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Co-Chairs Statement from CCWG-Accountability Meeting in Johannesburg

28 June 2017
By Jordan Carter

Jordan Carter

CCWG-Accountability Co-Chair
, Thomas Rickert

Thomas Rickert

CCWG-Accountability Co-Chair
, and
León Sánchez

León Sánchez

ICANN Board Member

León Sánchez is an intellectual property attorney graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. He also completed postgraduate studies in intellectual property at the UNAM and Internet Law at Harvard Law School. Since 2006 he has been a partner at Fulton & Fulton, a law firm specialized in intellectual property and IT law based in Mexico City, and is Head of the Intellectual Property division. Mr. Sanchez also serves on the Board of Directors for Trustnet Corporate Group, ISDI Mexico and several other non-for-profit organizations in Mexico. Since 2008 Mr. Sanchez is professor of Intellectual Property at the UNAM Law School. He has been an advisor to different Government bodies, including the Digital Strategy Coordination Office of the Mexican Presidency, the Special Commission on Digital Agenda and IT of the Mexican House of Representatives and the Science and Technology Commission of the Mexican Senate. He drafted the Internet Users Rights Protection Act for Mexico and has been very active on issues like ACTA, SOPA, TPPA and other local initiatives of the same kind, always advocating to defend users’ and creators’ rights in order to achieve a balance between regulation and freedom. Mr. Sanchez has served in ICANN as the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) Vice-Chair and Co-Chair of the Cross Community Working Group (CCWG) on Accountability where he has been deeply involved with the IANA Stewardship transition process. Mr. Sanchez was elected by the At-Large community to be its designated Director on the ICANN Board of Directors from 2017 to 2020. He was elected by the At-Large community of individual Internet users worldwide to serve as an ICANN Board Director for a three-year term (November 2017 - November 2020).

In addition to the U.N. six languages, this content is also available in

On 25 June 2017, the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) held a face-to-face meeting before the start of ICANN59 in Johannesburg. 93 members and participants attended in-person and remotely using the virtual meeting room to further the CCWG-Accountability's discussions on Work Stream 2.

During the meeting the CCWG-Accountability:

  • Received confirmation that the CCWG-Accountability-WS2 request to extend its activities until the end of FY18 (July 2018) was approved
  • Confirmed the acceptance of the Approval Process for WS2 Recommendations.
  • Received an update from IRP Implementation Oversight Team (IOT). The IOT is currently working on modifying the draft Supplementary Rules based on the results of the public consultation on the original draft. It is expected that these changes will be completed by the end of the summer and that they will require an additional public consultation.
  • Received an update from the Cooperative Engagement Process (CEP) sub-group which presented the results of its interviews with CEP participants and other staff and community members which have knowledge of the process. These results were used to generate a list of key issues which will be addressed to generate a draft set of recommendations on CEP over the coming months.
  • Received an update from SO/AC Accountability sub-group which presented the results of its public consultation on its draft recommendations. There were several significant concerns which the sub-group will work on addressing over the coming months.
  • Received an update from the Transparency sub-group which presented the results of its public consultation on its draft recommendations. There were several significant concerns which the sub-group will work on addressing over the coming months.
  • Received an update from the Ombudsman sub-group which presented the results of the external review of the office of the Ombudsman. The sub-group will now reconvene to consider the recommendations of the external review as well as the requirements for the Office of the Ombudsman from other sub-groups such as Transparency, Diversity and Staff Accountability. The sub-group is looking forward to producing an initial set of draft recommendations for approval by the CCWG-Accountability by the fall of 2017 and then holding a public consultation on these.
  • Held a first reading of the Staff Accountability draft recommendations.
  • Held a session to address the Jurisdiction sub-group's recent discussions regarding the possibility of changing the location of ICANN's headquarters or creating a blanket immunity for ICANN. In this session it was confirmed that it was unlikely there would be consensus in the CCWG for any recommendation that involved changing ICANN's headquarter location or the jurisdiction of incorporation, or for creating blanket immunity for ICANN. As such, the sub-group's work shall focus on recommending accountability improvements that are issue-driven remedies which build upon ICANN's status as a non-for-profit organization headquartered in California.

The CCWG-Accountability Co-Chairs recognize the outstanding dedication of its volunteers, and express gratitude to ICANN staff for their diligent and skilled support. For more information on the CCWG-Accountability, or to view meeting archives and draft documents, please refer to our dedicated wiki page.

About the CCWG-Accountability

The CCWG-Accountability was established in 2014 as a part of the IANA Stewardship Transition. The group's goal is to ensure that ICANN's accountability and transparency commitments to the global Internet community are maintained and enhanced in the absence of the IANA functions contract with the U.S. Government.

The group divided its work into two Work Streams:

  • Work Stream 1 was focused on identifying mechanisms to enhance ICANN's accountability that must be in place or committed to within the timeframe of the IANA stewardship transition.
  • Work Stream 2 is focused on addressing accountability topics for which a timeline for developing solutions and full implementation may extend beyond the IANA stewardship transition.

The CCWG-Accountability proposed twelve recommendations to enhance ICANN's accountability as a part of the IANA stewardship transition. The consensus Work Stream 1 proposal was approved and transmitted by the ICANN Board to the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration on 10 March 2016. On 1 October 2016, the IANA functions contract lapsed, and CCWG-Accountability's Work Stream 1 recommendations went into effect.

The CCWG-Accountability is comprised of 279 people, organized as members appointed by and accountable to Chartering Organizations; individual participants; one ICANN Board liaison; one ICANN staff representative; and one former ATRT member who serves as a liaison. The group also has over 200 mailing list observers.

The CCWG-Accountability 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 [at] icann.org.

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

Authors

Jordan Carter

CCWG-Accountability Co-Chair

Jordan Carter

CCWG-Accountability Co-Chair

Thomas Rickert

CCWG-Accountability Co-Chair

Thomas Rickert

CCWG-Accountability Co-Chair
León Sánchez

León Sánchez

ICANN Board Member
León Sánchez

León Sánchez

ICANN Board Member

León Sánchez is an intellectual property attorney graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. He also completed postgraduate studies in intellectual property at the UNAM and Internet Law at Harvard Law School. Since 2006 he has been a partner at Fulton & Fulton, a law firm specialized in intellectual property and IT law based in Mexico City, and is Head of the Intellectual Property division. Mr. Sanchez also serves on the Board of Directors for Trustnet Corporate Group, ISDI Mexico and several other non-for-profit organizations in Mexico. Since 2008 Mr. Sanchez is professor of Intellectual Property at the UNAM Law School. He has been an advisor to different Government bodies, including the Digital Strategy Coordination Office of the Mexican Presidency, the Special Commission on Digital Agenda and IT of the Mexican House of Representatives and the Science and Technology Commission of the Mexican Senate. He drafted the Internet Users Rights Protection Act for Mexico and has been very active on issues like ACTA, SOPA, TPPA and other local initiatives of the same kind, always advocating to defend users’ and creators’ rights in order to achieve a balance between regulation and freedom. Mr. Sanchez has served in ICANN as the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) Vice-Chair and Co-Chair of the Cross Community Working Group (CCWG) on Accountability where he has been deeply involved with the IANA Stewardship transition process. Mr. Sanchez was elected by the At-Large community to be its designated Director on the ICANN Board of Directors from 2017 to 2020. He was elected by the At-Large community of individual Internet users worldwide to serve as an ICANN Board Director for a three-year term (November 2017 - November 2020).

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