-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 Dear all, I hope this email finds you well. Most of you have probably followed the discussions and progress on the transitioning of the oversight over ICANN from the US government to the global Internet community. One of the two processes to make this happen is the improvement of ICANN's accountability. As you know, with a lot of hard work from the civil society people in ICANN in WP4, and in collaboration with other constituencies, we have managed to include in the proposed plan.a change to ICANN's bylaws to include a commitment to respect human rights, as well as an interim bylaw which demands the development of a framework for interpretation and implementation of ICANN's human rights commitment. The inclusion of the commitment to human rights will only happen if the plan and the bylaw get approved. For this I would like to ask your support. I would like to ask you to submit a public comment in support for the human rights bylaw, which is defined in Annex 6 [0] of the draft report [1]. The comment period is open for public comment (up to December 21, 23:59 UTC) The process of sending in a comment in easy: simply write an email to: comments-draft-ccwg-accountability-proposal-30nov15@icann.org I know this time of the year is quite busy, and therefore Tatiana Tropina and I have prepared a sample email for you below which you can simply copy and paste in an email and add your organization at the beginning of paragraph 1 and 2 and send it off. But if you would like to write your own comment you're of course more than invited to do so. Best, Niels [0] https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/draft-ccwg-accountability-pr oposal-annex-6-30nov15-en.pdf [1] https://www.icann.org/public-comments/draft-ccwg-accountability-proposal - -2015-11-30-en __________________SAMPLE COMMENT_______________________ <<YOUR ORGANIZATION>> appreciates the opportunity to submit comments on the CCWG-Accountability Draft Work Stream 1 Recommendations. We would like to thank the CCWG on Accountability for its hard work in compiling this report. This is a crucial step in the transition of the oversight over ICANN from the US government to the global community, which is generally welcomed. <<YOUR ORGANIZATION>> especially welcomes the inclusion of the bylaw language reaffirming and clarifying ICANN’s obligation to respect human rights. We find the proposal for bylaw language on human rights to be clear and balanced. We appreciate the fact that it limits the commitment to ICANN's mission and operations only and provides a clear distinction between ICANN's adherence to respect human rights and obligation to enforce human rights, placing the latter outside of the scope of the ICANN's mission. We are aware of the discussions on the inclusion of particular human rights related international legal instruments, such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), into the bylaw language. We welcome the proposed version of the bylaw language, which does not refer to particular international legal instruments. In our view, there is no need to outline specific international documents in the bylaws since there is no reason in principle why particular instruments (e.g. the UDHR) should be referenced at the expense of other important international treaties. At the same time, we agree that the issues related to the applicability of international instruments in the context of ICANN's commitment to respect human rights must be addressed in Work Stream 2. We strongly support the proposal to include the interim bylaw for the purpose of ensuring that Work Stream 2, which will facilitate the development of the framework for interpretation of the human rights commitment, will take place. We further agree with the issues identified in Annex 6 of the Draft which will be the subject of further work in Workstream 2. We hope that Workstream 2 will be carried out in the same collaborative, inclusive and open manner as the whole work of CCWG up to now and will result in a clear framework for interpretation and implementation of ICANN's commitment to human rights. - -- Niels ten Oever Head of Digital Article 19 www.article19.org PGP fingerprint 8D9F C567 BEE4 A431 56C4 678B 08B5 A0F2 636D 68E9 - -- Niels ten Oever Head of Digital Article 19 www.article19.org PGP fingerprint 8D9F C567 BEE4 A431 56C4 678B 08B5 A0F2 636D 68E9 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2 iQEcBAEBCAAGBQJWZ/jhAAoJEAi1oPJjbWjpeAkH/0xxqJ0lp8z0xQ33pV0Yl6OC RzQmgje5b33OtFO47RF38lSi4DhXsEeE7QhljUucDF+w0cIEqbb1Ea19ED0lZM/B BcjfByEaM3NyWdebxHYo8U4oTyu21VygQF31st1lb9H2tocK7mLrITuRCi91hEnc erOE4/Zq4b3R078cMaVHaEa/AkSPI1CFSAGO2t5KbGtrvqRyWOlFRViHdw7PBM2L HNHTxTThHO21L8AHPjydecCzQ8ybbuK0/U4Z6ehxoiTUXdaJRBiDEXXwgp/8Xms3 bJIGIFjhTv6xi3/duvMTDOpZd7hGaxmpURMjrI9EFdB5Jwm0K8iT4+YCEF9W9IM= =nRPu -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----