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ICANN Announces the Formation of Two Committees Required for IANA Stewardship Transition

12 August 2016

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ICANN today announced the formation of the Customer Standing Committee (CSC) and the Root Zone Evolution Review Committee (RZERC). Both newly formed committees are requirements for the completion of the IANA Stewardship Transition by the CWG-Stewardship.

The CSC will perform the operational oversight of the performance of the IANA naming function, a role currently performed by NTIA. In its oversight role, the CSC will monitor the performance of the IANA naming function against agreed service level expectations. The CSC may also initiate reviews and make recommendations for post-transition changes to service level expectations. For more information, please see the CSC Charter [PDF, 139 KB] or the CSC Scope and Responsibilities [PDF, 83 KB]. Per the CSC Charter, the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Councils have approved the full slate of the membership.

The RZERC will review proposed architectural changes to the content of the root zone, the systems (including both hardware and software components) used in executing changes to the root zone and the mechanisms used for distribution of the root zone. It will also make recommendations related to those changes for consideration by the ICANN Board. The ICANN Board's approval of recommendations developed through the RZERC will replace NTIA's current role in approval of architectural changes to the root zone. The ICANN Board adopted the RZERC Charter [PDF, 50 KB], finalized through public comment, on 10 August 2016. See the full committee here.

These committees will not become operational unless and until the expiration of the IANA Functions Contract.

Additional details on ICANN's implementation planning efforts can be found at https://www.icann.org/stewardship-implementation.