Background
According to the ASO MoU, in Section 5 Global Policy Development Process, ICANN agreed to the following:
Under this agreement the ICANN Board will ratify proposed global policies in accordance with the Global Policy Development Process, using review procedures as determined by ICANN. ICANN will publish these procedures no later than ninety (90) days from the date of the signature of this agreement by all parties.
The MoU, available on: http://aso.icann.org/docs/aso-mou2004.html was signed on 21 October 2004, meaning that the agreed publishing is overdue.
Further considerations
As ICANN already has established Policy Development Procedures in co-operation with other Support Organizations, there is some guidance to be obtained from those procedures in developing a Review Procedure for the ASO Council proposal. A case in point is the Policy Development Procedure in the GNSO procedures, on http://gnso.icann.org/council/new-procedures.shtml#6.
However, the ASO Policy Development Procedure has is own specificities, requiring a procedure from the moment the ASO Council has decided to propose an already developed policy. Based on these considerations, the following review procedure is proposed for ASO policy proposals and public comments are sought on the proposed procedure.
Proposed review procedure steps
- The ASO Council sends the proposed policy to the ICANN Board Secretary who formally shall acknowledge receipt of the proposal within one business day. In case the proposal is formally incomplete, the Board Secretary may refer it back to the ASO Council for completion, otherwise the 60-day window for Board response to the ASO Council starts and the review procedure outlined hereafter commences.
- The Board, acting through the President, assigns the activities foreseen in the MoU, Annex A, article 8, (notably to review the proposal, to decide on the need for external assistance and to request clarifications from the ASO Council) to ICANN staff.
- If deemed appropriate by ICANN staff so assigned in line with 2 above, external consultancy assistance may be called upon to assist in the review process.
- The proposal shall be posted for public comments in a timely fashion, with comments due within 21 days from posting. All ICANN Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees shall be immediately notified of the posting and their comments invited as appropriate.
- During all the steps 1-4 above, ICANN staff so assigned, may ask the ASO Council for clarifications of the proposal, as appropriate. Such questions for clarifications shall be reasonable, concise and bundled. The ASO Council shall respond to such questions in a timely fashion.
- ICANN staff analyzes comments received following step 2, as well as prior comments put forward during the ASO PDP, and compiles within 10 business days from the end of the comment period a Staff Recommendation which is forwarded to the Board for consideration. The Staff Recommendation shall contain reasoned opinions on all material issues and motivations for proposed decisions.
- The Board takes its final decision on the proposal and informs the ASO thereof, in line with the MoU provisions in Annex A, articles 9-11.
- As part of the final decision of the Board, the Board shall, as appropriate, give authorization or direction to the ICANN staff to take all necessary steps to implement the policy.
- Throughout the Review Procedure, from policy proposal to a final decision by the Board, ICANN will maintain on the Website, a status web page detailing the progress. This web page shall describe the initial proposal for a policy, all discussions and comments submitted in the process, all reports and recommendations produced on the matter and the final decision.
Please submit your comments by 9 May 2005.
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