[gnso-igo-ingo] Protection of the Red Cross, Red Crescent and related designations

[Stephane Hankins <shankins@xxxxxxxx>]

Dear Thomas, 

(1) We were highly surprised to hear during yesterday‘s Conference Call, 
that the WG’s attention is solely focussed on «exact matches» of the names 
of IGO/INGO’s and that this is now your own understanding of the WG’s 
Charter.  (Alan later acknowledged, we believe, that this in in fact not 
stated in the Charter. We do not seem to find such a statement on exact 
matches of IGO/INGO names in the Charter either). 

(2) You will certainly recall that the current moratorium on the 
registration of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (RCRC) designations covers 
the RCRC names as such, irrespective of affiliation to any given Red Cross 
and Red Crescent Organisations, and thus in congruence with the clear 
requirements and protective regime afforded to these designations under 
the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 
2005. This is confirmed in the list of designations reserved in ICANN's 
Applicant Guidebook (and per the Government Advisory Committee 
recommendation of 14 September 2011), as well as by the most recent 
Resolution of the GNSO adopted on 20 December last to recommend a 
temporary moratorium of the same designations at the second level. 

You will also certainly recall that representative organisations of the 
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement have consistently, in 
both their written and oral representations to the WG on IGO/INGO, and 
before that to its predecessor (on the IOC and RCRC names), as well as in 
their past submissions to the GNSO and to ICANN's Board, called for a 
reservation covering the designations as defined in the Geneva Conventions 
and their Additional Protocols, that is: "Red Cross", "Red Crescent", "Red 
Lion and Sun" and "Red Crystal" (RCRC designations). 
We have also clearly stated on a number of occasions in the lead up to the 
adoption of this Group’s Charter that, while the protection of the RCRC 
names would now be subsumed under an IGO/INGO paradigm (a decision we 
argued does not perfectly fit the RCRC designations, which are 
internationally protected irrespective of affiliation to any Red Cross or 
Red Crescent Organisation), 
-        the specific and unique situation of the RCRC designations should 
be duly taken into consideration and needs to be properly reflected in any 
future decisions and recommendations of the WG; and that
-        any future future recommendation of the WG should duly examine 
the protections of the RCRC names in their own right and based on their 
unique legal protection. 

You will certainly recall that we had sought to state and insert this in 
our comments and proposed additions to the WG’s Charter, but that this was 
eventually deemed not to be necessary. If I am not mistaken, you had 
yourself confirmed that such clarifications were not required, as each 
case for reservation would be examined 360 degrees and would be considered 
on its own merits... Please see in particular our email of 15 November 
2012, sent prior to the approval of the WG's Charter, and our later email 
of 29 November 2012, as well as our regular interventions made during the 
WG's weekly meetings.

We now find that the consistent efforts carried out in the last year have 
virtually not been heard or are still not understood, and that the 
concerns put forward on the basis of the clear stipulations of universally 
agreed international law norms are being disregarded. 

(3) Considering the conclusions apparently reached yesterday, and based on 
the terms of the Charter which does not actually seem to restrict the WG’s 
attention to exact matches, we wish here to urge the Group to duly review 
this position once more and to consider the RCRC case on its own unique 
terms. 

This should usefully take the form of a specific stipulation in the WG’s 
future recommendations in order to address the unique case of the RCRC 
designations, and thus in order to duly protect/reserve:
1. the "Red Cross", "Red Crescent", "Red Lion and Sun" and "Red Crystal" 
as such, in congruence with the stipulations of international humanitarian 
law;
2. the names and acronyms of RCRC organisations (namely the 188 National 
Societies recognized within the Movement, the International Committee of 
the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red 
Crescent (IFRC), and thus, in the 6 UN languages and logically in their 
translations in national languages; as well as additionally
3. giving due consideration, in light of the express prohibition on 
imitations of the RCRC designations under international law,  to the 
establishment and implementation of a string similarity review mechanism 
at the top, as well as at the second level (as far as technically 
feasible), in order to duly prevent the registration of strings 
confusingly similar with the RCRC names. 
This would not only bring the WG’s attention and conclusions closer to the 
actual stipulations of international law, but also ensure consistency with 
past decisions in this matter, including the GNSO’s own Resolutions to 
protect the designations RCRC in their own right, temporarily. It would 
also fit well, with the terms of the last version of the WG Charter 
distributed and which, under its section "Mission and Scope", expressly 
tasked the PDP WG, as part of its deliberations, with "distinguishing any 
substantive differences between the RCRC [...] from other International 
Organizations".
We would be happy to have a conversation off-line, as you suggested during 
yesterday’s call, to further address these issues and decide on how best 
to proceed. 

Best regards, 

Stéphane and Chris 


Stéphane J. Hankins
Legal adviser
Cooperation and coordination within the Movement
International Committee of the Red Cross
Tel (direct line): ++0041 22 730 24 19

Christopher M. Rassi
Senior Legal Officer
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Chemin des Crêts, 17 | 1209 Petit Saconnex | Geneva | Switzerland
Tel. +41 (0)22 730 4536 | Fax +41 (0)22 733 0395
Email christopher.rassi@xxxxxxxx
 

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