closed Updated GNSO Stakeholder Group and Constituency Charter Amendment Process

Outcome

The Public Comment proceeding for the Updated GNSO Stakeholder Group and Constituency Charter Amendment Process received four submissions to inform the consideration of the ICANN Board Organizational Effectiveness Committee (OEC). All feedback was supportive of the updated process. This document provides an overview of the feedback and the ICANN organization’s analysis.

What We Received Input On

The ICANN Bylaws (Article 11, Section 5.c) state that each Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Stakeholder Group and its associated Constituencies “shall maintain recognition with the ICANN Board.” To maintain recognition, the ICANN Board considers and approves any charter amendments for those groups.

As a best practice, each GNSO Stakeholder Group and Constituency reviews its charter regularly. In September 2013, the ICANN Board approved a Process for Amending GNSO Stakeholder Group and Constituency Charters (“process”).

Recognizing the continuous evolution of the ICANN community and the review roles of the ICANN Board and ICANN organization, the ICANN organization proposed updating the process. The proposed updates to the process would streamline the governance work of GNSO Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies, ensuring their continued focus on policy development.

Proposed updates to the process include:

• New organizational structure that aligns with the ICANN organization project management framework.
• Revised sections to address the increasing complexity of governance documents, which includes a more in-depth review by the ICANN organization to address the evolving needs of ICANN community groups and allocation of ICANN organization resources.
• Clarified role of the ICANN organization in the process, which includes a request for GNSO Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies to inform the ICANN organization when charter amendment begins. The ICANN organization will serve as a resource throughout the process.
• Charter and operating procedures templates that align with best practices according to the GNSO Operating Procedures and Recommendation 6.5 on “Updates to Policies and Procedures” from the Final Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability Work Stream 2. 

Background

The ICANN organization originally proposed these updates in early 2022. Shortly after the ICANN Board Organizational Effectiveness Committee (OEC), the committee of the Board most involved in the process, approved the updated process for Public Comment in July 2022, two GNSO Constituencies and one GNSO Stakeholder Group began work to amend their charters. The ICANN organization refrained from opening the Public Comment proceeding to avoid changes to the process while these three ICANN community groups were actively working on their charters. As all three ICANN community groups have since completed their work, it is now a good time to conduct the Public Comment proceeding. 

Supporting Information