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CCWG-Accountability Co-Chairs Statement Leading into ICANN59 in Johannesburg

22 June 2017

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In May 2017, the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) welcomed a new co-Chair – Jordan Carter. Jordan was appointed by the ccNSO to replace Mathieu Weill, who resigned in April after accepting a new position. The CCWG-Accountability expressed its gratitude to Mathieu for his service to the CCWG-Accountability in a letter that was presented to him earlier this month at a dinner in Paris in his honor.

On 25 June 2017, Jordan will co-chair his first CCWG-Accountability face-to-face meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, prior to the start of ICANN59.

Since its last face-to-face meeting in Copenhagen, the CCWG-Accountability has made substantive progress in most areas of their work and will use the Johannesburg meeting to review draft recommendations on the topics of Diversity and Staff Accountability. They will also review public comments received from the community on SO/AC Accountability and Transparency, and hear conclusions made from the external evaluation of the Ombudsman Office.

Over the last few weeks, the CCWG-Accountability has also spent time refining the process for finalizing its Work Stream 2 (WS2) recommendations. The refined process should provide the Community, Chartering Organizations and ICANN Board with multiple opportunities to provide inputs during the development of the recommendations, and also expedite the conclusion of the CCWG-Accountability’s work once all sub-groups have completed their work.

A visual depiction, along with a description of the process can be found below:

Recommendations from each sub-group will be put out for public comment separately, as their work progresses. The Chartering Organizations and ICANN Board are encouraged to provide input during those public comment periods.

Individual subgroup recommendations will be revised based on the input received, and each subgroup may choose to submit revised documents for a second public comment period. Once all subgroup recommendations are publicly vetted, the CCWG-Accountability will work to resolve any inconsistencies or address any issues with interdependencies between the various recommendations. A final public comment period will then be conducted on the entire WS2 proposal, with the explicit focus of public comments limited to the proposed solutions for resolving any inconsistencies.

Once the final WS2 report is completed, it will be submitted to the Chartering Organizations and ICANN Board for formal approval and adoption. It is the expectation of the CCWG-Accountability-WS2 that this final step should be completed quickly given that all topics will have been already considered individually, and concerns specific to the recommendations will have been raised and addressed at an earlier stage.

Implementation of recommendations will not occur until the final WS2 report is considered and approved by the Chartering Organizations and the ICANN Board.

The CCWG-Accountability plans to discuss this process with the Chartering Organizations in Johannesburg. We look forward to seeing many of you later this month at ICANN59 and at the face-to-face meeting on 25 June.

For more information on the CCWG-Accountability, or to view meeting archives and draft documents, please refer to the group’s dedicated wiki page.

The CCWG-Accountability WS2 is an open group. Anyone interested in the work of the CCWG-Accountability can join as a participant or observer. For more information about how to join the CCWG-Accountability, please send an email to acct-staff@icann.org.

CCWG-Accountability co-Chairs
Thomas Rickert, León Sánchez, Jordan Carter