Dear Dennis,

dear Berry, dear Mary,

dear all,

 

Further to Dennis’ request and in preparation for next Thursday’s Reconvened IRT call, please find below a few paragraphs of explanation and rationale for the proposed changes to be brought to the list of reserved National Red Cross or Red Crescent identifiers in order to reflect the change in the official name of the “Baphalali Swaziland Red Cross Society” to  “Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Society” (as decided upon by the National Society’s Annual General Assembly in 2018).

 

 

Rationale for revisions

to the Reserved National of Red Cross

and Red Crescent Societies identifiers list

 

“Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Society”

 

Non-paper, ICRC, 22 April 2019

 

 

I.       For memory, there are currently 191 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies recognized as components of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRC) and admitted as members of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

 

To be recognized as a component of the Movement (by the ICRC), a National Society must be assessed to satisfy 10 Conditions of recognition defined under Article 4 of the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The first of these Conditions is to be established on the territory of a High Contracting Party to the first Geneva Convention of 1949 – in the meaning of a State which instruments of ratification, accession or succession to the first Geneva Convention have been registered by the Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation in its capacity as Depository of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

 

There are today 196 States party to the Geneva Conventions, which therefore leaves few States that have not established or recognized a National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society on their territory.

 

A strict assessment procedure applies before an applicant National Society can be recognized as a component of the Movement by the ICRC’s highest Governance body, its Assembly.

 

One National Society is today acknowledged as being in the process of recognition and admission. This is the “Bhutan Red Cross Society” which process of establishment is currently in progress.

 

II.      Two main occurrences would in principle require to materialize for the list of reserved National Societies’ names or identifiers to be revised:

 

• The first is the case of recognition of a new National Society as a component of the Movement by the ICRC. This is as indicated above subject to strict conditions.

 

• The second is the change in the name and identifiers of a National Society. This would in principle be determined or triggered by an official decision of the National Society (and of the latter’s supreme Governance body) to change the National Society’s official name and/or by the adoption of a national legislation formalizing the National Society’s change of name.

In terms of process and in regard to the two instances described above, the ICRC would inform ICANN’s Secretariat of the proposed amendments to be brought to the reserved names’ list together with the rationale for such a change. This would in principle imply the addition of a new set of identifiers for protection, including either

i)          the official name of the newly recognized National Society and relevant variations thereof, or

ii)         the revised official name of the National Society and relevant variations thereof

- and thus, in the official language or languages of the concerned State.

 

It has been submitted in the past that

1. Such a request would have to be filed with ICANN’s Secretariat by the International Committee of the Red Cross in its mandate to recognize new National Societies and thus, from the time of i) recognition of a new National Society, or ii) the formal confirmation in the change of name of a National Society;
2. ICRC would in such an instance prepare and submit a list (or revised list) of identifiers to be added to the reserved National Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies’ identifiers list, and thus, with a view to allow the reservation to become effective at the soonest possible date, whether

i)          from the date of recognition of a new National Society by ICRC; or

ii)         ii) from the time of confirmation of a National Society’s change of name - e.g. through the adoption of a change of name’s Act or legislation; a formal decision of the National Society’s General Assembly; or the registration of the new National Society name by the ICRC or the International Federation.

3. The list of new identifiers would be produced to meet the agreed criteria and therefore include

• the official name(s) of the new National Society or the new official name(s) in the official language or languages of the given State; as well as
• relevant variations of the National Society’s names and identifiers (i.e. with or without the word “Society”, with or without the article “the”, etc.

4. In the occurrence of a National Society’s change of name, the pre-existing names and identifiers of the concerned National Society would be kept within the list or reserved names, so as to prevent the risk of abusive or fraudulent registration of a National Society’s prior or pre-existing identifiers under which the National Society is likely to continue to be known.

 

III.     In the instance of the Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Society, the change in the name of the National Society was acted by decision of the National Society’s Annual General Assembly in September 2018.

 

The change in the official name of the National Society from “Baphalali Swaziland Red Cross Society” to “Baphalali eSwatini Red Cross Society” follows the decision of the King of Swaziland to change the name of the State to “Eswatini”. The change in the name of the State was officially adopted by the Declaration of Change of Name Notice, 2018 (Legal Notice No 80 of 2018, published in the Official Gazette of 11 May 2018). (See the attachment herewith)

 

We are told and understand however that the National Society is still in large measure operating under the name “Baphalali Swaziland Red Cross Society” and a complete change in the National Society’s practice will take time. This should involve in due time the adoption of a revised Act (Law) of recognition of the “Baphalali/Eswatini Swaziland Red Cross Society” and the adoption of a revised “Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Society” Constitution – both processes that are expected to be completed in 2020.

 

It is noted that the National Society already makes use of the name Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Society in its public communication and representations, including on its website and on its Facebook pages (See the attachment herewith).

 

Our recommendation is that

• the current list of official and commonly used names of the National Society (“Baphalali Swaziland Red Cross Society” and relevant variations thereof in line with the agreed criteria) remain in the list of reserved National Societies’ identifiers; and that
• the reserved list be complemented with the new identifiers of the “Baphalali Red Cross Society”, including the official name “Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Society” and relevant variations thereof.

 

This would best satisfy, in our view, the objective sought of protecting the identifiers of Baphalali Swaziland/Eswatini Red Cross Society from registration as a domain name for abusive or fraudulent purposes. (See the proposed list of names and identifiers of the “Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Society” proposed for inclusion in the reserved National Societies’ names’ list).

 

+++++

 

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stéphane

 

 

Stéphane J. Hankins

Legal adviser

Cooperation and coordination within the Movement

International Committee of the Red Cross

(Tel: ++41 22 730 2419)

 

 

Dear Stephane,

 

Glad to hear you can make the 25 April IRT meeting.

 

We’d like to take the opportunity to walk through the Policy steps in adding new names to the reserved name list.

Specifically, we will be working on adding the names for Swaziland-Eswatini to the definitive list following the policy process.

If you could provide the rationale and supporting documents why these names should be added, we can prep better for the IRT meeting.

With proper documentation, I think we can make the addition within our team and go straight to the public comment with the IRT support.

 

Dennis Chang