25 June 2015

Alissa Cooper, Chair

Mohamed El Bashir, Vice Chair

Patrik Fältström, Vice Chair

IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group

Dear Alissa, Mohamed, and Patrik,

Following the submission on the Cross Community Working Group on Naming Related Functions (CWG-Stewardship) Final Proposal to its Chartering Organizations on 11 June 2015, we are pleased to announce that the proposal has been approved by all five organizations as the response from the Names community to the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) Request for Proposals.

Each of the Chartering Organizations’ approval and statement is recorded as follows:

·      Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)

·      Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)

·      Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)

·      Country Codes Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO)[1]

·      At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)

The Final Proposal is the result of extensive work over the past year by the CWG-Stewardship’s diverse group comprising; 19 members, 133 participants and a team of highly qualified legal advisors. The group’s work included over 100 calls or meetings, 4,000 email messages and at least 5,000 volunteer hours. The Final Proposal represents a carefully crafted balance between key requirements, specific legal advice and significant compromises by all who participated. It includes diligent attention to the input of 115 comments received through the Public Comment proceedings. Prior to submitting to the Chartering Organizations or their approval, the Final Proposal received the consensus support of the CWG-Stewardship itself, with no objections or minority statements recorded.

The CWG-Stewardship proposal is significantly dependent and expressly conditioned on the implementation of ICANN-level accountability mechanisms proposed by the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability). The co-Chairs of the CWG-Stewardship and the CCWG-Accountability have coordinated their efforts and the CWG-Stewardship is confident that the CCWG-Accountability Work Stream 1 recommendations, if implemented as expected, will meet the requirements that the CWG-Stewardship has previously communicated to the CCWG-Accountability. If any element of these ICANN level accountability mechanisms is not implemented as contemplated by the CWG-Stewardship proposal, this proposal will require revision.

We also note that there are certain implementation elements that will require further work in the near future, including coordination with the other respondents to the ICG RFP as appropriate and the ICG where necessary.

In any event, we will continue to make ourselves available to you in order to answer any questions you may have and to explain any details of the proposal. For your information, comprehensive further background documents and reference materials are available here.

Best regards,

Lise Fuhr and Jonathan Robinson

Co-Chairs, CWG-Stewardship