**Updated below.
Dear all,
Please find below the final proposed agenda for the GNSO Council Meeting taking place on Thursday, 19 December 2024 at 21:00 UTC for 2 hours This has been posted on the agenda
wiki page.
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Terri
Policy Team Supporting the GNSO
GNSO Council Agenda 19 December 2024
Please note that all documents referenced in the agenda have been gathered on a Wiki page for convenience and easier access:
https://community.icann.org/x/CICeFw.
This agenda was established according to the
GNSO Operating Procedures v3.5, updated on 15 March 2023.
For convenience:
GNSO Council meeting on Thursday, 19 December 2024 at 21:00 UTC:
https://tinyurl.com/ybse6rda
13:00 Los Angeles; 16:00 Washington DC; 21:00 London; 22:00 Paris; 00:00 Moscow (Friday); 08:00 Melbourne (Friday)
GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation:
https://icann.zoom.us/j/92283565389?pwd=QnlHK1JSbzdiSFFZSjRjamxMTkNGdz09
Councilors should notify the GNSO Secretariat in advance if they will not be able to attend and/or need a dial out call.
___________________________________
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 17 October 2024 were posted on 01 November 2024.
Minutes
(Part 1) Minutes
(Part 2) of the GNSO Council Meeting on 13 November 2024 were posted on 02 December 2024.
Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action List (0 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 (5 minutes)
Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Empowered Community Approval Action on Fundamental Bylaws Amendments to Article 4 Accountability and Review, 4.2 Reconsideration (10 minutes)
Pursuant to Section 25.2(e) of the ICANN Bylaws, the ICANN Board approved
Fundamental Bylaws Amendments to Article 4, Sections 4.2 and 4.3 of the ICANN Bylaws.
The ICANN Board took a series of actions and communications to move forward with the ICANN Grant Program while in some cases, trying to address issues presented by the original
language of Recommendation 7, including:
On 7 August 2024, ICANN opened a
Public
Comment Forum
on the updated Fundamental Bylaws Proposal, with the proposed amendments being limited and in line with Recommendation 7. Nine submissions were received, and all commenters were
supportive of the proposal as posted for Public Comment. Commenters noted that the updated proposal was better aligned to the intention of Recommendation 7 and was a more appropriate means of implementation than the prior proposal.
Concurrently, ICANN finalized confirmation with the Chartering Organizations of the CCWG-AP their support or non-objection to the proposal to
update Recommendation 7, including confirmation with the GAC that it too is in a position to support or not object to the updating of Recommendation 7, in light of the Board's acceptance of this alternate path. The Board has formally confirmed its adoption
of the updated Recommendation 7 and the respective Fundamental Bylaws Amendments.
At ICANN81, ICANN Org held an
Empowered Community Approval Action on
Fundamental Bylaws Amendments to Article 4 Accountability and Review, 4.2 Reconsideration.
The Fundamental Bylaws Amendments will only become effective if approved by the Empowered Community using the process set forth at
Section 25.2(f) and
Annex D, Article 1 of the ICANN Bylaws. The convening of the Approval Action Community Forum is part of this process.
Following the Approval Action Community Forum, the GNSO Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies are asked to provide feedback, opinions or comments
on their support for, objection to, or abstention from the Approval Action under consideration. The GNSO Council must decide and inform the EC Administration of its decision within twenty-one (21) days after the expiration of the Community Forum whether to
support, object to, or abstain from the Approval Action by affirmative vote of a GNSO Supermajority.
A discussion and vote on the Approval Action is scheduled for this GNSO Council meeting. If more time is needed, a placeholder for an email
vote will be scheduled to initiate on Monday, 23 December.
Here, the Council will vote on the Fundamental Bylaw amendments.
4.1 - Presentation of
Motion (Tomslin Samme-NIar, GNSO Council Vice Chair)
4.2 - Council Discussion
4.3 - Council Vote (voting threshold: Supermajority)
Item 5: COUNCIL VOTE - Charter for Policy Development Process on Latin Script Diacritics (15 minutes)
On 13 November 2024, the GNSO Council passed a
motion to initiate a Policy Development Process (PDP) on requesting Latin Script Diacritics. The objective of the
Preliminary Issue Report was for ICANN org to assess all relevant issues related to the GNSO Council request, and, following Community Input during the
Public Comment phase, to recommend a course of action to the GNSO Council.
