[CCWG-ACCT] Regarding ICANN's adherence to "international law"

Bruce Tonkin Bruce.Tonkin at melbourneit.com.au
Sun Mar 15 00:16:57 UTC 2015


Hell Rahul,


>>  Global laws or International law mean codes developed by collaboration of nation states and other stakeholders, whether developed as laws (eg: Law of Armed Conflict) or through multilateral treaties or International acceptable standards/ conventions (such as for human rights) or as code of conduct, that will be applicable to the body managing and coordinating critical Internet resources and their usage, and its policies. Arbitration matters can also be decided - whether to be taken to International Court of Justice (ICJ) or if alternate arrangements need to be devised. 

Under its Articles of Incorporation ICANN already operates “for the benefit of the Internet community as a whole, carrying out its activities in conformity with relevant principles of international law and applicable international conventions and local law.”   See: https://www.icann.org/en/about/governance/articles


The Independent Review Process allows parties to challenge Board decisions that are inconsistent with the Articles of Incorporation or Bylaws.

Although most international treaties etc are typically between Governments, I would assume that if the Board took an action that was inconsistent with relevant principles of international low or application international conventions – that the Board could be challenged.   It would be worth considering making this more explicit in whatever new dispute mechanisms this group is considering.

I guess it is a separate question as to whether Governments should be creating new international treaties to deal with domain names etc – I am a little unclear as to whether that was what you were suggesting – i.e. the creation of new international treaties versus ensuring that ICANN adheres to existing relevant international treaties.   It could also be useful to identify treaties etc that the CCWG considers to be “relevant”.

Note that new gTLD applicant guidebook identified general principles of international law as examples that may be relevant for a limited public interest objection, contained in the following instruments:   (from: http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/agb/guidebook-full-04jun12-en.pdf) 

- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

- The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

- The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

- Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women

-  The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

- The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

- The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families

-  Slavery Convention

- Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

-  Convention on the Rights of the Child

Regards,
 Bruce Tonkin



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