[governance] CONSENSUS CALL - JPA statement

[Ian Peter]

Below is the final statement we propose to send to DOC (and need to submit
by June 8). Please indicate YES or NO as regards your support for this
statement ­ if you have already indicated in the previous draft a YES, there
is no need to vote again (in the interests of email flow). At this stage I
am assuming we have a consensus for this unless strong objections are raised
in the next 48 hours.

At this stage no amendments can be accepted which changes the meaning or
emphasis of the text. However we can certainly consider simple changes that
clarify the expression if you feel strongly about them.

Thank you everyone for your participation!

DRAFT FOLLOWS


The Internet Governance Caucus is a global coalition of civil society and
non governmental organisations and individuals actively involved the UN¹s
Internet Governance Forum (IGF) process. Formed during the lead up to the
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), our mission is to provide a
forum for discussion, advocacy, action, and for representation of civil
society contributions in  Internet governance processes. We have several
hundred members, with a wide spread of geographic representation; more about
our coalition can be found at www.igcaucus.org.
 
We are thankful for the opportunity to comment on the Joint Project
Agreement (JPA) with ICANN, and  respectfully submit as  follows.

In responding to your call for comments, we are mindful of the WSIS
principles, which " recognize that Internet governance, carried out
according to the Geneva principles, is an essential element for a
people-centred, inclusive, development-oriented and non-discriminatory
Information Society². We also recognise the need for high levels of global
co-operation from all stakeholder groups to ensure Internet stability and
security. 
 
On your question as regards the future of the JPA - The IGC firmly believes
that global co-operation will be enhanced by a transition beyond the JPA to
a situation where all stakeholders feel that they have equitable
arrangements for participation, that ICANN is subject to due process
procedures and is accountable to all stakeholders. Therefore, the IGC
believes that merely extending the current JPA arrangement is not a lasting
viable solution.

 Some of us believe the JPA should be ended now, as it is an ineffective
mechanism to deal with the problems that must be resolved to place ICANN on
a viable long-term path forward. On the other hand, some of us believe that
a time-limited extension of the JPA might be the most effective means to
ensure that ICANN does take on board necessary changes.

Irrespective of when the JPA actually ends however, the IGC believes that it
should be replaced by a new global accountability framework, the development
of which should commence as soon as possible in an open, multistakeholder,
transparent and inclusive process.

Also irrespective of whether the JPA continues or not, we believe that
certain principles outlined below need to be embedded in ICANN¹s operation.
We believe these should be covered by an undertaking by ICANN to perpetuate
in its constitution, by laws, or some similar accountability mechanism, the
principles which follow. The principles need to be embedded in such a way as
to ensure they cannot easily be changed to exclude any stakeholder group.
The principles which need to be permanently embedded are:
 
·      bottom up co-ordination

 
·      balanced multi stakeholder representation, including civil society
interests and Internet users

 
·      ensuring the stability of the Internet

 
·      transparency

 
·      appropriate accountability mechanisms

 
·      continuing evolution of an effective and appropriate governance model
which is multilateral, multistakeholder, democratic, and transparent

 
·      decision making driven by the public interest

We also propose to replace "private sector management" with multistakeholder
management, which has evolved from the World Summit on the Information
Society and the Internet Governance Forum process which the US Government
has supported, and which is an important facet, we believe, of effective
internet governance  arrangements.
 
We think the establishment of firm principles to guide the evolution of a
model is the appropriate way to proceed. This should explicitly recognize
that ICANN is a global governance institution with regulatory authority over
an industry (domain name registration) and over critical resources (IP
addresses, root servers and addresses). The standards of due process,
rights, and accountability that apply to ICANN must be developed with these
facts in mind.   



Ian Peter and Ginger Paque, Co-coordinators, for the Internet Governance
Caucus

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