Dear all,

 

Please find below the agenda for the GNSO Council meeting taking place on 10 June 2026 at 12:45 UTC (14:45 CEST). This will be posted on the agenda wiki page shortly.

 

We would like to point out AOB item Open Mic and encourage folks to use this time.

 

Thank you. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Terri

Policy Team Supporting the GNSO

 

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GNSO Council Agenda 10 June 2026

Please note that all documents referenced in the agenda have been gathered on a Wiki page for convenience and easier access: https://icann-community.atlassian.net/wiki/x/AYBSJ. 

 

This agenda was established according to the GNSO Operating Procedures v3.5, updated on 15 March 2023.

For convenience:

 

 GNSO Council meeting on Wednesday, 10 June 2026 at 12:45 UTC (14:45 local time): https://tinyurl.com/3z6jz3jp 

 

05:45 Los Angeles; 08:45 Washington DC; 13:45 London; 14:45 Paris; 15:45 Moscow; 22:45 Melbourne

 

GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: (TBD: link will be posted 24 hours ahead on the ICANN86 Schedule)

 

Councilors should notify the GNSO Secretariat in advance if they will not be able to attend and/or need a dial out call.

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Item 1: Administrative Matters (5 minutes)

1.1 - Roll Call

1.2 - Updates to Statements of Interest

1.3 - Review / Amend Agenda

1.4 - Note the status of minutes for the previous Council meetings per the GNSO Operating Procedures: 

Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 16 April 2026 were posted on 30 April 2026.

Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 21 May 2026 will be posted on 05 June 2026.

 

Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action List (5 minutes)

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 (10 minutes) 

 

Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - RSP Issue Consideration for Potential Change Request to SPIRT (20 minutes) 

During its May 2026 Meeting, Sam Demetriou, GNSO Councilor, presented an issue concerning Registry Service Providers (RSPs) that may be potentially referred to the Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (SPIRT). The GNSO Council discussed this issue during the Any Other Business portion of the meeting. 

 

As noted during the May Council meeting, in the draft version of the base registry agreement (base RA) for the Next Round applicants there was a requirement that all registry operators would only use extensible provisioning protocol (EPP) extensions that are registered with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). IANA maintains a register of EPP extensions, and there is a very specific process involving the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) where proposed new EPP extensions can be approved for inclusion in this IANA register. In certain cases, gTLD registries have historically used EPP extensions that are not included in that database. The RySG flagged this as a problem when reviewing the draft base RA requirements. As a result, ICANN agreed to remove the requirement from the Next Round base RA.

 

It was noted that despite the removal of this requirement from the base RA, there remain some requirements under the technical questions and the registry system testing that back-end RSPs have to go through that pertain to this requirement. There are some technical questions to evaluate RSPs that require the applicants to attest that they will only use the EPP extensions that are registered in the IANA registry. That requirement is also tested during the registry system testing. There is therefore a misalignment between what is tested-for and what is required to be attested-to during registry system testing, and what is actually required under the registry agreement. The RySG therefore brought this issue to Council for consideration and requested Council to vote on whether to refer this issue to the SPIRT and ICANN org to consider how to address this misalignment

 

Here, the Council will vote on the proposed motion to refer this issue to the SPIRT.

4.1 - Presentation of Motion (Samantha Demetriou, GNSO Councilor) 

4.2 - Council Vote (voting threshold: simple majority of each house)

4.3 - Next Steps

 

Item 5: Council Discussion - Celebrating accomplishments between ICANN meetings (10 minutes)

During its Strategic Planning Session in January 2025, the GNSO Council discussed ideas for highlighting the work of the GNSO to a larger audience. As a starting point, Councilors agreed to highlight the GNSO Council’s accomplishments or milestones between each ICANN meeting during the Council’s public meeting. 

In the period between ICANN85 and ICANN86, the Council and the groups under its remit accomplished the following milestones:

  1. DNS Abuse - DNS Abuse Mitigation PDP 1 has conducted at least initial discussions on all of its charter questions after only beginning its deliberations at ICANN85. 
  2. Standing Committee for Continuous Improvements - Completed its Criteria and Indicators to support the GNSO’s Continuous Improvement Program. 
  3. SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team (SRT) - Began meeting in May 2026 to discuss SSAD Supplemental Recommendations. Marc Anderson has been appointed lead of the SSAD SRT. 
  4. Adopted amendments to the PDP and GGP Manuals to incorporate a Board un-adoption process that may be used in limited and extraordinary circumstances.

