<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><br><div><div>On 29 Aug 2014, at 11:20 pm, Sam Lanfranco <<a href="mailto:lanfran@YORKU.CA">lanfran@YORKU.CA</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><big>I
would like to pick up on a thread (which I fully agree
with) present in David Cake’s posting. He writes:<o:p></o:p></big></font></p>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><big>
</big></font><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><big><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The GAC-GNSO
Coordination Group has been trying hard to demonstrate to
the GAC the many ways
they can be a part of the GNSO policy development process….
There is absolutely
no guarantee that anyone outside the GAC will have any
influence at all - sure,
a major policy decision will be discussed for some time, and
you might be able
to informally lobby your GAC rep. But there is no guarantee
at all - GAC advice
can be proposed virtually direct from the floor, and be in
the GAC communique shortly
afterward, with no opportunity for anyone outside the GAC to
even know what it
is.<o:p></o:p></i></big></font></p>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><big>
</big></font><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><big>GAC
representatives are representatives of their
governments, and their governments are supposed to be
representative of the will
of the people as expressed by the people, which is not the
case in non-democratic
governments. There are however lots of democratic governments
and one of the ICANN
multistakeholder efforts should be to press governments to
carry on a more
inclusive domestic stakeholder dialogue within their own
countries, a dialogue
that would better inform individual GAC member positions, and
increase
transparency and accountability between constituencies at the
national level. <o:p></o:p></big></font></p>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><big>
</big></font><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><big>Least
this be thought of as an impertinent suggestion, this
can be promoted at the ICANN level on the grounds that
national inclusive dialogue
is a win-win: at the national level informing national
stakeholders for better
national Internet policy; and globally producing <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"></span>better policy deliberations
among a better
informed GAC, GNSO and others within ICANN.<o:p></o:p></big></font></p>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><big>
</big></font><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><big>As
civil society works to increase the awareness, knowledge,
engagement and accountability of the Internet’s civil society
stakeholders, it
is not unreasonable to suggest to GAC that it should do the
same. In the
absence of such a process there are reasons to worry about
Board voting
formulas that allow arbitrary and ill-advised GAC proposals
being fast tracked with
no deliberation, and no effective way to fight ill-considered
policy decisions. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><br>
</span></big></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Sam
L</font></p></div></blockquote><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I agree, Sam, but not all governments do. I've had GAC members express to me the opinion that they had no need to discuss national positions with other stakeholders at a domestic level, because other national stakeholders could express their opinions within the ICANN process. I think this is a terrible position personally, and I am alarmed that GAC reps often hold positions, even at the specific government level, that are contrary to national level policy. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>There isn't, however, much we can do as civil society, other than advocate for national level policy discussions as a best practice. The ability of GAC members to push positions contrary to national policy/law is, however, another reason to give less weight to the GACs case for more weight for their advice. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And note that some GAC members are not nations at all. The poorly thought out ICRC related advice I was railing about originated with a small group of lobbyists for an IGO responsible to no government or democratic process. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Regards</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>David</div><br><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CSam%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CSam%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CSam%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>
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