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The Internet Business Council for Africa (IBCA) Opposes the Proposed ICANN Bylaws Changes Regarding Consideration of GAC Advice

  • To: comments-bylaws-amend-gac-advice-15aug14@xxxxxxxxx
  • Subject: The Internet Business Council for Africa (IBCA) Opposes the Proposed ICANN Bylaws Changes Regarding Consideration of GAC Advice
  • From: <info@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 23:18:22 -0700

<html><body><span style="font-family:Verdana; color:#000; 
font-size:10pt;"><div><br></div><div>September 9, 2014<br><br>By 
E-Mail</div><div><br>Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and 
Numbers<br>12025 Waterfront Drive, Suite 300<br>Los Angeles, CA 
90094-2536<br><br>Dear ICANN,<br><br><u><b>Re: The Internet Business Council 
for Africa (IBCA) Opposes the Proposed ICANN Bylaws Changes Regarding 
Consideration of GAC Advice</b></u><br><br>The Internet Business Council for 
Africa (IBCA) has opposed the proposed ICANN Bylaws Changes Regarding 
Consideration of GAC Advice. </div><div><br>The Internet Business Council for 
Africa (IBCA) initiative was proposed as a component of the Global Internet 
Constituency African Strategy. The principal objective of the IBCA is to 
promote the involvement and participation of the African 
private/non-governmental sector (and the global private sector involved in 
Africa) in the Global Internet Community, and also provide an avenue as a 
policy voice for the technology industry for them to participate in global 
Internet Governance.<br> <br>IBCA notes that the proposed amendments to the 
Bylaws that would require 2/3 of the voting members of the Board to vote to act 
inconsistently with a piece of GAC advice will give the GAC undue power in the 
ICANN Board concerning making decisions that are supposed to be approached via 
the bottom up multi-stakeholder process that IBCA supports. Currently, the 
Bylaws require a simple majority of the Board (50% + 1) to vote to not follow a 
piece of advice from the GAC. <br> <br>Basing on the multi-stakeholder 
principle, the IBCA notes that the proposed changes could result in an 
empowering of undemocratic regimes and provide a window for them to address 
issues which themselves do not support.<br> <br>By looking at the basic 
principles of other constituencies that advice ICANN like the GNSO they 
implement enough input from a vast majority of the stakeholders to come up with 
policies. The GAC in itself has not set any operating principles that will 
guide it on any matters that cover conflict of interest, transparency or the 
multi-stakeholder approach, this by law change would give the GAC more power 
over the board and create a potential for repressive regimes to weave policy 
advices that could potentially affect the running of the internet as it 
currently serves.<br> <br>It is important to ensure that GAC has enough guiding 
principles and mechanisms to address the varied concerns of all other 
stakeholders before they could be allowed a majority vote to oppose any advice 
they have given. GAC should not be empowered in its current state.<br> <br>IBCA 
also would like to remind the Internet constituency those participants and 
delegates do not probably understand the internet governance matters and 
neither are they democratically appointed to attend these meetings therefore 
the positions they would carry probably do not support the voice of the 
community, businesses or other institutions that they represent.<br> <br>The 
Internet Business Council for Africa (IBCA) does not support this proposal and 
&nbsp;therefore encourages that it be duly disregarded and properly formatted 
in a manner that involves the entire internet community since it has simply 
been drafted and imposed to the community without due process or call for 
involvement.<br> <br><br>Sincerely<br><br>The Secretariat,<br><br>The Internet 
Business Council for Africa (IBCA)<br>16th &nbsp;Floor Ambank 
House,<br>University Avenue<br>Nairobi Kenya<br>Tel: +254-703 250 969<br>Fax: 
+254-020-2731146<br><a 
href="mailto:info@xxxxxxxxxxx";>info@xxxxxxxxxxx</a><br></div></span></body></html>

Attachment: Letter to ICANN- IBCA Opposes the Proposed ICANN Bylaws Changes Regarding Consideration of GAC Advice.pdf
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