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Final (Re-submitted)
FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS - SUBTASK 1

GNSO OSC CONSTITUENCY & STAKEHOLDER GROUP OPERATIONS (CSG) WORK TEAM

Background

After several GNSO reviews, the ICANN Board Governance Committee (BGC) created a working group (WG) to consider the results of the reviews and recommend a comprehensive proposal to improve the effectiveness of the GNSO, including its policy activities, structure, operations and communications. The BGC WG produced a comprehensive set of recommendations: “BGC-WG Report on GNSO Improvements” that were approved by the full Board (http://www.icann.org/topics/gnso-improvements/gnso-improvements-report-03feb08.pdf).

This report has been extensively referred to in preparing this Recommendation Document.
As a follow up to the above referred report, the GNSO Council formed two steering committees. The Operations Steering Committee (OSC) formed three work teams, one of which is the OSC Constituency Operations Team, subsequently called the OSC Constituency and Stakeholder Group Operations Team (OSC CSG WT).

In this document, WT will mean OSC CSG Work Team. It has a Wiki page at:
constituency operations team

The WT with GNSO staff support created a Work Plan and broke it down into Tasks and Subtasks. This document can be seen in the above referred Wiki page. S. S. Kshatriya (SS) volunteered to Lead Task 1, Subtask 1. Other WT members volunteering to work for Task 1 Subtask 1 are: Victoria McEvedy, Claudio DiGangi and Rafik Dammak.
Subtask 1 is described as: Develop recommendations for a set of participation rules and operating procedures, which all constituencies should abide by. Subtask 1 was further divided into three sections and these have been detailed in the recommendations.

In addition to the BGC-WG report, we referred to Constituency renewal and Stakeholder Group (SG) charter documents submitted to the Board for approval (http://gnso.icann.org/en/improvements/renewal-process-en.htm) as well as Staff Analysis of Constituency and SG Charters that can be seen in the WT Wiki page.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Section 1. Participation Principles

The BGC Report at p.43 mandated the development of “…constituency-developed participation rules for all constituencies that encourage openness, transparency and accountability. The rules must adhere to the following principles..”

"The criteria for participation in any ICANN constituency should be objective, standardized and clearly stated.
• Admissions decisions should be transparent, including how these decisions are communicated, and how many applicants are successful.
• General information about each participant application and decisions regarding admissions should be publicly available. Each constituency must keep records of successful and unsuccessful applicants.
• Each constituency should maintain up-to-date records of all current members, and this information must be publicly available.
• There must be a clear avenue of appeal for an applicant rejection to a neutral third party.”

This Subtask team developed the following rules to implement this recommendation and proposes that all Stakeholder Groups/Constituencies (here-in-after called GROUPs) shall adopt the rules below for participation. Such rules and procedures shall be part of their Charters. 1

a. All GROUPs-shall adopt these rules for participation to encourage openness, transparency and accountability. These rules and any other rules governing participation shall be objective, standardized and clearly stated. FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBT, WHILE COMMONALITY IS ENCOURAGED IN THE INTERESTS OF SIMPLIFICATION, GROUPS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO HAVE IDENTICAL RULES AND VARIATION BETWEEN GROUPS IS ACCEPTABLE, AS APPROPRIATE. 2

b. The GROUPs shall have their participation rules based on common principles developed by the GNSO. These rules then shall be made available in THE FIVE UN LANGUAGES: CHINESE, RUSSIAN, ARABIC, SPANISH, and FRENCH so they can be understood by ICANN’s global audience. 3

c. All GROUPs shall STRIVE to improve inclusiveness and representativeness. WE RECOMMEND THAT GROUPS HAVE EITHER A DIFFERENTIAL FEE STRUCTURE BASED ON THE ABILITY TO PAY, IN ORDER TO ENCOURAGE INCREASED REPRESENTATION FROM THOSE LIVING IN LESS DEVELOPED ECONOMIES; OR HARDSHIP PROVISIONS THAT ENTITLE ANY POTENTIAL MEMBER TO APPLY FOR HARDSHIP RELIEF FROM THE NORMAL FEE SCALE.

d. All GROUPs shall strive to remove information barriers and put in place well-structured outreach programs so that many potential stakeholders come to know of their existence and also of benefits in being part of the ICANN policy process thereby becoming more aware of the value of joining the GROUP. 5

Section 2. Membership 6

a. All GROUPs shall make and publish rules and procedures for admission requirements of interested parties as Members in clear and simple terms. Such rules and procedures shall be part of their Charters.

b. All GROUPs shall abide by rules governing membership which are based on common principles. All GROUP members shall have rights, duties and responsibilities and in particular, rights to vote as applicable as per membership rules. All GROUPs must offer membership to natural persons or individuals, if applicable, as well as to entities with legal personality such as corporations. However, any person or organization applying for membership shall meet the membership criteria laid down by the GROUP with ICANN’s approval.

