New gTLD Board Committee Consideration of GAC Safeguard Advice - ".health

["Patrick Weber" <patrick.weber@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"The health Internet is a vital means of health information access
worldwide. Thus, ".health" and health related top level domains should be
trusted and reliable resources which take the public interest into account.
We share the concerns expressed by the GAC, and support the objections
submitted by the ALAC and the Independent Objector regarding health-related
names. 

 

The GAC has proposed general safeguards for a set of names related to
health, with no assurance that they will be enforced, meaning that there is
no guarantee that a new ".health" TLD will be operated in the interest of
global public health and consumer protection. A " .health" TLD without
adequate quality assurance and consumer protection mechanisms in place will
undermine credibility and harm the growth of the online health marketplace.
Despite GAC advice, an open and unrestricted TLD will help bypass regulatory
controls creating new risks for the whole industry sector, including in
emerging markets. Developing countries will suffer the most in this
scenario, due to their difficulties in enforcing national policies to
regulate, monitor, and stop fraud and misuse. 

 

As an NGO with (describe NGO, membership and so on) we believe that
".health" should be managed as a global asset, and that its governance
should be based on broad-based, multi-stakeholder consensus.  In this regard
the ICANN board should note the concerns of the health  community, GAC, ALAC
and the IO, and should not proceed beyond Intial Evaluation of the ".health"
string, including its Chinese variant. We urge the ICANN board to postpone
the attribution of ".health" until such time as following broad-based
consultation of the health community, including the public and private
sectors, adequate baseline conditions for its operation are elaborated and
their implementation and observance can be ensured.

 

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