[rpd] Appeal Committee Terms of Reference (Version 1)

[Owen DeLong]

> On Aug 2, 2017, at 07:53 , Noah <noah at neo.co.tz> wrote:
> 
> Dear Afrinic Board Chair,
> 
> I almost missed this and I have quickly gone through it and I want to thank you for your effort ref: this Appeal Committee Terms of Reference, however, I have some questions section 2.?
> 
> 
> Seats 1 and 2: Two of the past chairs or past co-chairs of the AFRINIC policy development working group (PDWG).
> 
> +1 and in support of the selection of seat 1 and 2 as those make sense.
> 
> 
> For Seats 3 and 4:   I wonder if other RIR's have provisions that require members from the AFRINIC region to seat in their appeal committees? 

Other RIRs have very different circumstances. As is often pointed out even when the circumstances in the AfriNIC region are not so different. However, in this case, they are quite different. No other RIR has such a degree of infighting nor such a large degree of mistrust among the factions around their policy proposals. Indeed, in the other regions, the factions on any given policy proposal are often quite different and you don’t find nearly identical groups clumping together in support or opposition of a proposal as you do in the AfriNIC region. Indeed, to the best of my knowledge, no other RIR has even such a review committee in the first place.

I don’t know the appeal process (if one exists) in RIPE, LACNIC, or APNIC, but in the ARIN region, the process is governed by what we call the petition process. If members of the community dislike a decision of the ARIN Advisory Council, they can petition that action on the mailing list. If enough other independent participants express support for the petition, 

Details are here: https://www.arin.net/policy/pdp_petitions.html

> I fail to understand the rational around selecting 2 members from 2 different RIR's as if the AFRINIC community lacks people within our region who can fill up seats 3 and 4.

I believe the intent is to create a greater degree of independence from the internal politics inherent in the AfriNIC region and to increase the transparency and fairness of the process. I think this is a legitimate approach in this case because, frankly, I think that members from different RIRs are more likely to examine the issue purely on the record and the merits of the arguments without regard for the factionalism and politics involved. These are issues that simply either don’t exist or are a much much smaller problem in the other RIRs.

> For Seat 5: A current or past chair or vice chair of the NRO NC/ASO AC, who is not from the AFRINIC region.
> 
> What is the rational behind this?  I mean the Afrinic board cant find, out of a continent with 1.2 billion people, one person from within the AFRINIC numbering or names community who can take up seat 5?.

Again, I believe that the intent here is similar to the intent with seats 3 and 4. I consider this an entirely reasonable approach to maintaining the independence of the appeals committee and applaud the board’s wisdom and foresight in this matter.

Owen

> 
> 
> Cheers,
> Noah
> 
> On 19 Jul 2017 3:54 p.m., "Sunday Folayan" <sfolayan at gmail.com <mailto:sfolayan at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Dear PDWG,
> 
> The AFRINIC Board of Directors intends to establish an Appeal Committee to give effect to the requirements in section 3.5 of the Consolidated Policy Manual (that is, the Conflict resolution portion of the Policy Development Process).
> 
> The Appeal Committee Terms of Reference (version 1) is published at https://afrinic.net/en/community/working-groups/policy-appeal <https://afrinic.net/en/community/working-groups/policy-appeal>
> 
> The Board calls for comments on the Terms of Reference for a 30 day period, ending on 19 August 2017. Comments may be sent to the RPD mailing list <rpd at afrinic.net <mailto:rpd at afrinic.net>>.
> 
> The Board intends to appoint an interim Appeal Committee without delay, to cater for the possibility that an appeal might be filed before the comments on the Terms of reference can be taken into account. We seek the cooperation of the community in this regard.
> 
> Sunday Folayan
> Chair of the AFRINIC Board of Directors
> 
> 
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