The PDP will be focused on the circumstance when an ASCII gTLD and the Latin script diacritic version of the gTLD are not variants of each other
AND may be found to be visually similar to each other. The issue is theoretically possible for any existing ASCII or Latin script IDN gTLD pairs, and is essentially infinite for future applied-for ASCII or Latin script IDN gTLDs, where diacritics are involved.
The
Final Issue Report includes a draft charter prepared by ICANN org supporting the GNSO Council. Having discussed the draft charter, the Council determined that edits were needed with respect to, but not limited to, the
membership structure.
Here, the Council will vote on the updated charter.
5.1 - Presentation of
Motion (Jennifer Chung)
5.2 - Council Discussion
5.3 - Council Vote (voting threshold: affirmative vote of more than one-third (1/3) of each House or more than two-thirds (2/3) of one House)
Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - EPDP Temporary Specification Phase 1, Recommendation 18 - Urgent Requests (15 minutes)
ICANN org convened an Implementation Review Team to assist ICANN in implementing the EPDP on the Temporary Specification
Phase 1 Final Report, which began meeting in May 2019. ICANN org published the draft Registration Data Policy for
public comment
on 24 August 2022. Several commenters expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of Recommendation 18, specifically around the issue of the response timeline for urgent
requests. The relevant portion of Recommendation 18 reads, “A separate timeline of [less than X business days] will considered for the response to ‘Urgent’ Reasonable Disclosure Requests, those Requests for which evidence is supplied to show an immediate need
for disclosure [time frame to be finalized and criteria set for Urgent requests during implementation].”
On
3 June 2024, the Board wrote to the GNSO Council, noting concerns with the proposed urgent request timeline of business days as not fit for purpose, as truly urgent requests should be responded to within minutes or hours
rather than business days. Recognizing this, the Board also noted there is no universal mechanism for registrars to authenticate law enforcement entities. The GNSO Council responded on
29 August 2024, agreeing with the Board’s concerns and suggesting a trilateral meeting between the Board, GNSO Council, and GAC to discuss a potential path forward in light of the concerns.
On
15 October 2024, the GAC wrote to the Board, recommending, “[f]or the work on authentication, we would support the establishment of a joint PSWG/CPH task force. For the work on the response time for authenticated requests,
we invite the Board and the GNSO Council to identify an expedited procedure for addressing this workstream. We strongly suggest resuming the work of the IRT, which was halted last summer.”
A trilateral meeting was held on
4 November 2024 and the Board, GAC, and GNSO Council discussed next steps, including potentially resuming discussions with the IRT.
Here, the Council will discuss the GAC’s proposal and determine next steps.
6.1 - Introduction of Topic (Greg DiBiase, GNSO Chair)
6.2 - Council Discussion
6.3 - Next Steps
Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Request for Guidance from the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures / IDNs EPDP Phase 1 IRT (10 minutes)
The New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (SubPro) PDP provided a recommendation to allow single character gTLDs in the next round, which was expanded upon by the IDNs
EPDP Phase 1 Final Report. The IDNs EPDP Phase 1 Final Report put forth important detail and limitations on the SubPro recommendation, prescribing that the single character gTLDs be limited to the Han script and that relevant guidelines must be developed and
put in place by the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) Generation Panels (GPs).
In a
public comment
proceeding, the CJK GPs noted their opposition to moving forward with single character Han script gTLDs. And in a subsequent
public comment proceeding
on relevant Applicant Guidebook (AGB) sections, a number of commenters also expressed their opposition.
This opposition was discussed with the IDN Sub-Track, a sub-track to the SubPro IRT, where it was agreed to not move forward with single character Han script gTLDs.
That decision was then discussed with the main SubPro IRT, where it was determined that this decision should be shared with the GNSO Council. A write-up was shared with the Council on [date].
Here, the Council will be briefed on the tentative decision from the SubPro IRT and to discuss the appropriate next steps, if any.
