ICANN Board lowers standard for commercial groups & geographic diversity on GNSO Council to only 2 regions need to be represented; let me guess which 2 geo regions that might be

[Robin Gross]

Adding further insult to injury, in the final charters approved by
the board last week, the bar was lowered for the commercial
constituencies in terms of requiring geographic diversity and breadth
of representation among membership.

ICANN amended the CSG charter to allow the commercial constituencies
to elect 3 of their 6 GNSO Councilors from the US and the other 3 can
come from Europe - yes that is right - only 2 geographic regions may
be represented on the GNSO council from the commercial
constituencies.  That's ICANN's idea of encouraging diversity and new
participation - empty rhetoric.

The commercial groups lobbied staff/board for this last minute change
to their charter, claiming "it is just too hard to find participants
in other regions of the world" (i.e. developing world).   At the same
time they lobbied for easing their diversity requirements, they
claimed NCUC is not representative and not diverse enough to be
allowed to elect all 6 of our councilors.  Yet, we have no problem
with the stricter requirement the board imposed on us of no more 3
councilors from any geographic region and think it should be the rule
for all stakeholders.  At every opportunity, the commercial groups
get a free pass, a lower standard, an advantage from ICANN staff/
SIC.  The unequal treatment is so fundamental it is even built into
the charters they adopt for us.

The Facts.  The 2006 LSE Report (which called for parity in the 1st
place) documented that NCUC had the most geographically diverse
participation of any constituency, and that NCUC had the most turn-
over of individual councilors of any constituency.   But nobody goes
back and looks up facts anymore.  ICANN staff has a million dollar PR
and lobby industry to spin its web of lies in so many places and so
often, they begin to take on the appearance of truth.  Unless
somebody goes back and does the fact checking for the ICANN Board
(other than staff).

Compare ICANN's NCSG  Charter Section 8.2.3:
"The NCSG Executive Committee and Board will ensure, to the extent
possible, that, in the selection of GNSO Councilors, no more than 2
shall come from the same geographic region...."

CSG Charter: Section 8.1: "Ensure that the Recognized Constituencies
adopt internal procedures in selecting 6 GNSO Council
Representatives, such that no more than 3 of the 6 may be domiciled
in the same "Geographic Region"."

ICANN's brazen unequal treatment between commercial and noncommercial
users cannot withstand the clear light of day being shone on it.

Robin

IP JUSTICE
Robin Gross, Executive Director
1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: robin at ipjustice.org



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