[rpd] RPD appeal committee

[Alan Barrett]

> On 11 Jul 2017, at 17:06, Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Board,
> 
> Under section 3.5 of the CPM the board is mandated to have appointed an appeal committee to appeal the decision of the chairs should a member of the community disagree with said decision.
> 
> Please can the board - as a matter of urgency - inform this community who sits on the appeal committee - who chairs it - and where appeals can be directed to.

Dear Andrew,

The Chair of the Board has asked me to respond.

Section 3.5 of the CPM says: <http://www.afrinic.net/library/policies/1829-afrinic-consolidated-policy-manual#ConflictResolution>

>> 3.5 Conflict Resolution
>> 
>> A person who disagrees with the actions taken by the Chair(s) shall discuss the matter with the PDWG Chair(s) or with the PDWG. If the disagreement cannot be resolved in this way, the person may file an appeal with an Appeal Committee appointed by the AFRINIC Board of Directors. An appeal can only be filed if it is supported by three (3) persons from the Working Group who have participated in the discussions.
>> 
>> The appeal must be submitted within two weeks of the public knowledge of the decision. The Appeal Committee shall issue a report on its review of the complaint to the Working Group. The Appeal Committee may direct that the Chair(s) decision be annulled if the Policy Development Process has not been followed.
>> 
>> Anyone may request the recall of a Working Group Chair at any time, upon written request with justification to the AFRINIC Board of Directors. The request must be supported by at least five (5) other persons from the Working Group. The AFRINIC Board of Directors shall appoint a recall committee, excluding the persons requesting the recall and the Working Group Chairs. The recall committee shall investigate the circumstances of the justification for the recall and determine the outcome.

The first sentence of section 3.5 requires that any disagreement first be discussed with the PDWG [co-]chairs, or with the PDWG as a whole.  The appeal committee is a fallback in case such discussions fail to reach a resolution.

The Board has not appointed the appeals committee as a standing committee, to be in readiness in case there is ever an appeal in terms of CPM section 3.5.  Instead, the Board will appoint an ad hoc appeals committee if and when it becomes necessary.

Alan Barrett