Here, the Council will have a chance to reflect on the progress it has made since ICANN85.

5.1 - Introduction of Topic (Susan Payne, GNSO Council Chair) 

5.2 - Council Discussion

5.3 - Next Steps

 

Item 6: Council Discussion - Update on the Curative Rights Implementation Review Team (10 minutes)

On 27 March 2025, the IGO-INGO Curative Rights Implementation Review Team (IRT) was convened to provide guidance to ICANN org on the implementation of the final recommendations adopted by the ICANN Board from the Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) on Specific Curative Rights Protections for International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) and the Policy Development Process (PDP) on IGO-INGO Access to Curative Rights Protection Mechanisms. 

 

During the GNSO Council’s January 2026 meeting, Damon Ashcraft, GNSO Council Liaison to the IRT on IGO-INGO Curative Rights, briefed the GNSO Council on an issue concerning the interpretation of language in the Final Report on IGOs and INGOs on Curative Rights. The January Motion passed by the GNSO Council has been considered by the IGO-INGO Curative Rights IRT and a path forward for implementation has been actively discussed.  

 

The IGO-INGO Curative Rights IRT has met 22 times since its initiation and is preparing for its next steps. The GNSO Council Liaison to the IRT on IGO-INGO Curative Rights would like to provide a brief overview of the IRTs progress following recent updates that have taken place. 

6.1 - Introduction of Topic (Damon Ashcraft, GNSO Council Liaison to the IRT on IGO-INGO Curative Rights) 

6.2 - Council Discussion

6.3 - Next Steps

 

Item 7: Board Approval of ICANN Fundamental Bylaws Amendments re: Customer Standing Committee and IANA Naming Function Review (15 minutes)

On 11 May 2026, the ICANN Board provided notice to the Decisional Participants in the Empowered Community and the Empowered Community Administration that on 3 May 2026, the ICANN Board approved two Fundamental Bylaws Amendments to Articles 17 (Customer Standing Committee) and 18 (IANA Naming Function Review) of the ICANN Bylaws.

 

The two approved Fundamental Bylaws Amendments are identical to the proposed amendments to Article 17 as posted for public comment and Article 18, Section 18.2(b) as posted for public comment. 

 

Under the ICANN Bylaws, the Empowered Community, including the GNSO, now has the opportunity to consider whether it will approve these Bylaws amendments. There will be an ICANN Empowered Community Forum on Thursday, 11 June at 10:00 CEST. 

 

Here, the Council will be briefed on these updates in anticipation of an upcoming vote.

7.1 - Introduction of Topic (Caitlin Tubergen, GNSO Support Staff) 

7.2 - Council Discussion

7.3 - Next Steps

 

Item 8: Council Discussion - Prioritization of upcoming work (20 minutes)

The GNSO Council has been discussing its need for a prioritization mechanism that can complement its Action Decision Radar (ADR). While the ADR is helping in identifying upcoming decision points for the Council, it is not a prioritization tool. The Council agreed during its recent Strategic Planning Session in January 2026 to pursue a prioritization tool.

 

A briefing document was prepared by staff, which set out various potential mechanisms Council might use in order to prioritise its work, for consideration and discussion. Tapani Tarvainen, a Councilor from the NCSG, volunteered to provide a suggestion on a prioritization mechanism; Tapani provided that suggestion on the Council email list. The Council leadership team took into consideration the suggested mechanisms from both staff and Tapani, and suggested a blended approach that takes inputs from both sources; that blended approach utilizes criteria where the results are non-binding and can be adjusted. In addition, the proposed mechanism should be considered a pilot exercise. On [date], the pilot prioritization mechanism instructions were circulated to the Council, where Councilors were asked to work with their relevant SG/Cs to complete the prioritization worksheet and come to ICANN86 prepared to discuss the results.

 

Here, the Council will discuss the inputs received to the pilot prioritization mechanism.

8.1 - Introduction of Topic (Jennifer Chung, GNSO Council Vice-Chair) 

8.2 - Council Discussion

8.3 - Next Steps

 

Item 9: Any other business (15 minutes)

9.1 - Open Mic

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Appendix 1: GNSO Council Voting Thresholds (ICANN Bylaws, Article 11, Section 11.3(i))

See https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en/#article11.

Appendix 2: GNSO Council Absentee Voting Procedures (GNSO Operating Procedures, Section 4.4)

See https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/file/field-file-attach/op-procedures-15mar23-en.pdf