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Accountability and Transparency Review Team (ATRT): Draft Proposed Recommendations for Public Comment

3 November 2010

The Accountability and Transparency Review Team (ATRT) issues this request for Public Comment on a set of draft proposed Recommendations [PDF, 897 KB] that it has developed as part of its review of ICANN’s execution of its commitments to accountability and transparency under the Affirmation of Commitments (AoC). The ATRT is required to provide final Recommendations to the ICANN Board no later than December 31, 2010.

The draft proposed recommendations are based on the public comments and inputs received to date, interactions with the ICANN Community at the 37th ICANN meeting in Brussels, interviews, fact-finding and analysis by the ATRT. They are also based on input from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. The Berkman Center was selected to act as an Independent Expert, as provided by the AoC, and was asked by the ATRT to provide its own analysis focusing on the provisions of paragraph 9.1 of the AoC. The Berkman Center conducted primary and secondary research including a set of case studies and a series of interviews to produce a Final Report which is attached as Appendix A. The ATRT considered the recommendations in the Berkman Center’s Final Report [PDF, 3.92 MB] as it developed the draft proposed Recommendations that are being published for Public Comment. Translations of the Berkman Center Final Report are being prepared and will be promptly issued.

The Public Comment period will be open for 30 days and will close on December 3, 2010. Under the AoC, the ATRT must consider public comments in response to these draft proposed Recommendations before submitting its Final Recommendations to the Board. As such, a 30 day public comment period will provide the ATRT adequate time to consider public comment prior to the issuance of its Final Recommendations to the ICANN Board.

The ATRT will continue to maintain the active email input mechanism on its site at http://www.icann.org/en/reviews/affirmation/atrt-meetings-en.htm to allow the public to provide input to the ATRT covering issues beyond the proposed draft recommendations. The email input mechanism will be closed concurrent with the close of the Public Comment period for the proposed recommendations on December 3, 2010.

The ATRT will hold a public forum on Monday, December 6, 2010 at the ICANN meeting in Cartagena, Colombia to hear from the public concerning the draft proposed recommendations and the work of the ATRT. A time for the public forum will be scheduled. Please refer to the ICANN website for further details.