Comment from the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs

[Noam Wiener <wiener@xxxxxx>]

<font size=2 face="sans-serif">Dear Sir/Madam,</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Please see below comments submitted
on behalf of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs regarding the GNSO
council recommendations re the protection of IGO names and acronyms for
publication on the public forum.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">I would be grateful if attribution on
the forum would be to the UN Office of Legal Affairs rather than to my
personal name.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">*******</font>
<p><font size=2 face="Arial">The United Nations considers the recent IGO-INGO
Identifier Protection recommendations adopted by the GNSO Council to be
inadequate to protect the names and acronyms of intergovernmental organizations.
The GNSO Council recommendations, while accepting protections for full
names at both the top and second levels, refuse such protections for IGO
acronyms. &nbsp; This limited protection does not do justice to the risk
inherent in allowing private entities to impersonate the United Nations
or its subsidiary bodies. Thus, for example, protecting the top level domain
XX.UnitedNationsChildren&#8217;sFund, but leaving XX.UNICEF open to registration
will hardly protect internet users from the hazard of impostors who might
attempt to take advantage of the new gTLD. </font>
<p><font size=2 face="Arial">The United Nations is perennially forced to
contend with frequent unauthorized and fraudulent uses of the United 
Nations&#8217;
name and acronym by individuals and private organizations. Too often, the
United Nations becomes aware of such fraud only after unsuspecting individuals
have donated considerable time and money to an entity falsely representing
itself to be a United Nations affiliate. Enabling entities to register
top and second level domain names that emulate United Nations identity
will only increase these instances of fraud, to the detriment of internet
users and the reputation of both the United Nations and ICANN. </font>
<div><font size=2 face="Arial">Notably, the position of the United Nations
is not that UN acronyms be reserved without any possibility of reconsideration.
The United Nations recognizes that some of the acronyms of its affiliates
may be legitimately shared by other entities and is, therefore, open to
the creation of a mechanism, not subject to the jurisdiction of national
courts, to re-allocate reserved domain names when it is just to do so.
Importantly, however, and unlike the UDRP or URS, the new mechanisms should
be preventive rather than curative to effectively protect innocent internet
users. </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">The United Nations therefore urges ICANN
to adopt a policy that will protect the United Nations and its subsidiary
organs in the same manner afforded to the RCRC and the IOC &#8211; namely, the
placement of their names and acronyms in the Applicant Guidebook section
2.2.1.2.3, Strings &#8220;Ineligible for Delegation&#8221;, for both top level 
and
second level domain names. Surely, the United Nations deserves to be treated
at least on a par with these other organizations.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">*******</font>
<p><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Best regards,</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Noam Wiener</font>
<br>
<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Noam Wiener, Legal Officer<br>
General Legal Division </font>
<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Office of Legal Affairs<br>
United Nations<br>
</font>
<br></div>