The African region has agreed the text of its Operating Principles
The red-line version of the final text as approved at the 26 October 2009 AFRALO meeting is reproduced below and may be downloaded as a PDF here: AFRALO%20Operating%20Principles%20-%20EN%20-%2026%20October%202009%20-redline.pdf
Principes de fonctionnement de la AFRALO - (FR)
Operating Principles of the AFRALO - Redline Version (26 October 2009)
PART 1: GENERAL
1. Name:
The name of this organization shall be the African Regional At-Large Organization (hereinafter referred to as “AFRALO”)
2. Definitions:
In these Operating Principles the following definitions shall apply:
ALAC…………………..At-Large Advisory Committee.
ALS……………………..At --Large Structure.
AFRALO……………….African Regional At-Large Organization.
ICANN………………….Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
RALO…………………..Regional At-Large Organizations.
Member…………………A full member of the AFRALO.
Region…………………..Geographic Region as defined by ICANN.
Provisional Member……The status of an organization which has applied for ALS status and is awaiting a decision by the ALAC with respect to the application.
No ALS applicant shall be considered a Provisional Member where AFRALO has not provided favorable regional advice on the application to the ALAC.
3. Relationship with ICANN
The reference for the relationship between AFRALO and ICANN will be the MOU signed between the 2 parties in 2007.
4. Objectives:
This body is formed with the following objectives:
4.1. to provide a forum and promote and encourage African Internet users’ participation and involvement in ICANN in an effective, open, accountable and transparent manner;
4.2. to promote, understand and advocate for individual Internet users and to provide a forum for outreach, co-ordination and exchange of information and knowledge for persons who live in the African region as defined herein;
4.3. to act as an interface between individual Internet users and ICANN and to promote skills development and information exchange related to the Internet amongst Members;
4.4. to encourage users in developing countries in Africa to participate in AFRALO.
4.5. to select two individuals to represent the Members of AFRALO as members of the ALAC as provided in the Memorandum of Understanding between AFRALO and ICANN.
PART II: MEMBERSHIP
5. Membership
5.1. All organizations are considered ALS if they are accredited by ALAC
5.2. All ALSes in the AFRICAN region shall be Members of the AFRALO.
5.3. There shall be no limit as to the number of Members of the AFRALO.
5.4. All Members and Provisional Members shall be entitled to attend and participate at all meetings and be entitled to access information via a publicly accessed World Wide Web site maintained by AFRALO.
5.5. All Members and Provisional Members shall be entitled to participate in AFRALO mailing lists.
PART III: MANAGEMENT
6. Officers
The officers of AFRALO are: a Chairperson, a Vice Chairperson and a Secretariat.
6.1. The Chairperson shall be elected by the Members of AFRALO. He or she shall act as Chairperson at all AFRALO Meetings, coordinate the AFRALO activities and represent the AFRALO in its dealings with outside entities.
6.2. The vice-chairperson shall be elected by the Members of AFRALO. He or she shall assist the Chair and replace him/her where he/she is unavailable.
6.3. The Secretariat shall be elected by the Members of AFRALO. He or she shall deal with all questions concerning the administration of the Organization.
He or she shall particularly prepare the AFRALO meetings agenda in close collaboration with the Chairperson and deal with application for membership.
He or she shall also manage actively AFRALO mailing list(s), and disseminate AFRALO and "ICANN related news, requests for comments on any policy development issues" to AFRALO members through the mailing list(s) in a timely manner.
6.4 Each AFRALO officer shall serve a term of two years and may be re-elected only once. For the first election of the AFRALO secretary, the term will be for only one year to permit an overlap of one year between the term of the Chair and Vice Chair, and the term of the secretary.
6.5. All the officers of AFRALO should work close with ICANN staff to achieve AFRALO objectives.
6.6 The election of the Chairperson, the Vice Chairperson, and the Secretariat of AFRALO shall be held simultaneously to the process of election of the
AFRALO Representatives on the ALAC.
6.7 The selection process of AFRALO representatives to ALAC is as provided in the Memorandum of Understanding between AFRALO and ICANN and as
provided by the Bylaws of ICANN.
6.8 The duties of the Officers of the AFRALO shall be as determined by the Members as they may decide from time to time by the majority of a quorum.
6.9 If a vacancy occurs amongst those positions referenced in this Part III a replacement shall be elected to fill the remainder of the term by a simple majority of a quorum of the Members of AFRALO.
Part IV: DECISIONS
7. Meetings
7.1. The AFRALO shall hold once every year an Annual General Meeting, in addition to any other meetings in that calendar year, and not more than fifteen (15) months shall elapse between the date of one Annual General Meeting and that of the next.