c. All GROUPs, shall stipulate the rights, duties, and responsibilities of its members in clear and simple terms and publish the same.

d. A simple application form shall be devised for membership and it shall be publicly available on the GROUP’s website.

d1. Admission criteria shall be PREDICTABLE and OBJECTIVE and not arbitrary or discretionary. Where eligibility depends on participation in a certain sector of business, then applicants shall be entitled to submit evidence of their participation in that sector.

d2. The general membership shall be entitled to object to an application for membership provided that such objection is based on PREDICTABLE and objective membership criteria. Such an objection shall be published to the rest of the general membership.

d3. While applying for membership; an applicant has agreed to abide by THE WRITTEN rules and regulations, INCLUDING CHARTERS AND BYLAWS, of the GROUP and terms and conditions laid down by it.

e. Status of a new application and admission decision, as far as possible, shall be publicly available AT THE OPTION OF THE APPLICANT and an applicant shall be kept informed about it. In particular, the applicant shall be advised of the gist of any objection AND THE REASONS FOR THE OBJECTION to the application, BE GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO ASK CLARIFYING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE OBJECTION, and be given the opportunity to REPLY WITH CLARIFICATION OR TO REPLY IN GENERAL.

f.In case of rejection of an application or a dispute, the applicant shall have recourse of appeal to a neutral third party. The GROUP shall SELECT such a neutral third party in consultation with -ICANN/GNSO.
IN CASE OF UNFAIR TREATMENT RESULTING IN THE REJECTION OF AN APPLICATION OR A DISPUTE, THE APPLICANT MAY LODGE A COMPLAINT WITH THE ICANN OMBUDSMAN OR A MUTUALLY AGREED UPON NON-BIASED NEUTRAL THIRD PARTY. THE PROCESS FOR LODGING A COMPLAINT WITH THE OMBUDSMAN IS SET FORTH IN ARTICLE V OF THE ICANN BYLAWS AND IN THE OMBUDSMAN FRAMEWORK, AVAILABLE AT http://www.icann.org/ombudsman/documents/ombudsman-framework-26mar09-en.pdf.

g. Every member shall remain in good standing until the GROUP has decided otherwise AS PER ITS CHARTER PROVISIONS. The reasons that such status can be imperiled shall be predictable and OBJECTIVE not arbitrary or discretionary. In such an event, the member shall be given an opportunity to be heard. Appropriate procedures shall be made for such an eventuality. The affected party shall have right of appeal to a neutral third party.

h. List of members and their contact details shall be publicly available on the GROUP website. Individual members shall have the right to have publication of address and other contact details withheld to protect their privacy. All members, unless otherwise stated, shall be eligible to participate in the business of the GROUP and have voting rights as applicable.

-i. A GROUP may levy reasonable membership fees in keeping with the capacity of its members and the GROUP’s budget. Such fees shall be decided in the general body of its members-.

I. No legal or natural person shall be entitled to join more than one Constituency or Stakeholder GROUP as a voting member.

Section 3. Policy and Consensus

All members of GROUPs shall be eligible to participate in the Policy work of the GROUP and to join Committees formed to deal with policy issues and other GROUP issues, including eligibility of membership in the GROUP’s committees.

THERE SHOULD BE EMPHASIS ON CONSENSUS BUILDING IN GROUP DELIBERATIONS. -IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT GROUPs shall function on GROUPS SHOULD REFER TO the GNSO WG model. AND GUIDELINES for the purpose of reaching consensus and.-

TO IMPROVE ACCESSIBILITY, TRANSPARENCY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY, ALL GROUPS SHOULD ESTABLISH AND PUBLISH A CONSENSUS BUILDING MODEL OR PROCESS IN THEIR BYLAWS OR CHARTER. THE PROCESS OR MODEL SHOULD BE BASED ON THE PRINCIPLES OF PARTICIPATION, REPRESENTATIVENESS, PROCESS INTEGRITY, FLEXIBILITY, TRANSPARENCY, OPENNESS, AND OTHER NORMS COMMON TO THE GNSO WG MODEL. -t

he use of voting WITHIN POLICY DELIBERATIONS should be minimized as much as possible-. 7

WHATEVER CONSENSUS BUILDING MODEL OR PROCESS A GROUP USES, THE GROUP MUST DESCRIBE THE PROCESS IN THEIR BYLAWS OR CHARTER SO IT IS VISIBLE AND TRANSPARENT.

1 Board Governance Committee (BGC) GNSO Review Working Group Report on GNSO Improvements. P 45, Para Last.
2 ,, ,, P 43, Para 1.
3 ,, ,, P 42, Para 5
4 ,, ,, P 41, Para Last
5 ,, ,, P 42, Para 4
6 ,, ,, P 43, Para 2
7 ,, ,, P 46, Para 2