Dear Bruce, dear Members of the Working Group, We would like to begin by thanking Bruce for so ably facilitating the Working session held during ICANN 58 in Copenhagen on the Protections for Red Cross and Red Crescent names and identifiers in gTLD's and to all members of the Working group for their active participation. All gratitude also to concerned ICANN Staff for organising and holding the session. We welcome the outcomes of the Working Group discussions and the subsequent Board Resolution adopted in Copenhagen and are trustful that the process will result in a satisfactory resolution and a reconciliation between GAC advice and of the GNSO's 2013 Policy Recommendations. Further to the facilitated dialogue and to the questions raised on the occasion of the recent Working session, we would like to take this opportunity to confirm the following points: (1) The permanent reservation and protections are sought for: - The names and identifiers of the 190 National Societies recognized within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), and thus, in the national language (or languages) of their respective national States; - The names of the two international organizations or components of the Movement, namely, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, in the six (6) United Nations languages (which are also the six (6) official languages of the International Federation), as well as the most usual initials/acronyms of both organizations (i.e. ICRC/CICR/MKKK and IFRC/FICR). NB: The initials/acronym MKKK was included in our past recommendations to the GNSO PDP (and referenced in the GNSO's policy recommendations), but was omitted from the relevant paragraph of the GAC's Dublin Communiqué. (2) The reservations sought are grounded in - The protections of the designations "Red Cross, "Red Crescent", "Red Lion and Sun" and "Red Crystal under the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005 and under the laws in force in multiple national jurisdictions; (It is noted that the Board's Resolution adopted in Copenhagen fails, unfortunately, to reference the protections of the designations and names under international law and the afore-mentioned international treaties); and - The global public interest in ensuring the protections of the names and identifiers of the different Red Cross and Red Crescent organisations (national and international) from all forms of abuse, including fraudulent use and embezzlement. (3) As regards the list of names and identifiers of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' names, the following should be noted: - There can only be one Red Cross or one Red Crescent Society in any one country - this results from the Movement's Fundamental Principle of Unity and is confirmed under Article 4 of the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (as adopted by the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and therefore adopted by, and committing upon, all States and on all components of the Movement). See the Preamble and Article 4 (Conditions for recognition of National Societies) of the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (https://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/statutes-en-a5.pdf). - The list of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies recognized by the ICRC as Movement components (and admitted as members of the IFRC) is a finite list and is only liable to increase subject to strict criteria and conditions - the first criteria being that the National Society applying for recognition in the Movement must be established on the territory of a State party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. There are to date 196 High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and 190 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. There are two new National Societies today in the process of creation and which might be considered for recognition in the near future. - The permanent reservations are sought for 1) the exact match names of the respective National Societies in their official form (as included in the list downloaded from the IFRC website) and 2) as applicable, in their usual form. For instance, with regard to the American Red Cross, both the official name "American National Red Cross" and the usual name "American Red Cross" are for now temporarily reserved and proposed for permanent reservation. - Where required, the reservation is sought for the names and identifiers with slight variations, such as with or without hyphens; with or without the inclusion of the article "The" or the word "Society". - A conversation is under way with Mary and other concerned ICANN staff colleagues (which has included as series of detailed exchanges in the past) in order to resolve remaining issues with the list of National Society names and identifiers submitted for reservation and included under Specification 5. Issues remaining to be resolved relate to certain technical constraints in reserving strings in certain fonts or to the lengths of certain strings submitted for reservation. A recommendation has also been submitted by the Movement for a modification of the titles of the two categories of Red Cross and Red Crescent names and identifiers included under Specification 5 as these remain unclear. (4) We take note lastly of the discussion during the recent Working Group discussions in Copenhagen underlining the importance and relevance of capping or complementing the permanent reservation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent names and identifiers with a complementary curative rights approach and thus, bearing in mind the importance of ensuring the possibility of an objection or rapid take down mechanism - e.g. if strings are improperly registered or in the event of requests for registration of strings confusingly similar to the Red Cross or Red Crescent names and identifiers in the context of a humanitarian emergency. Many thanks once again for hosting the facilitated dialogue during ICANN 58. We remain available to provide any further assistance that would be necessitated and to take part in any future consultations in this matter to be held under ICANN/GNSO auspices. Kind regards, Charlotte Lindsey Curtet Director Communication and Information Management Department International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Tel: + 41 22 730 2773 email: clindsey@icrc.org www.icrc.org Stéphane J. Hankins Legal adviser Cooperation and coordination within the Movement International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Tel (direct line): ++0041 22 730 24 19 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <STYLE type="text/css"> <!-- p { font-family: Arial;font-size:9pt } --> </STYLE> </head> <body> <hr style="color: #000000;background-color: #000000;height: 1px;"/> <p>The ICRC - working to protect and assist people affected by armed conflict and other situations of violence. 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