Great work. I support the statement as well.

-- 

Niels ten Oever
Acting Head of Digital

Article 19
www.article19.org

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On 03/18/2014 11:36 AM, Brenden Kuerbis wrote:
> Thanks Rafik and Milton, I support this statement.
> 
> - Brenden
> On Mar 16, 2014 9:52 PM, "Rafik Dammak" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> (cc NCSG-PC)
>>
>> Milton volunteered and drafted this statement regarding the NTIA
>> announcement. we should be able to discuss (commenting here
>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VAkGj39ou5YkypFt0Vwqvyd1FTK31Ojm29s_gX-Ugrw/edit?usp=sharing) and endorse it asap before Singapore meeting to show support and indicate
>> our initial positions .
>>
>> Best Regards,
>>
>> Rafik
>>
>>
>> ----------statement----------------
>>
>> NCSG Statement on the globalization of the IANA functions
>>
>> The Noncommercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) welcomes the 13 March 2014
>> statement from the U.S. Commerce Department announcing its intention to
>> “transition key Internet domain name functions to the global
>> multistakeholder community.” We support this move because an Internet
>> governance regime that gives one national government exclusive powers over
>> a global resource is bound to be politically biased, divisive and promote
>> tendencies toward Internet fragmentation. This change is long overdue.
>>
>> NCSG supports all 5 of the principles NTIA proposed to guide the
>> transition. We agree that the transition should:
>>
>> • Support and enhance the multistakeholder model;
>>
>> • Maintain the security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet DNS;
>>
>> • Meet the needs and expectation of the global customers and partners of
>> the IANA services;
>>
>> • Maintain the openness of the Internet;
>>
>> • Not replace the NTIA role with a government-led or an inter-governmental
>> organization.
>>
>> It is very important to replace the current system with a carefully
>> considered, well-designed alternative. We note that noncommercial
>> stakeholders have been leaders in developing plans for the proposed
>> transition. Submissions to the Netmundial conference from two NCSG members,
>> the Internet Governance Project and Avri Doria, have set out specific
>> blueprints for the transition.
>>
>> Consistent with both of these proposals, NCSG proposes an additional
>> principle to guide the transition. The transition should:
>>
>> • Enhance the accountability of ICANN through structural separation of the
>> DNS root zone management functions from ICANN’s policy making functions
>>
>> The root zone management functions, which are currently performed by
>> Verisign, Inc. and IANA under contracts with the U.S. government, are
>> clerical, technical and operational, The policy making functions of ICANN,
>> on the other hand, are highly political. NCSG believes that those two
>> aspects of DNS governance must be kept apart, in separate organizations.
>> Separating them ensures that those with policy and political objectives
>> must win support for their ideas in a fair and open policy development
>> process, and cannot arbitrarily impose them upon Internet users and service
>> providers by virtue of their control of the operational levers of the
>> global domain name system.
>>
>> The existing IANA contract attempts to keep the two separate; however, if
>> ICANN simply absorbs the IANA and Verisign functions without any oversight
>> from the U.S. government, there is a danger that the two could become
>> integrated and intermingled in unhealthy ways. That is why the NCSG, along
>> with supporters from other stakeholder groups, will insist on this new
>> principle of separation during the transition process.
>>
>> The Department of Commerce has asked ICANN to “conven[e] stakeholders
>> across the global Internet community to craft an appropriate transition
>> plan.” Unfortunately, ICANN’s management seems to have interpreted this as
>> a mandate to implement its own transition plan, in which it would simply
>> take over the IANA functions with no oversight. NCSG wishes to remind ICANN
>> that it has been charged with convening a process, not with controlling it.
>> The transition will not work unless ICANN runs a truly open and
>> deliberative process that allows the all ideas to be considered and the
>> best ideas to win.
>>
>> NCSG is the voice of civil society and nonprofit organizations in ICANN’s
>> domain name policy making organ, the Generic Names Supporting Organization.
>> It is composed of two constituencies, the Noncommercial Users Constituency (
>> http://ncuc.org) and the Non-Profit Operational Constituencies (
>> http://www.npoc.org)
>> ----------end of statement-------
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>