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Resources

Organizational Reviews

Introduction to Reviews The Review Process
Getting Started With Reviews Specific Reviews
Review Status Update Table Timing of Reviews

Organizational Reviews are anchored in Article 4.4. of the ICANN Bylaws to assess the effectiveness of ICANN’s supporting organizations and advisory committees. Organizational Reviews are conducted by independent examiners to assess:

(i) whether that organization, council or committee has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure. 

(ii) if so, whether any change in structure or operations is desirable to improve its effectiveness.

(iii) whether that organization, council or committee is accountable to its constituencies, stakeholder groups, organizations and other stakeholders.

Here is a listing of the Organizational Reviews and key resources for each:


ALAC

At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) Review


 
Wiki
  Find updates on the ALAC Review Wiki Workspace.

 
Review Info
  Learn about Review objectives, timeline and implementation on the ALAC Review Home Page.

ccNSO

Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO)


 
Wiki
  Find updates on the ccNSO Review Wiki Workspace.

 
Review Info
  Learn about Review objectives, timeline and implementation on the ccNSO Review Home Page.

GNSO

Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)


 
Wiki
  Find updates on the GNSO Review Wiki Workspace.

 
Review Info
  Learn about Review objectives, timeline and implementation on the GNSO Review Home Page.

NomCom

Nominating Committee (NomCom)


 
Wiki
  Find updates on the NomCom Review Wiki Workspace.

 
Review Info
  Learn about Review objectives, timeline and implementation on the NomCom Review Home Page.

RSSAC

Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC)


 
Wiki
  Find updates on the RSSAC Review Wiki Workspace.

 
Review Info
  Learn about Review objectives, timeline and implementation on the RSSAC Review Home Page.

SSAC

Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)


 
Wiki
  Find updates on the SSAC Review Wiki Workspace.

 
Review Info
  Learn about Review objectives, timeline and implementation on the SSAC Review Home Page.

ASO

Address Supporting Organization (ASO)


 
Review Info
  Learn about Review objectives, timeline and implementation on the ASO Review Home Page.

*Following ICANN Bylaws, Section 4.4(b), and ASO Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with ICANN, ASO and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) shall provide their own review mechanisms.


Detailed Review Process Flow

Reviews follow a process of many steps and multiple participants. To help make sense of it, we have broken down the process with a visual flow to help you connect the dots.  Please click here to understand how Organizational Reviews work.

A substantial amount of work goes into planning each review and implementing the recommendations.  As a result, the time it takes to plan, execute, and implement review recommendations can take from 36 to 54 months.

Timing of Organizational Reviews

Organizational Reviews “shall be conducted no less frequently than every five years, based on feasibility as determined by the Board. (see Bylaws, Section 4.4(a)). When appropriate, the Board has the option to defer the start of Organizational Reviews with input from the community. Each five-year cycle will be computed from the moment of the reception by the Board of the final report of the relevant review Working Group.”

The Board took action on 21 June 2021 to defer the third GNSO Review and 12 June 2022 to defer the Organizational Reviews of the ALAC, ASO, ccNSO, NomCom, RSSAC, and SSAC, until such time as the Board, community and ICANN org better understand the impact of the third Accountability and Transparency Review (ATRT3) recommendations on the next Organizational Review cycle, as well as in consideration of the current community workload. See the 21 June 2021 Board resolution here and 12 June 2022 Board resolution here.

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."