Councilors –
Attached and copied below, please find a motion for consideration during our 20 APR meeting, to invoke the process to amend the PDP recommendations associated with Red Cross names. Additionally, Staff has
prepared a Briefing Paper on how this amendment process works, and this is also attached.
Thank you,
J.
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DRAFT GNSO COUNCIL RESOLUTION – INITIATION OF POLICY AMENDMENT PROCESS ON SPECIFIC RED CROSS NAMES
WHEREAS, in November 2013, the GNSO completed a Policy Development Process (PDP) which resulted in a number of consensus recommendations for protecting the identifiers of International Governmental Organizations
and International Non-Governmental Organizations, including the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), at the top and second level in all generic top-level domains (gTLDs) (PDP Working Group Final Report:
https://gnso.icann.org/en/issues/igo-ingo-final-10nov13-en.pdf, with Minority Statements:
https://gnso.icann.org/en/issues/igo-ingo-final-minority-positions-10nov13-en.pdf);
WHEREAS, the GNSO Council approved all the PDP consensus recommendations on 20 November 2013 (http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/resolutions#20131120-2)
and, following a mandatory public comment period on the final PDP recommendations, sent its Recommendations Report to the ICANN Board on 23 January 2014 (https://gnso.icann.org/en/issues/council-board-igo-ingo-23jan14-en.pdf);
WHEREAS, on 30 April 2014 the Board adopted those of the GNSO’s PDP recommendations that were consistent with GAC advice on the topic, which in relation to the Movement were for the terms “Red Cross”, “Red
Crescent”, “Red Crystal”, and “Red Lion & Sun” (referred to as “Scope 1 Identifiers” by the PDP Working Group) to be reserved at the top and second levels, with an Exception Procedure to be designed for the affected organization (http://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/documents/resolutions-30apr14-en.htm#2.a);
WHEREAS, between June 2014 and January 2015 the Board and the GNSO Council engaged in discussions of the remaining inconsistencies between GAC advice and GNSO policy, which in relation to the Movement concerned
the names of 189 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and the names and acronyms of the International Committee of the Red Cross and International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (referred to as “Scope 2 Identifiers” by the
PDP Working Group);
WHEREAS, at ICANN57 in November 2016 the Board proposed that the GAC and the GNSO engage in a facilitated, good faith discussion to attempt to resolve the remaining inconsistencies between GAC public policy
advice and GNSO consensus policy recommendations regarding the “Scope 2 Identifiers” of the Movement;
WHEREAS, representatives from the GAC and the GNSO engaged in such a facilitated, good faith discussion at ICANN58 in March 2017 during which the following matters were noted:
(1)
The public policy considerations associated with protecting the Movement’s identifiers in the domain name system (DNS);
(2)
The GAC’s rationale for seeking permanent protection for the terms most closely associated with the Movement and its respective components is grounded in the protections of the designations “Red
Cross”, “Red Crescent”, “Red Lion and Sun”, and “Red Crystal” under international treaty law and under multiple national laws;
(3)
The list of names of the Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies is a finite, limited list of specific names recognized within the Movement (http://www.ifrc.org/Docs/ExcelExport/NS_Directory.pdf
);
(4)
There are no other legitimate uses for these terms; and
(5)
The GAC had provided clarification following the completion of the GNSO PDP, via its March 2014 Singapore Communique, on the finite and specific list of Movement names for which permanent protections
were being requested (https://gacweb.icann.org/download/attachments/28278854/Final%20Communique%20-%20Singapore%202014.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1397225538000&api=v2);
and
WHEREAS, following the GAC-GNSO discussion, the Board passed a resolution on 16 March 2017 requesting that the GNSO initiate its process for Amendments or Modifications of Approved Policies, as described in
Section 16 of the GNSO PDP Manual (https://gnso.icann.org/en/council/annex-2-pdp-manual-01sep16-en.pdf), to consider amending the GNSO’s approved policy concerning the specific
names of the Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies and the specific names International Committee of the Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (collectively, Recommendation 5 in Section 3.1 of the PDP Working
Group Final Report):
RESOLVED,
a.
The full names of the 190 Red Cross National Societies and the full names of the International Committee of the Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are
to be placed into Specification 5 of the Base gTLD Registry Agreement, with an exception procedure to be created for cases where the relevant Red Cross Red Crescent Movement organization wishes to apply for their protected string at the second level;
b.
In placing the specified identifiers into Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement, this should apply to an exact match of the full name of the relevant National Society recognized by the International
Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (in English and the official languages of its state of origin), the full names International Committee of the Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (in the six official United Nations
languages) and a defined limited set of variations of these names; and
c.
In considering the proposed amendment, account is to be duly taken of the matters noted during the GAC-GNSO facilitated discussion at ICANN58 as well as the GAC’s public policy advice
to reserve the finite list of names of the Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies, as recognized within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, in all gTLDs.