7.1 - Introduction of Topic (Anne Aikman-Scalese & Susan Payne, Council co-liaisons to the SubPro IRT)
7.2 - Council Discussion
7.3 - Next Steps
Item 8: COUNCIL UPDATE: EPDP Temporary Specification Phase 1 - Billing Contact (20 minutes)
During the ICANN81
GNSO Council Wrap-Up, Thomas Rickert provided an update regarding the implementation of EPDP Temp Spec Phase 1 recommendations. Thomas is the current GNSO Council Liaison to the EPDP Temp Spec Phase 1 Implementation Review Team (IRT). Thomas noted
that the IRT expressed the view that the absence of a reference to billing contact data was a drafting error, and the EPDP Team intended for the collection of billing contact data to be optional and not mandatory.
The
Registration Data Policy was published on 21 February 2024, and the policy has an effective date of 21 August 2025. The
EPDP Phase 1 policy recommendations do not reference billing contact data, and the
Registration Data Policy also makes no reference to billing contact data.
In the interest of transparency, Thomas requested that all Councilors consult with their respective groups to ensure that others are properly
informed and agree with the interpretation raised by the registrars within the IRT. Accordingly, Councilors were asked to consult with their groups on the following questions:
Here, the Council will discuss the above questions and determine next steps.
8.1 - Introduction of Topic (Greg DiBiase, GNSO Chair)
8.2 - Council Discussion
8.3 - Next Steps
Item 9: COUNCIL UPDATE - 2025 Council Strategic Planning Session (SPS) (15
minutes)
The GNSO Council will hold its annual Strategic Planning Session (SPS) in Washington, DC on 14-15 January 2025.
The SPS is a dedicated meeting during which the Council will discuss and identify its priorities and goals for the upcoming year. Council Leadership has been developing
the agenda, and has identified, et.al., the following themes for discussion:
Overview of the Council’s Role and Remit and the Role of Councilors
Here, the Council will receive an update from Leadership and Support Staff on SPS planning and important information to know ahead of the SPS.
9.1 - Introduction of Topic (Greg DiBiase, GNSO Chair)
9.2 - Council Discussion
9.3 - Next Steps
Item 10: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Council PR Officer Update (15 minutes)
During the GNSO Council Strategic Planning Session (SPS) that was held from 14-16 December 2022, the GNSO Council identified the need to enhance its communication
efforts to promote its work and outcomes to a broader audience, as well as to counterbalance negative stories and misinformation about GNSO policy work that seemed to have gained prominence on social media and industry blogs.
A
GNSO Council small team was formed
in April 2023 to develop a strategic communications plan
for the GNSO Council. Within its report, the small team put forward two substantive recommendations for new mechanisms to enhance GNSO Council’s communications practice: 1) appoint a member in the GNSO Council to serve as the “PR officer” to guide / support
policy staff in implementing the communications strategy and proposed improvements; and 2) establish a LinkedIn page for the GNSO Council.
Following the first recommendation, Lawrence Olawale-Roberts agreed to assume the role of PR Officer.
Here, the Council will hear an update from Lawrence Olawale-Roberts on his work in this role.
10.1 - Introduction of Topic (Lawrence Olawale-Roberts, GNSO Council PR Officer)
10.2 - Council Discussion
10.3 - Next Steps
Item 11: Any Other Business (10
minutes)
11.1 - GNSO Liaison to the GAC update
11.2 - ICANN82 - funded travel emails were sent out, please action
as past deadline
_______________________________
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
References for Coordinated Universal Time of 21:00 UTC
Local time between March and November in the NORTHERN hemisphere
See
https://www.timeanddate.com/time/change/ for Dates for Daylight Saving
Time and Clock Changes
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California, USA (PDT) UTC-8 13:00
San José, Costa Rica (CST) UTC-6 15:00
New York/Washington DC, USA (EDT) UTC-5 16:00
Buenos Aires, Argentina (ART) UTC-3 18:00
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (WAT) UTC+1 22:00
Paris, France (CEST) UTC+1 22:00
Moscow, Russia (MSK) UTC+3 00:00 (Friday)
Singapore (SGT) UTC+8 05:00 (Friday)
Melbourne, Australia (AEST) UTC+11 08:00 (Friday)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For other places see
http://www.timeanddate.com and
https://tinyurl.com/ybse6rda.