Solidarity with RDS Honduras

[Carlos A. Afonso]

Dear people,

I think we need to mobilize ASAP in favor of RDS Honduras. Anyone who
knows the work of the organization since its foundation in 1994 will
have no doubt in supporting them against yet another arbitrary measure
by the current Honduran dictatorship.

RDS is a pioneer in social networking and Internet services in Central
America (especially oriented to civil society networks). I have worked
personally with them in 2002 in a Sustainable Development Network
(SDN/RDS) evaluation for UNDP in 2002, and can testify to the high
quality and relevance of their work in leveraging ICTs for human
development in the country.

For more information (mostly in Spanish), please visit
http://solidaridadrdshn.blogspot.com/

For general information on RDS-HN: http://rds.hn

Above all, please mobilize your organizations to participate in active
solidarity actions with RDS-HN.

It is obvious a clear and urgent position from ICANN against this
arbitrary seizure is needed.

Below is the full statemente by RDS-HN in English.

fraternal regards

--c.a.

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LACTLD Statement on ccTLD. HN situation

To the international community

By this note, we would like to inform the international community about
the current situation in the ccTLD .HN, which is managed by RDS-HN,
associated member of LACTLD , organization that informs us about this
situation.

The current Honduran government has informed RDS-HN that it must hand
over the ccTLD operation due to Article 79B of the Reglament of the
Telecommunications Act (of the year 2002). This rule says that "CONATEL
controls the regulation and administration of the domains and IP
directions within the national territory. CONATEL will be able to take
the necessary measures so that the administration of domains and IP
addresses can be executed through from other public or private
institutions, for which agreements will be signed and the corresponding
regulations will be issued."

Last Friday, and based in the above-mentioned article, national
authorities arrived at the ccTLD. hn office stating: "Until now, CONATEL
has not signed any agreement with any public or private entity.
Therefore it is necessary to order the institution, which has been
managing and delegating domains. HN, to suspend the management
immediately, given that it develops outside the provisions of Article
79B of the Reglament of the Framework Law for Telecommunications
Sector". In the same way, they order ccTLD .HN "1. To immediately
suspend all activities related to registration and delegation of new
domain names under the domain .HN, and 2. To hand a list of domains .HN
and records, that the institution have been conferred, to CONATEL."

The Red de Desarrollo Sostenible - RDS (Sustainable Development Network)
http://www.rds.org.hn maintains the operation of ccTLD. hn since April
1993, date when this organization received this delegation and, in July
2006, signed an Accountability Framework with ICANN
(http://www.icann.org/en/cctlds/hn/hn-icann-af-20jul06.pdf), which
explicitly recognizes that relationship and work. Furthermore, RDS is
also a leading civil society organization that facilitates connectivity
to Honduras as well as provides various tools and services to the
community of Honduras and Central America and, for this reason, RDS is
being recognized as a pioneer in the region.

The management and operation of the DNS follow internationally accepted
and recognized processes, primarily based on RFC 1591 . Because of the
stability importance of the Internet global system and ccTLD work, RDS
is due to its local and international community on the Internet.

In addition, we indicate that the action that tries to carry out CONATEL
is against of the constitutional guarantees and the guarantees of the
Pact of San José de Costa Rica. Therefore, it violates the relationship
that has been conducted peacefully and technically efficient and is
based on existing contractual agreements and relationships.

LACTLD expresses its strong concern regarding the events that have
unfolded in the request made by the Government of Honduras to take in a
sudden and abrupt way the operation .HN due to the fact that it will be
detrimental to the users of domain name system in Honduras which
primarily require stability for the adequate access of Internet resources.

LACTLD is committed with its partners and members, and primarily seeks
to maintain the stability of the Domain Name System for the correct
running of the Internet. We hope that the wisdom will prevail between
two sides in order to solve this delicate situation.

Sincerely,

Council of LACTLD
Latin American and Caribbean ccTLD Association
http://www.lactld.org

More Information: contacto at lactld.org, contacto at rds.org.hn
More Information: http://solidaridadrdshn.blogspot.com/

[1] ccTLD: country code top level domain
[2] RDS-Hn: Red de Desarrollo Sostenible de Honduras (http://www.rds.org.hn)
[3] LACTLD: Latin American and Caribbean ccTLD Association
(http://www.lactld.org)
[4] CONATEL: Telecomunication National Comission (http://www.conatel.gob.hn)
[5] ICANN: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(http://www.icann.org)
[6] RFC 1591: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1591.txt