<div dir="ltr">Dear Rafik<div><br><div>Thanks for bringing the issue of conflict of interest concerning one of us, Peter Green <span style="white-space:pre-wrap">(Zuan Zhang).</span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">There is no doubt given the supposed evidence EC listed, that he may have violated the conflict of interest section, but the other side of the point being made by Avri and slightly </span><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Kathy from my point of view is due process. Was it followed in calling him to order by way of summon and query from the chair/EC, posed before him or at him to elucidate response that will be on record.</span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">These responses are lacking in the letter announcing the call for his resignation, because I felt like some of us, if his violation was brought before him, I am not sure our EC will have the headache of asking him to resign, because he should have done that reasonably and save us all the energy of engaging on this path.</span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">It will be nice to have responses to the due process end of the decision taken by EC to further elucidate our individual understanding and support or otherwise.</span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">I hope I have made some sense, so we can all be on same page and move on.</span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Regards</span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Remmy</span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">____<div>REMMY NWEKE, <font size="1">mNGE</font>, </div><div>Lead Strategist/Group Executive Editor, <br><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)">DigitalSENSE Africa Media</span> <span>[<i>Multiple-award winning medium</i>]<br></span>(<a href="http://www.digitalsenseafrica.com.ng/businessnews" target="_blank">DigitalSENSE Business News</a>; <a href="http://www.itrealms.com.ng" target="_blank">ITREALMS</a>, <a href="http://www.naijaagronet.com.ng" target="_blank">NaijaAgroNet</a>)</div><div>Block F1, Shop 133 Moyosore Aboderin Plaza, Bolade Junction, Oshodi-Lagos<br>M: 234-8033592762, 8023122558, 8051000475, T: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ITRealms" target="_blank">@ITRealms<br></a><div>Author: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/adecadeofictreportageinnigeria" target="_blank">A Decade of ICT Reportage in Nigeria</a><br><a href="http://www.pcsummit.com.ng" target="_blank">PC Summit 2016</a>, December 2-3 @Federal Palace, Victoria Island, Lagos.</div><div>_________________________________________________________________<br><font size="1">*Confidentiality Notice:* The information in this document and attachments are confidential and may also be privileged information. It is intended only for the use of the named recipient. Remmy Nweke does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this e-mail. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify me immediately, then delete this document and do not disclose the contents of this document to any other person, nor make any copies. Violators may face court persecution.</font><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Aug 9, 2016 at 2:54 PM, Kathy Kleiman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kathy@kathykleiman.com" target="_blank">kathy@kathykleiman.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<span>Dear Rafik,<u></u><u></u></span><span><br>
Like Avri, I was surprised by your email of yesterday morning.
Peter Green is a valued member of our SG who has served us well.
He jumped in to run for the Executive Committee, to represent the
interests of a huge continent too little represented in our work
(Asia), and to provide leadership, communication, input and
insight.<u></u><u></u></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>I know
the conflict provisions of the NCUC Bylaws well because,
frankly, I drafted them into the NCUC charter years ago. What
happened then is that individuals and companies, including the
then-giant Network Solutions, Inc., wanted to join every
constituency.
Compounding the problem was the fact that certain large
not-for-profit organizations, with only commercial organizations
as their members, wanted to join us too – and that would have
made no sense at all.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>We created a rule then that you can only vote in
one constituency. But no one created a rule that you cannot
attend the meetings of another constituency (or SG). That would
be absurd as the whole idea of holding open constituency and
stakeholder group meetings is to provide the transparency and
openness that we all claim and that ICANN is committed to! We
Want People to Attend Other Constituencies and Stakeholder Group
Meetings to share what the constituencies and SGs are interested
in, concerned about, and working on (and we certainly have
plenty of people outside NCUC and NCSG in the back rows of our
Tuesday Constituency and Stakeholder Group meetintgs watching us
and reporting back to their managers, associations,
constituencies and SGs).<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><b><span>Plus, the world has changed with New gTLDs:<u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>What happened recently is that everything became a
little more complicated. With the introduction of the New gTLDs,
with overlapping ownership of registries and registrars, the
following happened: registrars became registries, and registries
became registrars. Further, many leading members of the
Commercial Stakeholder Group went from commercial users to both
commercial users AND registries - such as Amazon and Google.
Now everything is confused and people wear many hats! It is an
issue in which all SGs are thinking about and discussing, but
they have generally done it with all of the members present -
not behind closed doors.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>So Peter is in a unique spot. He has been a strong
and active member of our SG - attending the intersessional of
NCSG and CSG in Washington DC a few years ago where I first met
him, running for office to serve his region and us, and leading
the NCUC efforts that year that resulted in Bill Drake being
appointed to the NomCom (among other undertakings). <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>His employer is indeed CONAC, which calls itself
the ".ORG of China." Indeed, CONAC handles the registration of
thousands (tens of thousands) of noncommercial groups in China
at the second level in .CN. Further, during the course of
Peter's representation in our NCSG, CONAC received the
delegation of the internationalized domain name which is the
equivalent of ".Public Interest" in two Chinese characters. I
note that there is a hardly a philosophical difference of
viewpoints or political leanings here. <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><b><span>In this time what have NCSG and NCUC have not
done: <u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>What we have not done is reevaluate the impact on
the New gTLDs on our membership rules, and the problems related
to the new types of overlaps of issues and groups ...and I
assure you every other constituencies and SG have talked about
this issue extensively.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>Accordingly, it would have been almost impossible
for Peter, who speaks English as second (or maybe as a third or
fourth) language to understand the nuances of the standard you
have held him to. <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>But on his behalf, and with no view on the ultimate
outcome, let me ask:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>- Are you invoking NCUC or NCSG rules?<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>- If NCSG (as you cite in your email below), have
you consulted with the NCSG Executive Committee or NCSG Chair?<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>- Is it valid to use NCSG rules, without NCSG's
Executive Committee input, as the means of removing a
well-respected NCUC member from the Executive Committee, and
from membership in the NCSG as a whole? <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>- has Peter even cast a vote in the Registries SG
or is he merely attending meetings to learn more?<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>- Was Peter consulted in the NCUC Executive
Committee review and given a chance to respond to your concerns?
