Dear Kathy, thank you very much for this nomination. I fully support Ed for a second term in the GNSO council. I had the pleasure to serve with Ed in the council for the past year and I was extremely impressed by his substantive knowledge, his capacity to build bridges and negotiate with other SGs and his tenacity to defend NCSG’s interests. Ed is also a wonderful person to work with, who defends his views passionately but also truly engages in frank dialogue with his peers, being open to change his mind, which is an important characteristic for this position.

On his first term, Ed has been an outstanding councilor, with a unique understanding of legal aspects related to ICANN. Together with our colleagues Robin, Matthew, Avri, Brett and others, Ed has been key to ensure that the work of the CCWG Accountability took into account the positions espoused by the NCSG. He was tireless in negotiating paragraph by paragraph of the bylaws to ensure that our SG would have the necessary transparency instruments that would allow us to introduce adequate “checks and balances” into the work of ICANN. He gave support to our colleagues who were fighting hard to introduce human rights provisions into ICANN’s bylaws.

Many of the charters that we approved in the GNSO were carefully scrutinized by Ed, in terms of substance and procedural aspects. He fought to ensure that NCSG would have fair and equal representation in the composition of working groups. He also played a leading role in the discussion of ICANN’s budget, an extremely technical topic, but a vital one for the future work of our SG. Ed pludged into complex issues that no one else would, he spent countless hours examining the budget and was responsible for making several amendments that leveled the playing field for non-commercial interests.

Ed has a vast knowledge on intellectual property one, of the key concerns for our group. His presence as a GNSO councilor in the Rights Protection Mechanisms WG in the next terms will be very important for our SG to achieve and fair and balanced outcome, which also protects freedom of expression.

Last but not least, Ed is a human being capable of deeply empathizing with his fellows, specially those who are somehow disadvantaged or suffering. During a time of heavy work and stress for him at the CCWG Accountability, Ed took the lead in campaigning for policy on sexual harassement. His passion and dedication to the topic were moving and made me admire Ed even more on a personal level.   

I hope we re-elect Ed Morris for the GNSO council. His presence would be key for the NCSG to make progress on some of the key policy and political issues that it will face in the next working cycle.

Thank you for considering.

 Marilia