Adding further insult to injury, in the final charters approved by the board last week, the bar was lowered for the commercial constituencies in terms of requiring geographic diversity and breadth of representation among membership. ICANN amended the CSG charter to allow the commercial constituencies to elect 3 of their 6 GNSO Councilors from the US and the other 3 can come from Europe - yes that is right - only 2 geographic regions may be represented on the GNSO council from the commercial constituencies. That's ICANN's idea of encouraging diversity and new participation - empty rhetoric. The commercial groups lobbied staff/board for this last minute change to their charter, claiming "it is just too hard to find participants in other regions of the world" (i.e. developing world). At the same time they lobbied for easing their diversity requirements, they claimed NCUC is not representative and not diverse enough to be allowed to elect all 6 of our councilors. Yet, we have no problem with the stricter requirement the board imposed on us of no more 3 councilors from any geographic region and think it should be the rule for all stakeholders. At every opportunity, the commercial groups get a free pass, a lower standard, an advantage from ICANN staff/ SIC. The unequal treatment is so fundamental it is even built into the charters they adopt for us. The Facts. The 2006 LSE Report (which called for parity in the 1st place) documented that NCUC had the most geographically diverse participation of any constituency, and that NCUC had the most turn- over of individual councilors of any constituency. But nobody goes back and looks up facts anymore. ICANN staff has a million dollar PR and lobby industry to spin its web of lies in so many places and so often, they begin to take on the appearance of truth. Unless somebody goes back and does the fact checking for the ICANN Board (other than staff). Compare ICANN's NCSG Charter Section 8.2.3: "The NCSG Executive Committee and Board will ensure, to the extent possible, that, in the selection of GNSO Councilors, no more than 2 shall come from the same geographic region...." CSG Charter: Section 8.1: "Ensure that the Recognized Constituencies adopt internal procedures in selecting 6 GNSO Council Representatives, such that no more than 3 of the 6 may be domiciled in the same "Geographic Region"." ICANN's brazen unequal treatment between commercial and noncommercial users cannot withstand the clear light of day being shone on it. Robin IP JUSTICE Robin Gross, Executive Director 1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117 USA p: +1-415-553-6261 f: +1-415-462-6451 w: http://www.ipjustice.org e: [log in to unmask]