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Thematic Group 2 was tasked with a review of ICANN’s effort to provide a framework where all stakeholders worldwide can effectively interact on an equal footing with no barriers to full participation. This framework must also provide the higher levels of transparency and accountability and ensure that the multiple stakeholders have the ability to certify verify that ICANN is free of any restrictions, domestic or otherwise, that interfere with its ability to provide the required services and support as per its mandate. 

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-          Are there barriers to participation that hinder and limit based on cultural, geopolitical, economical linguistic and gender or other differences.

2.       Equal Global MSM

-          Are there stakeholders groups that are less represented, or have a lesser voice in the PDP?

-          If so, do we put in place mechanisms to foster equal participation?

-          What are the mechanisms to ensure the PDP receives global input and addresses the need needs and expectations of all stakeholders?

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-          Are contracts  - with contracted parties compliant with int’l Int’l law and in any case not in contrast with legal systems other than the home jurisdiction of ICANN?

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-          Are the accountability mechanisms globally fair?

-          Will all the different global stakeholder groups have the same power to enforce checks and balance on ICANN’s behaviour?

5.       Operational Matters

-          Is communication privileging specific local communities?

-          Is ICANN’s footprint global, covering the global internet community on equal footing?

-          Are users worldwide given the same opportunities to contact ICANN and to provide their opinion, advice, comment or complaint?

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-          Are ICANN’s operations sufficiently shielded from local jurisdiction, i.e. can ICANN survive a change of the political attitude in one or more countries without disruption of its operations worldwide?

As a basis and support for the discussions two subject matter experts provided their perpectives on the areas of focus. This report outlines the nature of the discussions, conclusions and recommendations on the way forward.

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ICANN has made some progress in being more inclusive but some issues still remain to be addressed. Some are outside of ICANNs direct remit and will require partnerships and collaborations to be effectively addressed.  Some issue others are directly within ICANN’s control. These are as follows:

·        With respect to ICANN meetings, there is uneven geographic representation and participation due to lack of access, understanding of the subject matter, lack of awareness and a general feeling that there is a level of unresponsive on the part of the policymakers within ICANN to local concerns. There is a sense that a lack of equity in stakeholder access and representation exist exists and as a consequence, ability an inability to influence policy.

·       Geographic regions are underrepresented in the working groups where most of the policy development takes place. The reasons are varies from cultural, structural to capacity. In some regions the layer of the enabling infrastructure for access is limited or is only now being addressed.  Cultural and political obstacles can stand as barriers to participation.

·         There continues to be a challenge with effective language interpretation and translation…both for the spoken word and in the context of ICANN related documents.

If ICANN adopts a mandate to improve the engagement process, they should it may begin to by taking the following steps.:

·         ICANN must accelerate the stationing of its staff closer to the end users around the world.  This would mean rebalancing the staff placement with greater focus on the areas where the access to the internet is growing and where growth is more likely to occur.

·       The next evolution of language services must adopt further extension of live scribing for all meetings and generally extend the current translation and interpretation processes. Special attention should be given to the production of documents to eliminate the

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delay in the publication between English language documents and other language sets. More human translators in the process, possibly sourced from end user community groups, could assist in product improvement and output. It should be noted that real time scribing is currently offered at Board Meetings, meetings of the GAC, the public forum and the opening ceremonies of ICANN meetings.(research has indicated that scribing is several times more expensive than interpretation)

·         ICANN must implement a range of services to facilitate access by the differently abled communities. Extensive consultation with the community is required so to ensure that what is provided

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is fit for purpose.

·         ICANN must also further address the issues of gender imbalance

III.                Equal Global MSM

The discussion centered on the theme that there is unequal influence and power in the ICANN’s multistakeholder model (MSM).  The general belief is that structural as well as capacity differences contributed to this state of affairs.  Even within regions some sub-regions seem to be more represented than others. Achieving equity will involve capacity-building , and further support for engagement to stakeholder groups currently less engaged.

ICANN should consider more of the following:

·         Awareness raising campaigns across underrepresented regions in collaboration with At-Large Structures

·         Extensive

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education programmes across underrepresented regions in collaboration with other internet focused organisations.

IV.                Constitution and Legal Mechanisms

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The accountability mechanisms of ICANN do not facilitate access and/or input from the global internet community at present. The primary example of this is the Affirmation of Commitment (AoC) with the U.S. department of Commerce.  Even though the principles of accountability are enshrined in that agreement , the very  the bilateral nature of the document does not provide global community review and input.

It is recognized that there is an Independent Review Process (IRP) in place within ICANN but there are some issues of transparency in this process. The IANA transition will be a tremendous opportunity to begin to develop an accountability mechanism that is accessible to the global internet community.

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It is clear that ICANN’s global footprint does not cover the global internet community on an equal footing and there are weaknesses that need to be addressed.  There was general agreement that ICANN needs to be closer to the members of the global community…especially in the underserved areas.  The access to the ICANN’s facilities by the global community can also be improved. The difficulties highlighted included the following:

·         ICANN support staff are physically difficult to contact (there was however a debate is to whether this was absolutely necessary).

·         The current instance of the ICANN website is unhelpful and does not easily facilitate access by global users.

·        Translated documents are not available online

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·         There are issues that require immediately response depending upon constituency. ICANN needs to take into consideration specific

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geographic and cultural tendencies (i.e the need to speak with live operators).

·         Some of the online social media used by ICANN for their outreach is sometimes blocked by governments.

There was a clear consensus that ICANN needs to improve it its global footprint if they it is to effectively support their the global internet community.   The recommendations for this issue include the following:

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Open additional regional offices but with a clear strategy, because ICANN cannot open in every location.

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The legal structure of ICANN be changed to

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be more similar to, for example, international ngo or treaty organizations.

·         Improve

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their direct communications regardless of time zones.

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         Be sensitive to the fact that social media is sometimes blocked by governments.

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         Provide more translated documents and ensure translations are made available in a timely manner.