For brevity, I will just highlight outcomes on key issues here. Please check for more details in the relevant work space at the above link and clicking on 'Report to the ALAC'.
1. Consent Agenda
The GNSO Council Review of ICANN85 GAC Communiqué Issues of Importance was adopted and will be relayed to the ICANN Board.
Council acknowledged the NCPH election of Chris Buckridge for Board Seat 14.
2. System for Standardized Access/Disclosure (SSAD) - SSAD Supplemental Recommendations: Team Composition and Assignment
The SSAD is a system proposed to centrally handle requests for non-public registration data, envisioned in Recommendations 1-18 of the Final Report of the GNSO Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data Phase 2 (of October 2020).
Given that the GNSO Supplemental Recommendation process has been triggered by the Board's non-adoption of the said Recommendations 1-18, Council has proposed that an SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team (SSAD SRT) be convened.
The ALAC will shortly be invited to nominate a representative and an alternate to participate in the SSAD SRT.
The SSAD SRT is expected to address the following assignment:
Provide Supplemental Recommendations* on all SSAD (EPDP Phase 2) recommendations
Advise Council on any specific questions or issues to raise during meetings with the ICANN Board concerning SSAD;
Propose modifications to SSAD recommendations based on the recommendation rationale provided in the Standing Committee’s Final Findings Report.
3. Urgent Requests
There has been agreement to include the period of “24 hours” into the EPDP Phase 1 Recommendation 18 text as a matter of implementation, and to avoid asking the Board to reverse adopt this recommendation. This is to not halt or further delay its implementation, which will be tied to the ongoing work on authentication of LEA requestors as well as the Supplemental Recommendation process for EPDP Phase 2 Recommendations 1-18.
4. Proposed GNSO Process for Board to Reverse Adoption of GNSO Policy Recommendations
Council continued to consider the input from the recent Public Comment Proceeding on the updates to the Policy Development Process (PDP) Manual and the GNSO Guidance Process (GGP) Manual, to allow for an exceptional mechanism to reverse previously adopted but not yet implemented GNSO policy recommendations.
I note that the ALAC’s input per AL-ALAC-ST-1125-01-00-EN has been taken into account. I also provided an additional suggestion to encourage the Board to include an impact statement in any rationale for exercising this exceptional mechanism.
However, Council will have to find a path forward given IPC’s non-support of the approach of amending the PDP and GGP Manuals.
5. GNSO Prioritization of Work
Discussion on Council’s prioritization of work centered around what mechanism should be used to establish the “urgency” or ”ranking” of priorities. Discussion will continue.
Dear all,
Please be informed that the agenda for the GNSO Council Meeting of April 2026, is as follows. The month's matters to be discussed are quite dense and I encourage you to review more more details on the marked agenda items (save for Item 9: AOB) by visiting this link (please click on 'Matters of Interest').GNSO Council Meeting held on 16 April 2026
Full Agenda | Documents | Motions
Item 1: Administrative Matters
Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects Action List
2.1 - Review focus areas and provide updates on specific key themes / topics, to include review of Projects List and Action Item List.
Item 3: Consent Agenda
GNSO Review of the GAC Communiqué
Board Seat 14 (Non-Contracted Party House)
Chris Buckridge
Item 4: Council Discussion - Proposed Process to Un-Adopt Approved GNSO Policy Recommendations
Item 5: Council Update - SSAD Recommendations: Team Composition and Assignment
Item 6: Next Steps on Urgent Requests
Item 7: Review of Reviews Update
Item 8: Review of DNS Abuse PDP1 Work Plan
Item 9: Any other business
9.1 - Update on ICANN86 planning and GNSO Draft schedule
9.2 - ccNSO Liaison update
9.3 - Council Process for Response to SPIRT Request
9.4 - PPSAI IRT Liaison Update
9.5 - GNSO-GAC Bilateral ICANN86 preview
This Council meeting will take place on Thursday, 16 April 2026 at 21:00 UTC for 2 hours, and is open to observers remotely. Remote Participation is via this Zoom link.
Thanks for reading / considering.