ALAC:On Presidents Strategy Committee

As read by Vittorio Bertola at the open mic, on behalf of ALAC.

[edit] At-Large Advisory Committee Statement on President's Strategy Committee

The At-Large Advisory Committee appreciates the dialogue that has been recently established with the ICANN management about the continuing issue of the President's Strategic Committee. However, we reiterate some concerns about the creation and activity of this committee.

In Wellington, after the sudden announcement of the establishment of the new Committee, many members of the ICANN community publicly objected and requested clarifications on the role and membership of this Committee. At the Public Forum, reassurance was given both by the Chairman and the CEO of ICANN that this would only be an additional source of consultation, that it would not take the lead in any strategic process, that its membership would be promptly expanded, and that the community just needed to have trust in its promoters.

Here in Marrakech, we discovered that this committee had indeed been given a relevant role in affairs pertaining to the Internet Governance Forum and to the evolution of ICANN's structure and arrangements with governments – although, due to lack of transparency and public communication, we are not aware of what that role exactly is. Also, the issue of the membership of this committee has not been addressed, as it still lacks gender, cultural, linguistic and geographical diversity, nor is it clear why some ICANN constituencies are represented on it, but not others. It is clearly not operating under the guiding principle of constituency-based, bottom-up, open and transparent process that the ICANN community has been exercising for many years.

Reforms to the ICANN structure are about to be undertaken, with specific regard to the role of governments, the Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the balance of power between the different constituencies. This process is apparently happening behind closed doors, through the use of private consultations among a few actors, betraying the original spirit of the Internet and of ICANN itself. As stated many times in the past, we rather expect this process to happen in an open and transparent manner.

The At Large Advisory Committee urges the Board to exert its institutional role of control to prevent the creation of new political committees that are not foreseen by the Bylaws, do not have clearly defined missions, rights and duties, exclude parts of the community and the general public, and significantly alter the institutional design and the political processes of ICANN. In this light, we welcome the pledges that we received by the CEO, to fix this committee and make it transparent and inclusive; at the same time, we still think that a public and fair ICANN reform process should rather be started immediately.

We also appreciate the appeal for participation in the U.S. Department of Commerce consultation that was made by the CEO at the Internet Governance workshop. We would like to reassure the Board that we intend to participate in this consultation to defend the multistakeholder nature of ICANN and call for a greater and more adequate role for registrants and end users. We are confident that the Board and management will support such call in their own submissions and actions.