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

[Noah]

On 2 Aug 2017 9:20 p.m., "Owen DeLong" <owen at delong.com> wrote:


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.



That is your own opinion and as I wait the chairman of the board's
response, I would like to point to you that the Afrinic numbering community
has for years adopted so many policies.

That is enough reason to inform you thay this numbering community is
experienced enough to deal with even conflicts that may arise out of the
PDP process.



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



The Arin approach is very rational as it takes a community approach via the
mailing-lists.

We have seen such approaches also employed for years within our community
ref:PDP and some policies have even failed to reach consensus nor get
ratied by means of co-chair decisions.



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.



Afrinic internal politics if they exist can be solved by the Afrinic
community itself and this region is full of so many competent people from
both the numbering and the names community that can independly seat on an
Appeal committee and make rational decision.

That Independence can be sought from millions of competent members within
our region.

Trust begins from within so to speak.


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.


Since this are your own opinions, I will tell you that there is nothing
reasonable or wise here.

How can we seek indepence outside of this region before we can even measure
or test the effectivenes of own internal approach and independence within
our own region.


Cheers,
Noah
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