually resulted</div>
<div>in USG "judgement" being given in any case, and that is a not a model that you want </div>
<div>to emulate.</div>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana">Second, I understand it is already ICANN's self-defined mandate to work as per international law. Isnt it. We are just reinforcing it. I mean, it should be something higher than the ICANN's own authority
to change this particualr mandate. They cant simply mandate themselves one day not to have to work as per international law.
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</blockquote>
<div><br>
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That should be resolved through the globalization and internationalization of ICANN's</div>
<div>charter, and can be done in a manner that is durable and beyond revisiting.</div>
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<blockquote type="cite">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana">However, I am happy to change the language and role of the mandate of the proposed oversight board to keep it as close to the current oversight role as played by the US governemnt at present. we can
put in an agreed text , at a general principle level say, that the role of the proposed global oversight board will be exactly as played by the US governemnt at present in its oversight authority. That that work for you.<br>
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That's certainly a lot closer to my desire, in that it keeps the role clear and focused.<br>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana"><br>
<blockquote type="cite">Lastly, you have a objection to the secondary advisory role given to the same body (the proposed global oversight board) with regard to IETF and other technical standards bodies. We, the group that proposed this statement, strongly feel
that the time has come that IETF kind of so called open processes have some kind of an institutional international advisory board that can regularly bring in public policy perspectives to such bodies. We are very clear that this role is indeed strictly advisory.
This will also benefit the technical standards bodies a lot, and so forth.<br>
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana"><br>
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana">Advising the IETF, ICANN, RIRs, etc. on proper public policy mandates and </font>norms </div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">is very important and I support such. However, that's not an "oversight" role, and </div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">doesn't have to be conflated with the same body. </div>
<div><font face="Verdana"><br>
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana">
<blockquote type="cite">But for the present purpose, to get a consensus, we can entirely remove the advisory role for such a proposed body from the mandate. And just have a global oversight board with exactly the same mandate, role and authourity as is exercised
by the UG government with regard to ICANN/ IANA function. We can just agree to this particular language.
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana"><br>
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">Why can't the Oversight Board have 24, 40 or 90 organizations participating, if indeed</div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">its mission to be provide oversight? Wouldn't we want nearly any government, civil</div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> society, or technical organization interested to be able to participate in reviewing </div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">ICANN's compliance to its mandate?</div>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Meanwhile however I do remember that you have regularly mentioned - and it appears in ARIN's response to WGEC as well - that technical community will want clearly laid out international law and public polices, at a relatively higher/
general level, and would welcome any effort in this direction.</blockquote>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana"><br>
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Absolutely.</font></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana"><br>
<blockquote type="cite">A global oversight board, constituted properly, and relatively insulated from political subversion, will be able to do precisely that.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">Otherwise the canvass of international law and pulbic policies can be too spread out and diffuse to make propoer sense to those invovled with day to day technical operations pertaining to the Internet.
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><br>
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">Oh really? If that's the case, then the canvass of international law and public </div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">policies needs to get its collective act together if we're expecting the Internet </div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">to recognize and conform to such...</div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><br>
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">Note that the Internet is unlikely to function in the face of multiple overlapping </div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">and differing public policy mandates, and hence it is incumbent to have such </div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">public policy directives be as global (or close to global) as possible. The hard </div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">work of getting governments together to accomplish such is quite independent </div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">than the relatively easy goal of getting acceptance of the outcomes of such </div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">processes. </div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><br>
</div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">In any case, a group that wishes to keep ICANN apprised of such does not need</div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">to be an oversight body to accomplish that goal, and it creates significant confusion</div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">in combining roles.</div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><br>
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<blockquote type="cite">A properly constituted and mandated oversight board would in fact do what you, and evidently, AIRN has been asking for - clear policy frameworks, but any policy body staying at more than an arms length from day to day operations. Such
a pulbic policy interface is much better than say the ad hoc interventions like those done by GAC at present, completely dependent on the political muscle of the invovled country(ies) but with no clear documented legal/ policy basis.
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana"><br>
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Agreed again, but the random thoughts of an appointed board on what they feel may</font></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana">or may not </font><font face="Verdana">be applicable is </font><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">not what is needed; what is need is governments start </span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">collectively </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">making </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">high-level and clear </span><font face="Verdana">public policy mandates in
this area, and noting </font></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana">the existence of such </font><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">when apprised of policy development going on a specific area, </span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">so that it can be </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">brought into the policy development process as a key input. This is </span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">really what </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">should be happening with the GAC (receiving a report of new policy efforts</span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">in ICANN, and looking for any applicable mandate in their owns) but instead we've got</span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">the GAC->ICANN input having its own path </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">into the policy development process.</span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana">
<div><br>
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<blockquote type="cite">So that this proposed global oversight board does not abuse its authority, and works within its narrowly circumscribed role, its decisions should be subject to be appealed to with the Intenrational Court of Justice, which should set
up a special bench for Internet issues of this kind. All this is easily plausible, given just a little political will.</blockquote>
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana">I'd like the only decisions out an oversight body to be one of two things: 1) ICANN</font></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana">is deficient in its mandate for a given registry (e.g. dns root) in the following </font></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana">manner ______ and need to comply within </font><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">nn months, or 2) the oversight body has </span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">determined that specific registry should be delegated to a successor, once one is </span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">found and transition arrangements have been made. </span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br>
</span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Perhaps it would be good to specify some "use cases" for your Oversight Board in </span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">a </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">separate</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; "> document? I suspect you have many more such cases for your form </span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">of </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Oversight </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Board than I...</span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br>
</span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">/John</span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br>
</span></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana">Disclaimers: My views alone. I hold myself forth as highly caffeinated Internet</font></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana"> workaholic, and am willing to be audited and reviewed as such...</font></div>
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><font face="Verdana"><br>
</font></div>
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