A community-wide working group has been established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board to undertake a review of ICANN's Geographic Regions.
According to a press release by the Corporation, the Working Group has developed a draft charter to guide its efforts. All members of the ICANN community are now invited to review that draft charter and share comments and observations with the Board and community through March 24, 2009.
Geographic diversity is a fundamental component of the ICANN organization. The ICANN Bylaws (Article VI Section 5) currently define five geographic regions as Africa, North America, Latin America/Caribbean, Asia/Australia/Pacific and Europe.
The ICANN Geographic Regions were originally created to ensure regional diversity in the composition of the ICANN Board and were subsequently expanded in various ways to apply to the GNSO, ALAC and ccNSO.
An ICANN Board resolution in 2000 directed Staff to assign countries to geographic regions on the basis of the United Nations Statistics Division's current classifications, and introduced the concept of "citizenship" in relation to the definition of ICANN Geographic Regions.
Over time, the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) has developed concerns about the implementation of the ICANN Geographic Regions and related representational issues.
The ccNSO Council approved a resolution in 2007 recommending that the ICANN Board appoint a community-wide working group to further study and review the issues related to the definition of the ICANN Geographic Regions, to consult with all stakeholders and submit proposals to the Board to resolve the issues relating to the current definition of the ICANN Geographic Regions.
The Board determined at its meeting in Los Angeles on November 2, 2007, that because any potential change to ICANN Geographic Regions could have widespread effect in ICANN, the views of other Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees should be sought by the Board.
The Board asked the ICANN community, including the GNSO, ccNSO, ASO, GAC, and ALAC, to provide the ICANN Staff with input on the ccNSO Council's resolution relating to ICANN's Geographic Regions - including the proposal to appoint a community-wide working group to review the structure of ICANN's present Geographic Regions and related issues, as suggested by the ccNSO.
SOURCE:AGIPNEWS
