[governance] draft text on political oversight

[William Drake]

Hi,

I know things are moving very fast, we need to have texts, and people are
working very hard to keep up and be prepared when we have speaking
opportunities.  So it may be that you have already submitted this to the
secretariat, in which case I'm too late.

I tried several days ago to say we need to start having a focused
discussion on four oversight issues and to decide how to proceed if there
was no agreement, but there was no response, everyone's too busy.  Now
we're here.

If you have not submitted this to the secretariat, I alas would suggest
that you do not. It strikes me as a very non-consensual, essentially
status quo position. There are clearly people in the caucus who would in
fact want to see a new oversight mechanism that includes greater
government involvement in a multistakeholder setting, although specific
models that respond to what's on the table now have not been advanced (IGP
had a paper a month or so ago, that's the only thing that comes to mind
immediately).

The choice has now been framed---US on one side, developing countries on
the other with their Council, and the EU seeking the middle ground, with
GAC perhaps to be pulled out of ICANN and made an IGO or otherwise
"evolved" into something where governments have more authority in relation
to the ICANN board, and also taking on the IANA role.  Arguably, none of
these choices are attractive unless there's a great deal more
specification of the scope of authority etc.

As I said last night, I would have thought it safer to have a statement
acknowledging that there are various problems at present but stating that
the caucus, like the international community more generally, is divided on
the best soution to these, with some favoring reform within the existing
ICANN context, and others favoring a reconfiguration closer to the EU or
developing country models.  I suspect everyone could have lived with that.

Hopefully this won't turn into a problem.

I'm sorry I can't be there to help, but Markus told me yesterday that
UNICT has agreed to publish the WGIG book in time for Tunis if I can get
the entire manuscript to them early next week. Wasn't expecting this. So
from here I'm going to have to hide out and work and listen on the web. 
Will see some of you at the WGIG dinner tomorrow and catch up.

Best of luck,

Bill

> -----Original Message-----
> From: governance-bounces at lists.cpsr.org
> [mailto:governance-bounces at lists.cpsr.org]On Behalf Of Jeanette Hofmann
> Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 1:31 PM
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> Subject: [governance] draft text on political oversight
>
>
> Hi, Avri and I have drafted some language on political oversight. Text
> should be read this afternoon. We have to submit it by 2pm. Please have
> a look and let us know if we can read it on behalf of the IG caucus or
> if we have to invent another stakeholder group.
> jeanette
>
>
> Political Oversight
>
> 62b: We recognize that the time has come for a change in the political
> oversight of the logical Internet infrastructure. We do not recommend
> the creation of a new oversight organization for domain names and IP
> addresses. However, we do recommend the following changes with regard to
> ICANN:
>
> 1. The US Government recommits to handing over its pre-eminent role of
> stewardship in relation to ICANN and enters into an adequate
> host-country agreement for ICANN.
>
> 2. ICANN must ensure full and equal multi-stakeholder participation on
> its Board and throughout its organizational structure by the community
> of Internet users, private sector and governments.
>
> 3. ICANN must ensure that it establishes clear, transparent rules and
> procedures commensurate with international norms and principles for fair
> administrative decision-making to provide for predictable policy outcomes.
>
> 4. ICANN must establish a review process for its decisions in the form
> of an independent multi-stakeholder review commission, established on a
> case-by-case basis.
>
> 5. Once all the conditions listed above are met, the US Government
> transfers the IANA function to ICANN.
>




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