[Icann-future-wg] New Document "Improving Institutional Confidence - the Way Forward: - For Community Consideration

[At-Large Staff]

Dear Community and Working Group Members:

You may wish to consider responding to the below in connection with your 
work on the Improving Institutional Confidence process at the Summit and 
since then.

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"Improving Institutional Confidence: The Way Forward" 
(http://www.icann.org/en/jpa/iic/iic-the-way-forward-31may09-en.pdf) 
[PDF, 112K], is published today for community review and follows from 
the work of the President's Strategy Committee (PSC). It is a staff 
evaluation of possible implementation steps from the PSC proposals.

This preliminary evaluation is being published on 1 June 2009 at the 
same time it is submitted to the Board to allow the global Internet 
community to consider and reflect on these documents, and to facilitate 
discussions during ICANN's next public meeting in Sydney, 21-26 June 2009.

These documents are being published at the same time they are submitted 
to the Board to allow the global Internet community to consider and 
reflect on these documents, and to facilitate discussions during ICANN's 
next public meeting in Sydney, 21-26 June 2009. The Board has not yet 
considered these proposals nor do these proposals represent the views of 
the Board. Further future steps emanating from Board consideration may 
also involve formal public consultation.

The staff evaluation recommends the following board action and approvals:

* Possible changes to ICANN's bylaws to establish a new and newly 
constituted Independent Review Tribunal with powers to review the 
exercise of decision-making powers of the ICANN Board under three 
general rubrics of fairness, fidelity and rationality.

* Continue conversations with authorities in jurisdictions such as 
Belgium and Switzerland, but report back with a detailed analysis of 
risks and benefits to the Board and community of any additional of legal 
presence to inform future consultations with the community.

* Accepting the PSC recommendation that ICANN maintain its headquarters 
in the United States, specifically in Marina del Rey, California.

* Consider means to work with ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee 
(GAC) and the ICANN community on a fully consultative process to 
publicly review the GAC's role within ICANN. This review process might 
focus on coordination and consultation between the GAC and other 
supporting organizations and advisory committees of ICANN.

The report includes three further appendices:

* Appendix A, "Improving Institutional Confidence: Implementation 
Report” - summary of the President's Strategy Committee recommendations 
presented at the Mexico City meeting in March 2009, the community 
feedback received to those recommendations, and the staff implementation 
recommendations for each.

* Appendix B, Proposal to Establish a Special ICANN Community Vote 
Requesting a Board Re-Examination of a Board Decision

* Appendix C, Proposal to Establish an Independent Review Tribunal

Background:

At its meeting on 6 March 2009, the Board thanked the PSC for its work 
and undertook to review the report. The Board posted the report for 60 
days' public comment, and directed staff to evaluate implementation of 
the proposals and report its findings to the Board. The Board-directed 
public comment period concluded on 11 May 2009, and the comments are 
available here: http://forum.icann.org/lists/iic-implementation-plan/

Full documentation and background information regarding the Improving 
Institutional Confidence consultations to date can be found at 
http://www.icann.org/en/jpa/iic/.