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DATE: 30 January 2011
STATUS: FINAL DRAFTFinal
Introduction
By the Staff of ICANN
The attached Statement constitutes the official response of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) on the recent public consultation on the Interim Report of Geographic Regions Review Working Group. The Statement was initially drafted by Mohamed El Bashir, member of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), on 26 January 2011.
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The enclosed Statement was submitted by email to the Geographic Regions Review Working Group on 30 January 2011.
(End of Introduction)
ALAC Statement on the Interim Report of the Geographic Regions Review Working Group
The At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) appreciates the excellent work done by the Geographic Regions Review Working Group. The interim report covers the legacy background information and raises important questions related to the current ICANN region structure.
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As with the wide diversity that exists within and between the five At-Large RALOs, including historical, linguistic, cultural and geographic differences, there is also a diversity of perspectives on the issues raised in the Interim Report of the Geographic Regions Working Group. This diversity is evident in the contributions from the RALOs set out in the Appendix to this Statement.
Appendix
AFRALO
AFRALO Statement on ICANN Geographic Regions
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AFRALO recommends ICANN to keep the integrity of the African continent as such with all its countries as actually recognized by the United Nations. With its 54 countries and its cultural diversity (multiple languages, different types of populations, high demography, different political systems, variety of climates and vegetations, etc.) Africa, by itself, is a complex community model in which the members learn to respectfully communicate and live together, in harmony. For equity reasons, AFRALO recommends that ICANN finds mechanisms to provide due representation actors to each continent according to the respective number of countries, regardless of the number of languages.
APRALO
APRALO is submitting the following statements on three separate issues.
Small Island cross-regional At-Large organisation
The attached submission is by the Vice Chair of PICISOC Maureen Hilyard which outlines the reasoning for the development of a Small Island Developing States (SIDS) grouping within ICANN’s At‐large structure.
-- Will Tibben
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This is a very interesting topic related to my own case. Within the framework of ICANN Geo. regions Republic of Armenia is in Asia Pacific. Within the framework of many other structures Armenia is within Europe, just as an example given from the PPt PPt (Geographic Regions Review Workshop Cartagena), according to "International Norms, Armenia for within UN structure is considered as "Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States, ITU council uses Armenia within "Eastern Europe and Northern Asia", ITU (BDT) uses Armenia within "The Commonwealth of Independent States". This brings a lot of confusion for me as a representative of Armenia. Currently there are discussions on this topic within ALAC community, and I volunteered to participate in the discussions of both in EURALO and APRALO in order to understand what kind of changes, discussions are taking place and where Armenia is considered to be in accordance to these group discussions.
The easiest way will be the identification of Armenia within Europe, as Armenia is a member of United Nations since March 2, 1992, Armenia is a member of Council of Europe since January 25, 2001. Currently Armenia works towards becoming a member of the European Union. Armenia is a member of the European ccNSO. Thus, my suggestion is to identify Armenia within Europe, not within Asia Pacific also within ICANN framework.
-- Siranush Vardanyan
EURALO
EURALO input to the on-going ICANN consultation process on the Interim Report of the Geographic Regions Review WG.
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Wolf Ludwig -- on behalf of EURALO
LACRALO
Regional Position
A general consensus around the concepts and points of the Draft. Regarding the possibility of dividing a region, it stands out the importance of keeping particularly the point 110 of the Draft.
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We agree in the broader recognition of “diversity” to include additional considerations of culture and language in the LACRALO. The Caribbean is distinct in terms of its history, culture and language; further it has indigenous challenges being small island states and specific needs which are not a natural fit with the rest of Latin America. Due to these differences LACRALO is able to benefit from varying opinions and has the potential to be a truly representative region. One small but important example is the predominant use of English language in the Caribbean Region, however 90% of the mailing list discussion takes place in Spanish. With poor translation tools and the particular nuances between languages; we struggle to understand each other and it becomes almost prohibitively difficult to communicate, follow topic threads collaborate and participate fully. Interpretation between our two regions is currently poor and the result is misunderstanding, frustration, duplicated effort and ultimately lack of participation from our Region; thereby resulting in under-representation of our particular perspectives and points of view.
Numbers of Internet users
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We laud the Working Group, specifically with regard to identifying and detailing the specific needs of Small Island Developing States and will readily endorse such grouping in whatever form. We hope that this step forward is not negated by issues of funding, as the underlying aim of this assessment is to encourage ICANN’s Core Values. We must always seek out, cherish and ensure effective representation.
NARALO
NARALO finds that the current situation in this region is satisfactory but encourages the work of other At-Large regions in which the current system may be seen to require change.
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