7.2. The Annual General Meeting or a Meeting shall be held at a venue accessible to all members physically and/or electronically and shall be called by the Chairperson with at least thirty (30) days notice, said notice specifying the time, date and venue of the Meeting and a draft agenda.
7.3. A quorum at any Annual General Meeting or Meeting shall be one third (1/3) of the Members, or seven (7) members, whichever shall be greater. The quorum for any vote of the members, whether held during a Meeting or at any other time, shall be a simple majority of the whole Membership, excepting as provided in Clause 7.5. below.
7.4. The Secretariat shall announce the results of any decision that has been made to the entire membership within 4 days maximum using the AFRALO mailing list.
7.5. At any meeting where at least one half (1/2) of members are present, a motion to amend, change, or repeal the Operating Principles may be initiated. Two-thirds of the whole membership must consent for the motion to carry.
7.6. All Meetings shall be public.
8. Decision Making
8.1. Unless otherwise specified herein, to the extent possible all decisions shall be made by consensus; if a consensus cannot be reached then a vote shall be held. Only those ALSes that have been accredited prior to the opening of a vote shall have voting rights. Each accredited ALS will have one (1) vote.In case of equal votes, the President has the casting vote.
8.2. Where a vote is held, it may be carried out using such electronic and or on-line means (including web applications, e-mail and/or video or tele-conferencing) as determined appropriate by the members.
9. Dissolution
9.1. AFRALO may be dissolved by a two-thirds vote of the entire membership if:
9.1.1. it is determined the objectives of AFRALO have been achieved and its existence is no longer necessary, or;
9.1.2. it is determined that AFRALO will no longer be able to function effectively, or;
9.1.3. The structure of the At-Large community in ICANN is modified in such a manner that Regional At-Large Organizations no longer exist in the Bylaws of ICANN.
9.2. A motion for dissolution may be passed at a General Meeting provided notice of the intent to move for Dissolution is given to all Members 90 days before the Meeting is held.
9.3. Any motion for dissolution must provide for the disposal of any assets of AFRALO.
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AFRALO%20MoU%20Final%20Text.doc
The African region has agreed the text of its Memorandum of Understanding with ICANN, forming the Regional At-Large Organisation (RALO) for Africa
The Text of the final text may be downloaded as an MSWord file, at the top of the page. The text is reproduced below as well.
The MoU will be signed at the Lisbon ICANN Meeting on 29th Marc 2007 at approximately 1230 PM Lisbon time. A link to the webcast of the ceremony will be shortly available here as a permanent record - however, those who wish to watch the ceremony live can click here. (RealPlayer is required) For an audio-only version click here.
African Regional At Large Organisation (RALO) Articles of Association
Draft for discussion
This Memorandum of Understanding is hereby made and entered into on this the xxth Day of xxxx, 200x between the undersigned organisations ordinarily domiciled in Africa (“the Founders”), and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers with headquarters in Marina Del Rey, California, United States of America (“ICANN”), collectively “the Parties”.
WHEREAS
The Founders (“We”), representing individual Internet users in Africa, wish to associate with one another to engage with ICANN in developments affecting the Internet, in such areas as are within the mission of ICANN, and,
ICANN, being obliged to assist in establishing Regional At-Large Organisations (“RALOs”), one in each Region of the World, as these terms are understood in the Bylaws of ICANN (Attached hereto as Annex A), and,
There being no RALO established in Africa prior to the conclusion of this Memorandum of Understanding,
The Parties hereby establish the African Regional At-Large Organisation (“AFRALO”) as provided herein.
1 Aims and Principles
The aim of the African Regional At-Large Organization is to give individual Internet user's interests throughout Africa a voice in ICANN and to make an impact on its policies. The African RALO aims to:
- strengthen consumer protection and human/civil rights in ICANN policies
- identify social impacts of technical infrastructure design
- take cultural diversity into account when formulating technical standards (e.g. IDN implementation)
- represent user's interests and defining public interest aspects of Internet governance with specific focus on the areas of:
- Privacy
- Free Speech
- net neutrality
- open access
- transparency
- accountability
- strengthen user's participation in ICANN decision-making structures
- Help ensure that its members will actively encourage more direct participation by end users
- build Internet policy making capacity in the region
- reach out to Internet Users on the issues in the scope of ICANN
AND:
We commit to serving as the main forum and coordination point for input from individual Internet users to ICANN in the African region and to working with the ALAC and ICANN in conducting the following activities:
> 1. Keeping the community of individual Internet users informed about the significant news from ICANN;
> 2. Distributing (through posting or otherwise) an updated agenda, news about ICANN, and information about items in the ICANN policy-development process;
> 3. Promoting outreach activities in the community of individual Internet users;
> 4. Developing and maintaining on-going information and education programs, regarding ICANN and its work;
> 5 Establishing an outreach strategy about ICANN issues in the AFRICAN Region;
> 6. Making public, and analyzing, ICANN's proposed policies and its decisions and their (potential) regional impact and (potential) effect on individuals in Africa;
> 7. Offering Internet-based mechanisms that enable discussions among members of At-Large structures; and;
> 8. Establishing mechanisms and processes that enable two-way communication between members of At-Large Structures and those involved in ICANN decision-making, so interested individuals can share their views on pending ICANN issues.
