Recommendations to Improve ICANN's Transparency

Purpose: This Public Comment seeks community input on the CCWG-Accountability Work Stream 2 draft recommendations to improve ICANN's transparency. These draft recommendations were developed by the CCWG-Accountability as required by Annex 12 of the final report of the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability, Work Stream 1).

Current Status: The CCWG-Accountability reviewed these draft recommendations at its 8 February 2017 plenary meeting and approved their publication to gather public comments.

Next Steps: Following the public comment period the inputs will be analyzed by the CCWG-Accountability WS2 who will consider amending its recommendations in light of the comments received and will publish a report on the results of the public consultation. If significant changes are required as a result of the public consultation the CCWG-Accountability WS2 may opt to have a second public consultation on the amended recommendations. If there are no significant changes required, the CCWG-Accountability WS2 will forward the final recommendations on improving ICANN's Transparency to its Chartering Organizations for approval and then to the ICANN Board for consideration and adoption.

The CCWG-Accountability's final report for Work Stream 1 (WS1), Recommendation 12 proposed that a number of topics which were not essential for the transition to take place and that could not be completed in WS1 (due to time constraints of the transition) be undertaken in a Work Stream 2 (WS2) effort by the CCWG-Accountability. This recommendation was approved by the CCWG-Accountability's Chartering Organizations as well as the ICANN Board at its 10 March 2016 meeting. Annex 12 of the final report list the areas of focus for improving ICANN's transparency:

• Enhancements to ICANN's existing Documentary Information Disclosure Policy (DIDP).
• Transparency of ICANN's interactions with governments.
• Improvements to the existing whistleblower policy.
• Transparency of Board deliberations.

As part of its standard processes the CCWG-Accountability will seek public input on all its proposed recommendations.

Improvements to ICANN's transparency were part of the CCWG-Accountability's initial recommendations published for public consultation in May 2015:

"9.2 Items for consideration within Work Stream 2

4. Limiting ICANN's ability to deny transparency / disclosure requests;

7. Institute a culture of default transparency at ICANN, including guidelines for when it is acceptable to classify information, requirements for logging decisions to classify information and procedure for de-classifying information;

9. Enhancements to ICANN's whistleblower policy."

The CCWG-Accountability began its work on WS2 in June 2016. As it pursued its work on this topic it added the requirement to improve the transparency of ICANN's interactions with governments. The sub-group responsible for developing transparency recommendations produced its draft in December 2016 which was approved by the CCWG-Accountability for Public Consultation in February 2017.

The draft [PDF, 904 KB] contains 21 draft recommendations on improving ICANN's Documentary Information Disclosure Policy (DIDP), an overarching recommendation on improving the transparency of ICANN's Interactions with Governments, 3 recommendations on improving the transparency of Board Deliberations and 8 recommendation on improving Whistleblower Protection.

• CCWG-Accountability Work Stream 2 - Draft Recommendations to improve ICANN's Transparency – https://community.icann.org/x/mBWOAw
• CCWG-Accountability Charter - https://community.icann.org/display/acctcrosscomm/Charter
• CCWG-Accountability Work Stream 1 – Final recommendations Annex 12 - https://community.icann.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=58723827
• CCWG-Accountability Work Stream 1 – May 2015 Public Consultation - https://community.icann.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=52897394

CCWG-Accountability Transparency Subgroup wiki

• Report