[A2k] Public Interest Groups in ICANN Appeal to New President For Fairer Treatment For Civil Society

[Robin Gross]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
NCUC Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3 September 2009

Public Interest Groups in ICANN Appeal to New President For Fairer
Treatment For Civil Society

The organization that represents Non-Commercial Internet Users in the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) issued an
open letter to the Board this week, expressing concern about the
possible failure of ICANN's attempt to balance the representation of
commercial and noncommercial interests.

California (United States)  =96  ICANN=92s Non-Commercial Users
Constituency (NCUC), a group of 152 non-commercial organizations and
individuals from 52 countries who represent the noncommercial
interests of Internet users in ICANN policy development, recently
appealed to ICANN's Board of Directors and CEO to meet with them in
Seoul to resolve serious problems with its current plans to alter the
representation of noncommercial interests in its policy making process.

Specifically, NCUC=92s letter expressed concern over ICANN=92s adoption
of a flawed charter for noncommercial users that disregarded the vast
majority of public comments and concerns expressed by noncommercial
Internet users.  In late July 2009 ICANN=92s Board decided to approve
the NCSG charter drafted by ICANN staff, rather than the charter
drafted by civil society in a 7-month long consensus process that
included a wide variety of noncommercial interests and was submitted
to ICANN=92s Board by the NCUC.

ICANN=92s staff did not provide its board with the competing charter
submitted by NCUC in order to properly inform the board=92s decision.
The difference between staff=92s charter and civil society=92s charter is
stark.  Staff=92s charter ties council representation and resources to
arbitrary and more easily manipulated constituencies, while the NCUC
charter calls for stakeholder group wide elections of its
noncommercial representatives and other leaders.  NCUC=92s charter
model encourages consensus building among constituencies, while
staff=92s charter model encourages divisiveness and favoritism among
noncommercial interests.

=93ICANN=92s decision has resulted in significant damage to ICANN=92s
credibility within global civil society and has fueled further
distrust towards ICANN=92s decision making process,=94 said NCUC Chair
Robin Gross.  =93Its treatment of noncommercial users in this instance
has significantly called into question ICANN=92s legitimacy to govern
and its ability to protect the global public interest,=94 said Gross,
Executive Director of digital rights group IP Justice, a NCUC member
since 2004.

The board=92s adoption of the stakeholder group charter is part of
ICANN=92s ongoing effort to re-organize its Generic Names Supporting
Organization (GNSO), which currently consists of 5 commercial
constituencies and 1 non-commercial constituency, the NCUC.  ICANN=92s
GNSO is responsible for developing policy recommendations that relate
to Generic Top-Level Domains (GTLDs) or those domain names that end
in .com, .net, .edu, and .org.  The GNSO plays an important role on
Internet-related policy issues since its recommendations affect all
who own or use GTLDs, including the way domain names can be
registered, used, transferred, and any applicable fees and associated
policies regarding the domain names.  The process of changing the
GNSO=92s structure from 6 constituencies to 4 stakeholder groups is
expected to be complete by the end of October 2009.

In its letter the NCUC states that =93there is a misunderstanding over
non-commercial representation and participation in ICANN=94 and NCUC
calls on ICANN to acknowledge that there has been significant growth
among noncommercial participants at ICANN recently.  NCUC=92s
membership has grown by 240% since 2008 and now includes 75
noncommercial organizations and 77 individuals.  An independent study
by the London School of Economics verified that NCUC has the highest
number of different people on the GNSO Council of any ICANN
constituency and that NCUC has the most geographical diversity among
its membership with members now from 52 different countries.

=93NCUC represents an extremely broad range of noncommercial Internet
users, including educational and academic institutions, human rights
organizations, libraries, consumer groups, religious organizations,
bloggers, open source software developers, development-oriented
groups, arts organizations, and other noncommercial interests,=94
explained Dr. Milton Mueller, an Internet governance expert.  Dr.
Mueller, now a professor at Syracuse University School of Information
Studies and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, co-
founded the constituency in 2002.

"Nonprofits and public interest advocacy groups have an irreplaceable
role to play in a self-regulatory scheme dominated by business
interests.  Someone has to look out for the public interest.  If we
handicap noncommercial voices and divide them into competing silos
they simply won't be able to participate effectively.  ICANN's
legitimacy and the quality of its decisions will suffer," explained
Dr. Mueller.

In order to dispel pervasive myths about civil society=92s role in
ICANN, the NCUC published a =93Top 10 Myths about Civil Society
Participation in ICANN,=94 a document that explains why much of what
ICANN staff and other constituencies have claimed about noncommercial
participation is untrue.

For additional information on NCUC and noncommercial participation in
ICANN, please contact NCUC=92s Chair Robin Gross or visit NCUC=92s
website at http://ncdnhc.org.

Contact:
Robin Gross, NCUC Chair                 Milton Mueller, NCUC Co-Founder
Tel.: +1-415-553-6261                        Tel: +1-315-443-5616
Email: robin =96 at - ipjustice.org           Email: Mueller =96 at =96
syr.edu

More Info:

Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC):
http://ncdnhc.org

NCUC=92s Letter to ICANN Board of Directors and CEO:
http://ncdnhc.org/profiles/blogs/ncuc-letter-to-icann-board-of

NCUC=92s =93Top 10 Myths About Civil Society Participation in ICANN=94:
http://ncdnhc.org/profiles/blogs/top-10-myths-about-civil

About the Noncommercial Users Constituency:

The NCUC is the home for civil society organizations and individuals
in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO).  With real voting power
in ICANN policy-making and Board selection, it develops and supports
positions that favor non-commercial communication and activity on the
Internet.  The NCUC is open to non-commercial organizations and
individuals involved in education, community networking, public
policy advocacy, development, promotion of the arts, children's
welfare, religion, consumer protection, scientific research, human
rights and many other areas.  NCUC maintains a public website at
http://ncdnhc.org.


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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@ipjustice.org