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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Anne<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Weighing in here, I see some confusion:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoPlainText">Her response was (and I paraphrase) "No, but ICANN is a quasi-governmental organization and has a lot of power to influence Human Rights going forward". So for anyone who feels that ICANN is a quasi-governmental organization, they
will push ICANN the organization in this direction without remembering the applicable law limitation and the fact that ICANN is NOT A QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL organization and its policy development is not the top-down process followed by other non-profits.<span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">The key characteristic of ICANN is _<i>not</i>_ that it is a nonprofit and _<i>not</i>_ that it is a so-called “bottom up multistakeholder” organization. The ICANN feature of relevance to Human Rights is that
ICANN makes global public policy regarding domain name registration and use. In this sense, it certainly is a “quasi-governmental” entity, indeed it was created to serve as a globalized substitute for territorial governments because of the Internet’s inherent
need for globally coordinated policy for the DNS to avoid fragmentation. We say quasi-governmental because it has exclusive control of an essential facility and thus its policies, like a state’s, are effectively binding on most suppliers and (through them)
users of the DNS. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">If ICANN makes public policy, then it follows that ICANN’s _<i>policies</i>_ must respect (or not violate) recognized human rights, especially ones like freedom of expression and privacy that are related to Internet
use. There is no inconsistency in the requirement that ICANN’s substantive policies respect human rights and ICANN’s limited mission; indeed, they are complementary. ICANN can only make policies in areas authorized by its mission and core values. HR concerns
are an additional constraint on what ICANN can do when making policies; e.g. it cannot violate free expression or privacy rights. It is not an authorization to do additional things.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Those of us who have objected to the use of the Ruggie principles have done so because Ruggie misses the target. We want ICANN’s _<i>policies</i>_ to respect Human Rights, we do not think ICANN’s internal operations
will violate human rights. That is, we don’t think ICANN has a propensity to use slave labor etc. The problem with Ruggie is that it focuses on commercial operations of businesses, not on policy makers. The Ruggie principles can serve as a massive diversion
from the substantive policy issues that ICANN deals with, and if applied inappropriately it can also push ICANN the corporation to do things outside its mission.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">The fact that key players in this discussion still don’t understand – or resist admitting – that ICANN is indeed a quasi-governmental policy maker causes me some concern. The whole HR discussion makes no sense
unless you understand that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Dr. Milton Mueller<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Professor, School of Public Policy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Georgia Institute of Technology<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.internetgovernance.org/"><span style="color:#1F497D;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="207" height="45" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D33CFB.70E04480" alt="IGP_logo_gold block_email sig"></span></a><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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