2 Membership
Any approved At Large Structure “ALS” from the African region is automatically entitled to Membership of the African RALO.
We recognize that ICANN has established criteria and standards for the certification of ALSes. The AFRALO will encourage organizations to apply for certification and assist with certification, including by:
-
- reviewing ALS applications from organizations in Africa upon submission to ICANN and recommending whether or not the organization should be certified as an ALS;
- providing Africa ALS applicants with AFRALO information and, if recommended by the AFRALO for certification, provisional membership in the AFRALO whilst the ALS application is under consideration by the ALAC;
- when ALS certification is verified by the ALAC for Africa applicants, these applicants will be granted membership in the AFRALO.
We declare that every interested citizen or resident in our region is welcome to join at least one of our At-Large Structures.
We include 3 open and transparent At-Large Structures based in 3 different countries within our Geographic Region. They are ISOC-ZA, ISOC Sudan and ISOC Morocco.
We commit to periodically reviewing (at least once annually) the results of Members’ cooperation and activities under the MOU and, when appropriate, will recommend improvements in the MOU and make suitable proposals for modifying and updating the arrangements and scope of the MOU.
3 Working Structure
The African RALO is a voluntary membership organization, which will make best efforts to ensure an annual general meeting.
3.1 Secretariat
The Members will meet (using teleconference or face to face or other agreed mechanism) in order to appoint a Secretariat on a bi-annual basis (every two years). The secretariat’s duties will be determined by the Members, but shall consist of at least the following:
> 1. Maintaining a list of authorized contact persons for each of the At Large Structures, and;
> 2. Managing the process of selecting all of the African representatives to the At Large Advisory Committee, and;
> 3. To the extent possible as provided in Section 2, providing for the certification of new ALS and adding them as Members.
3.2 Selection of ALAC’s African Member-Representatives
Subject to the ICANN Bylaws’ provisions relating to the structure and makeup of the At Large Advisory Committee, the seat or seats designated for African representatives shall be selected by the African RALO. Those selected may not be based in, or be citizens of, the same country, and they must be members of different At-Large Structures.
Whenever a vacancy arises in an African ALAC seat, or when the term of an African ALAC representative expires, each Member of the RALO will be invited by the Secretariat by electronic mail to the then-current email address of each Member’s representative to nominate one or more individuals for appointment to the ALAC. Nominations shall be sent in writing, via email, and a reasonable period shall be provided to the Members for nominations to be transmitted by the Secretariat.
At the close of the nomination period, the Secretariat will announce the list of those nominated, and will invite each member to vote for two candidates, to serve a term of one year. An email process will be used for the balloting where the authorized contact representative of each Member will be emailed with a ballot form and ballot authentication code.
This instrument shall take effect upon signature of all parties and shall remain in effect for one year from the date provided above. It may be extended or amended upon written request of the Founders and the then-current Members of the AFRALO, or of ICANN, acting on its own behalf, where the other party agrees in writing. Either of the Parties may terminate this MOU with sixty (60) days written notice to the other(s).
Each of the Parties shall manage their own activities and utilize their own resources, including the expenditure of their own funds, in pursuing the objectives of the MOU, and neither shall be obliged to provide funds of any kind to the other in the implementation of this MOU.
For and on behalf of the Founders: For and on behalf of ICANN
Name of Organisation1
_______________________________________ ____________________________________
Signature Signature
Name: _________________________________ Name: ______________________________
Title: __________________________________ Title: _______________________________
________________________________________
Signature
Name: __________________________________
Title: ___________________________________
________________________________________
Signature
Name: __________________________________
Title: ___________________________________
________________________________________
Signature
Name: __________________________________
Title: ___________________________________
________________________________________
Signature
Name: __________________________________
Title: ___________________________________
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