The Governmental Advisory group has issued its Communiqué From The ICANN Meeting In Buenos Aires, Argentina outlining its activities for the week and suggestions for the ICANN Board:

The Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) met in Buenos Aires, Argentina during the week of the 20th of June 2015. Sixty nine (69) GAC Members attended the meeting and nine (9) Observers.

Here are the highlights:

Cross Community Working Group (CWG) to Develop an IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal on Naming Related Functions (CWG-­‐Stewardship):

The GAC has conveyed the following to the CWG Stewardship Co Chairs on 24 June 2015:

The GAC takes note of the CWG-­‐Stewardship Final Proposal, and states support for its submission to the ICG, without prejudice to comments made publicly by individual delegations.

The GAC notes and recognizes the provisions of paragraph 106 of the CWG Final Proposal which states that the CWG-­‐Stewardship proposal is significantly dependent and expressly conditioned on the implementation of ICANN-­‐level accountability mechanisms by the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-­‐Accountability). If any element of these ICANN level accountability mechanisms is not implemented as contemplated by the CWG-­‐Stewardship proposal, this CWG-­‐Stewardship proposal will require revision.

The final CCWG proposal will be assessed on its own merits by the GAC and considered by the GAC as a Chartering Organisation.

The GAC wishes to express its sincere appreciation of the diligent and productive work performed by the CWG-­‐Stewardship, its Co-­‐Chairs, its members and all its contributors.

gTLD Safeguards:

The GAC appreciates the efforts of the ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) since the 2013 Beijing meeting to respond to the GAC’s Safeguard advice. At the same time, however, despite guidance provided by the GAC in Communiqués generated during subsequent ICANN meetings, including the 2015 ICANN meeting in Singapore, contracts with the new gTLD Applicants have continued without the GAC previously recommended provisions requiring the verification of credentials for domains in highly regulated sectors.

Nonetheless, the GAC notes that an increasing number of Registries and Applicants for strings related to highly regulated sectors have, consistent with GAC advice, voluntarily committed to undertaking the verification and validation of credentials. These Applicants and Registries demonstrate that satisfactory solutions can be achieved based on the GAC advice

The GAC recommends that the NGPC:

Create a list of commended public interest commitment (PIC) examples related to verification and validation of credentials for domains in highly regulated sectors to serve as a model. These public interest commitments could demonstrate a best practice for other gTLD registry operators. For example the PIC for .bank appears to have taken steps to provide confidence to consumers that they   can rely on the bona fide of the Registrants listed. Relevant stakeholders should be identified and encouraged to devise a set of PICs that work well for the protection of public interests in each of the new gTLDs related to highly regulated sectors.

The GAC additionally recommends

That the ICANN community creates a harmonised methodology to assess the number of abusive domain names within the current exercise of assessment of the new gTLD

That the NGPC clarifies its acceptance or rejection of Safeguard advice. It would be useful to develop a straightforward scorecard on all elements of GAC Safeguard advice since the Beijing 2013 GAC Communiqué in order to clarify what elements of GAC advice have been implemented, what remains a work in progress, and what has not been accepted for Implementation. In any instances of complete or partial rejection of the Advice, the GAC urges the NGPC to clarify the milestones intended to be followed in order to seek a potentially “mutually acceptable solution” as mandated by ICANN’s Bylaws.

Protection for Inter-­Governmental Organisations (IGOs)

Consistent with previous GAC advice in previous Communiqués regarding protection for IGO names and acronyms at the top and second levels, the GAC takes note of the progress made by the informal “small group” towards developing mechanisms in line with previous GAC advice, and calls upon the small group to meet in the near term with a view towards developing a concrete proposal for these mechanisms before the next ICANN meetings in Dublin; and welcomes the preventative protections that remain in place until the implementation of permanent mechanisms for protection of IGO names and acronyms at the top and second levels.

Accountability and Transparency Review Team 2 (ATRT2)

The GAC confirmed the status of its implementation of GAC-­‐related ATRT2 recommendations as conveyed to the Board in its letter of 8 May 2015, noting that work in several areas is ongoing as a process of continuous improvement. With regard to recommendation 6.8, the GAC agreed on guidelines for engaging governments and for coordination between the GAC and the ICANN Global Stakeholder Engagement staff.

Community Priority Evaluation

The GAC continues to keep under review the community application process for new gTLDs, noting that it does not appear to have met applicant expectations. The GAC looks forward to seeing the report of the ICANN Ombudsman on this matter following his current inquiry and will review the situation at its meeting in Dublin.