[governance] UN controls the country code part of the Internet root, not US

Thu Dec 12 18:25:09 EST 2013

Hi everyone,

as much as this is my very first post on the list, the discussion is so
riveting, I had to chip in, with a question rather than an opinion really.

Would the ICANN "power" you were discussing not also be visible in the
delegation/redelegation policy? Not "taking the country offline" but
redelegating the management of the ccTLD to an entitiy more... willing to
colaborate with ICANN/US? The case that always come to my mind when we
speak about ICANN "power" over the online reflections of state sovereignty,
that is the ccTLDs, is the 2004 Haiti case:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/01/14/haiti_kisses_icann_ring_rewarded/
or http://www.icannwatch.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/26/0138212.Just for the
sake of objectivity, here's the IANA take on the case:
http://www.iana.org/reports/2004/ht-report-13jan04.html

My question to the members of the list, should they choose to answer it, is
simple - was this a stricly technical decision or would you consider it a
politically influenced one? Does the Haiti case stand out? Are there any
other examples of redelegation decision viewed as controversial, like this
one? Is this a state sovereignty issue? Or not at all?

Thank you,
Joanna Kulesza

2013/12/12 George Sadowsky <george.sadowsky at gmail.com>

> All,
>
> Adam makes good points.
>
> I want to add something important that arises from the case of Palestine.
>
> As you know, the ISO 3166 list, maintained by the German National
> Statistical Organization, takes its input from the Un Statistical Office
> (UNSO), which has the authority to decide when an entry should be included.
>  I worked in the UNSO from 1973-1986, and at one point was designing a data
> base for county statistics where the underlying country structure was
> dynamic and changed over time as countries merged and/or divided.  The
> issue was how to improve statistical analysis when the underlying units of
> observation changed composition.
>
> The specific case of Israeli statistics came up, and I queried why
> Palestine was not considered to be a statistical entity so that the
> statistical profile of each entity could be more meaningful for analytical
> purposes.  I was told that the decision of what was or was not a state of
> territory was political and not technical, and was communicated from the
> political authorities at the UN.  That is why Palestine was blocked and had
> to wait until 2000 to be added to the root as a legitimate territory.
>
> So there you have it.  The UN has the ultimate power of deciding what
> 'country codes' go into the root, not the US, and the UN uses it.
>
> George
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
> On Dec 12, 2013, at 8:22 AM, Adam Peake wrote:
>
> > Comment below:
> >
> > On Dec 10, 2013, at 6:20 AM, Jovan Kurbalija wrote:
> >
> >> Here are a few comments in line with JK
> >>
> >> So what you are saying is that the UN could tell the US to stop
> >> serving the records for a ccTLD and the US could then tell VRSN (by
> >> court order?) to delete that ccTLD?
> >>
> >
> >
> > This potential of the U.S. deleting a ccTLD has been worried over since
> the earliest days of WSIS. But there have been wars and ccTLDs haven't been
> touched (.iq/Iraq). North Korea .KP works ok <
> http://www.naenara.com.kp/en/>.  Palestine, .PS delegated in 2000 and
> redelegated 2004.  U.S. hasn't edited them out of the root zone, so it
> seems we shouldn't worry too much.  However, whatever we think the U.S.
> might do or not do, this issue is unlikely to go away.  It might be helpful
> to codify what looks like de facto policy, something like: 'The U.S.
> government will not unilaterally remove any TLD from the root.' (Write that
> up in nice language).
> >
> > This could be one of the topics for the meeting in Brazil next April,
> discussions that might kick-off a process to develop and agree a policy
> statement on root operations.  Not going to agree anything much in two
> days, but might be able to agree on a charter of a working group to come up
> proposals/recommendations. A working group that reports progress and
> outcomes within the IGF process: first in Istanbul a few months later, then
> back to Brazil for the IGF in 2015 where any agreement might be reviewed by
> a broader community.  Might make it part of a larger effort looking at the
> Internationalization of the IANA, if that's a topic for Brazil next year --
> and I think it should be one of the topics.  More on this in another email.
> >
> > Adam
> >
> >
> >> JK: Sanctions cannot be adopted without the US support. Any action
> under UN Chapter VII, including sanctions,  must be agreed by the all 5
> permanent members of the Security Council (
> http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter7.shtml).
> >>
> >>
> >> If that is the case, and VRSN complied (which I think they would fight
> >> BTW) then it would be a UN "power" and the US would just be an agent
> >> of the UN?
> >>
> >> JK: If the USA, like any other state, adopts certain UN convention or
> policy, it has obligation to implement it.  If the USA supports decision on
> sanctions against certain country, it should implement the sanction regime.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
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-- 
Joanna Kulesza
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