Policy Advisory Body

PAB is the abbreviation for the gTLD Policy Advisory Body. It is an organization comprising of the signatories of the gTLD MoU. The PAB was created along with the Council of Registrars (CORE) and Policy Oversight Committee (POC) under the guide of the gTLD MoU.

Mission of the PAB

The main mission of the PAB is to represent the voices of Internet stakeholders in the arena of the global Internet domain name system (DNS), as per the limitations set under the gTLD-MoU. For this, the PAB actively debates, solicits and tries to reach consensual positions wherever and whenever possible and voices its opinion in the form of recommendations about how the global Internet domain system should be administered. The main mission of the PAB is to work as a channel to involve those organizations and groups in the gTLD-MoU process, which are not represented in the framework of the PAB.

Functions of the PAB

The PAB was established primarily to make recommendations about general policy matters related to the gTLD-MoU and the POC. Any organization that wished to participate was incorporated in this body as members of the body, without having to pay any fees or dues The decisions of this body are mostly taken on the basis of “rough consensus." The PAB does not have the power, however, to make any kind of binding decisions; it was created only to advise the POC. The PAB serves as a ground to express new ideas and inclusion of new interest groups. It is also a good platform to express dissent against the gTLD-MoU, which has made it a powerful catalyst for change. The PAB understands that the gTLD-MoU doesn’t provide any kind of oversight of the POC and hence it considers providing appropriate recommendations in order to help to enhance the functioning of the POC.

Structure of PAB

There is no legally mandated internal structure. Rather, the PAB organizes itself and works in accordance with the “rough consensus” model of the Internet.

As many as 170 organizations from various countries are represented in the Policy Advisory Body. These countries include: Hong Kong, Indonesia, American Samoa, Austria, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Albania, Denmark, France, Germany, Ghana, Guadeloupe FWI, Netherlands, New Zealand, Thailand, Togo, UK, the USA Channel Islands, China, Czech Republic Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, and Monaco. In addition to these, there are 219 more signatories of the gTLD MoU who chose not to participate in the PAB. The members of the PAB represent a wide range of interests such as large and small corporations, giant trade organizations, very small sole-proprietorships, international organizations, public services, non-profit interest groups and many others.

Officers of the PAB

The PAB elects an Executive Committee, consisting of the following officers:

1. Chair
2. Deputy Chair
3. Secretary
4. Liaison to CORE
5. PAB Representative to POC number 1
6. PAB Representative to POC number 2
7. Any additional PAB Representatives to POC