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><i><b><span>May I suggest that additional procedure and
discussion are in order before any abrupt action is taken? <u></u><u></u></span></b></i></p>
<i><b> </b></i>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>Best regards,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>Kathy Kleiman, Co-Founder of NCUC <br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal">* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * <br>
<span><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<div>On 8/8/2016 8:27 AM, avri doria wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>Hi,
Before we judge someone, I am curious about the due process issues.
Was the accused afforded an opportunity to make his case?
Did he know there was going to be a meeting to discuss removing him from
office?
And I am urious, under what provision of the NCUC 'charter' was this
secret meeting held and this action taken?
thanks
avri
On 08-Aug-16 08:16, Carlos Raúl Gutiérrez G. wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>Thank you very much Rafik!
incredible (un)ethical (double)standards indeed for a member of the EC.
Carlos Raúl Gutiérrez
+506 8837 7176
Skype: carlos.raulg
Current UTC offset: -6.00 (Costa Rica)
On 7 Aug 2016, at 21:45, Rafik Dammak wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>Dear members:
I am sharing with you an important and extraordinary announcement. Last
week the NCUC EC agreed to ask one of its members, Peter Green, to resign.
It was not an easy act or one that we took lightly, and we had to think
about it for some time. Our action was necessary because of an undeclared
conflict of interest and a clash with our membership eligibility rules.
Peter is an employee of CONAC, a TLD registry associated with the
government of China. As a CONAC employee, he is an active member of and
participant in the Registry Stakeholder Group. It has been a longstanding
principle of NCUC membership eligibility rules that people or organizations
that are members of another SG or constituency in the GNSO cannot also be
members of NCUC (bylaws III.3). This is done to prevent other interest
groups from attempting to control or unduly shape our Constituency, which
is devoted to noncommercial user interests.
Peter has been actively working on behalf of the Registry SG for some time,
even as he has been serving on our Executive Committee. This is evident
from articles such as this
<a href="http://www.chinagov.cn/english/News/CONACNews/201509/t20150924_281168.html" target="_blank">http://www.chinagov.cn/<wbr>english/News/CONACNews/201509/<wbr>t20150924_281168.html</a>
and from records of the registry constituency working group such as this
<a href="https://community.icann.org/display/S1SF/Drafting+Team" target="_blank">https://community.icann.org/<wbr>display/S1SF/Drafting+Team</a>
We note with concern that Peter's Conflict of Interest statement when
running for election to the NCUC EC failed to mention his employment at
CONAC.
I wanted you to be aware of this issue and to understand the basis for our
actions.
Best Regards,
Rafik Dammak
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Dear Peter (Zuan Zhang):
For some time we (the undersigned representatives of the Executive
Committee) have received complaints or expressions of concern about your
eligibility for membership in the Noncommercial Stakeholders Group. The EC
has investigated this matter and has come to the conclusion that you are
ineligible for NCSG membership and thus must resign from the NCUC Executive
Committee immediately.
We want to make it clear that this is not caused by any misconduct on your
part; it is purely a matter of applying our eligibility rules. Your
contribution to our EC has been exemplary, but we cannot continue to
contradict our membership rules. This would open the door to many other
ineligible members and possible abuses. We hope you can accept this
decision in a good spirit.
Section 2.2.2 of the NCSG charter specifically excludes from membership
"Organizations that are represented in ICANN through another Supporting
Organization."
Section 2.2.5 of the NCSG charter makes it clear that individuals are
eligible only if they are "not represented in ICANN through membership in
another Supporting Organization or GNSO Stakeholder Group."
As an employee of CONAC, you are a member of the Registry stakeholder group
and have played an active role representing CONAC in the Registry
Stakeholder Group (RSG). CONAC is a domain name registry, which has its own
Stakeholder Group, where your affiliation with CONAC as an employee is
persistent and strong. We understand that before CONAC was a TLD registry,
its employees were admitted into NCSG because there was no other place for
them to be represented and there was less of a conflict of interest. But
that time has passed; CONAC is now a full-fledged TLD registry operator and
its policy interests are represented in the RSG.
We thank you for your prior participation in our group and encourage you to
stay involved in the GNSO via the Registry Stakeholder Group.
Farzaneh Badii
Caribe Joao Carlos
Rafik Dammak
Grace Githaiga
Milton Mueller
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