Introduction
This document aims to provide an overview of key policy issues that AfRALO has been working on in ICANN, as well as the key outreach and engagement activities.
AFRALO is the home of the individual Internet user community for the African region. It provides news, key resources and interactive information sharing tools for individuals and enduser groups in the African region who are interested in ICANN and in shaping the future of the Internet.
AFRALO aims to:
• Strengthen users’ 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
• Represent users’ interests and defining public interest aspects of Internet governance with specific focus on the areas of privacy, transparency, and accountability
• Strengthen consumer protection in ICANN policies
• Identify social impacts of technical infrastructure design
• Take cultural diversity into account when formulating technical standards (e.g. IDN implementation)
AFRALO currently consist of 54 ALSes located in 30 countries and territories.
Hot Policy Topics Selected :
Promoting DNSSEC Implementation in Africa's TLD registries
New gTLDs and Geographic names
New gTLD Subsequent Procedure
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Privacy
Registration Directory Service (RDS) and Whois
ICANN's Accountability and Transparency
Diversity and Participation at ICANN
Internet Governance activities and issues
Capacity Building, Awareness and Outreach to Africa ( e.g Access of ICANN materials in African/Other languages other than English )
Top Topic Issues
Promoting DNSSEC Implementation in Africa's TLD registries | |||
Summary | |||
DNSSEC is important because it adds security to the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol by enabling DNS responses to be validated. Specifically, DNSSEC provides origin authority, data integrity, and authenticated denial of existence. | |||
Why its important to AfRALO and African Internet Users ? | |||
Africa has a low DNSSEC implementation compared to the rest of the world. | |||
Action Items | |||
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Registration Directory Service (RDS) and Whois | |||
Summary | |||
RDS and Whois are pertinent issues that relate to the ownership of Domain names. Currently information on Domain ownership are published publicly. There is a strong drive to protect registration data and improve accuracy and access to generic top-level domain registration data, as well as consider safeguards for protecting such data. | |||
Why it's important to AfRALO and African Internet Users ? | |||
In the current RDS and Whois WG there is little participation from Africa despite the issue being relative to the Internet and Domain System in the region. Despite the fact that the pertinent issues that affect the registry have less reports coming from Africa Region and documentation regarding to the violation of Whois records that are publicly limited - there is a need for strong awareness in the the policy discussion and recommendations given that could affect the RDS implementation in Africa region. | |||
Action Items | |||
More information on the RDS can be found https://www.icann.org/resources/reviews/specific-reviews/whois |
ICANN's Accountability and Transparency | |||
Summary | |||
ICANN’s core mission is to coordinate, at the overall level, the global Internet’s systems of unique identifiers, and in particular to ensure the stable and secure operation of the Internet’s unique identifiers. ICANN operates on a multi-stakeholder model that brings all interested parties together to discuss policy issues that fall within ICANN’s areas of responsibility. It follows a bottom-up model of policy development and relies on consensus from its stakeholders. For this model to operate effectively, ICANN needs to encourage participation, instill trust, make information accessible, and have sound dispute and review mechanisms.
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Why its important to AfRALO and African Internet Users ? | |||
Afralo and African Internet Users need to understand the ICANNs multistakeholder process and how it ensures Accountability and Transparency. | |||
Action Items | |||
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General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Privacy | |||
Summary | |||
The current state of the GDPR and privacy laws in the regions has been so neglected and with minimum or least participation Africa remains vulnerable to Global policies and does not have a proper stand when it comes to the GDPR. The GDPR comes into force on 25th May 2018. We encourage African countries that are major trading partners of the European Union to consider adopting relevant measures needed to ensure compliance. More importantly, we encourage Registries and Registrars who are serving non-EU regions like Africa to ensure implementation does not have damaging implication on their non-EU customers. This will ensure that cross-border transactions with the EU are not affected. There are both financial and non-financial implications of ensuring compliance under this comprehensive regulation. | |||
Why its important to AfRALO and African Internet Users ? | |||
With reference to the Map above, the grey areas marks quite a few number of countries in Africa that has some or no proper privacy laws and may need to adopt some level of adoption. This calls for the African community to be alerted on the impact of the GDPR the fact that it will affect the African Economies especially the Economies of scale which is very important. | |||
Action Items | |||
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