[rpd] Policy Development Process and Elections

[JORDI PALET MARTINEZ]

Hi Dewole,

 

Maybe you’re right, but I’m reading this email together with the previous one and all the context.

 

And in that scope, (g) talks about participating in the PDP not in the elections.

 

Regards,

Jordi

@jordipalet

 

 

 

El 15/8/20 15:03, "Dewole Ajao" <dewole at forum.org.ng> escribió:

 

Looks like you misinterpreted paragraph "g", Jordi.

(g)  .... AFRINIC undertakes to preserve this right so that no one who has recently subscribed to the rpd mail list will be debarred and/or ‘disenfranchised’ from participating in the Policy Development Process.

I interpreted it to mean: EVERYONE who has recently subscribed to the rpd will be allowed to participate in the elections.

Regards,

Dewole.

On 8/15/2020 1:24 PM, JORDI PALET MARTINEZ via RPD wrote:

Hi Noah,

 

The ICP-2 is very clear on this and we all, should know it very well. It is a very well understood concept in all the RIRs. In fact, the message from Eddy recognized that as well.

 

The PDP is the *global community*, while the board is only a representation of a small subset of the community: the members of only AFRINIC region.

 

I guess the bylaws were created before the constitution of AFRINIC, or in the very early stage. I don’t know if there is a document that shows all the history of this document and all the modifications (if any) that have been done since them.

 

The board is *only* able to setup rules for the membership.

 

The PDP has a “higher” scope: as it sets rules for all.

 

When you say “The volunteers at the board are given the mandate by the community. The community includes number resources members who form part of the community.”, is wrong in the first sentence “the volunteers at the board are given the mandate by the membership” and the membership is only responsible for membership issues. That’s why is totally wrong to have in the bylaws (which are for membership), text impossing rules to the community (which should be at the PDP).

 

Following with your next paragraph, the bylaws are wrong. There is NO WAY, the bylaws can enforce what the community (PDP) want to do. The bylaws can only enforce the membership.

 

And yes, the board can be wrong, and it is perfectly fine, and I’m convinced they always act in good faith and try to do what they believe is best for membership, but this is not neccesarily correct or the best for the community. Exactly the same like a partliament in a country, which represents the citizens, can be wrong, and that’s why, courts, could decide that something that the parliament has decided, need to be amended.

 

Regards,

Jordi

@jordipalet

 

 

 

El 15/8/20 14:04, "Noah" <noah at neo.co.tz> escribió:

 

Hi Jordi

 

The volunteers at the board are given the mandate by the community. The community includes number resources members who form part of the community. 

 

And when you say the volunteers at the board  are wrong, and the bylaws are wrong, do you mean the community is wrong?

 

Noah

 

On Sat, 15 Aug 2020, 08:06 JORDI PALET MARTINEZ via RPD, <rpd at afrinic.net> wrote:

Hi Eddy, all,

 

While I fully agree that it is perfectly appropriate for the Board to decide on the way co-chairs elections are done and even more in this exceptional situation, I think there are some broken statements in this email.

 

AFRINIC bylaws, in my opinion, are in trouble and against ICANN ICP-2, because are contradicting the consensus and bottom-up approach of the PDP and consequently the co-chairs elections. I will urge to update them.

 

As a matter of fact, the articles in section 11 related to the PDP don’t exist in any other RIR (I’ve read all them again a few minutes ago, just in case I was missing anything), neiher anything similar. Unfortunatelly I only realized this a couple of days ago, when I was preparing a policy proposal that is not yet published.

 

Note, and this is not your fault, but from previous boards, that the board has decided on changes and restrictions to the PDP and contravenued the bylaws, because the board never brought those “policies” or “procedures” to the PDP to be endorsed (by consensus) by the community. Wait for my last proposal to be published for more details.

 

Let me clarify, below in-line each of the points.

 

Regards,

Jordi

@jordipalet

 

 

 

El 14/8/20 14:49, "AFRINIC Communication" <comms at afrinic.net> escribió:

 

[Version en français ci-dessous]

 

Dear colleagues,

Further to its communique issued on 5 August 2020, AFRINIC wishes to inform its community that following its announcement regarding the holding of the Policy Development Working Group (“PDWG”) Co-Chair and NRO ASO-AC elections for the year 2020, it has considered all responses obtained in respect thereof.

Consequently, AFRINIC considers it appropriate to clarify, for the benefits of its community, the following:

(a)   That the Public Policy Meeting (“PPM”) is convened by the AFRINIC Board of Directors pursuant to the provisions of articles 11.2 and 11.3 of the Bylaws;

[Jordi] This is wrong, and should be corrected. A RIR is only assisting the community in terms of PDP. It is up to the community to decide how this is done and what the community wants to be done by the RIR. The community can agree that the elections are handled by the AFRINIC board and that the board can delegate into a committee. That’s fine and I think is the correct way, but can’t be imposed to the community. Those articles should NOT be there. They don’t exist in any other RIR. It is a big mistake. I also fully support, that the PDP *must have* some special provisions to give the board some powers on:

1.       Call for the PDP meetings.

2.       Assist/manage the co-chair elections by means of the PDP decided procedure. If there is not a procedure, this is the community fault and thus the board should be able to decide how to do it.

3.       Allow an appeal process (by the board or delegated into a committee), but following the PDP, not restricting it.

4.       Ratify policies. Only policies that will clearly damage the RIR membership can’t be ratified and should be returned to the PDP for further discussion.

5.       In emergency situations, adopt a policy *regarding the management of resources* (not the PDP), *which must be brought to the PDP back for the community consensus/endorsement* otherwise must be stopped.

 

[Jordi] In addition to that, the bylaws are discriminatory and CLEARLY against the ICP-2 and this is a *BIG* irregularity and breach of the ICANN empowerment assigned to AFRINIC. THIS MUST BE RESOLVED IMMEDIATELY. The section 3 of ICP-2 is clear in many paragraphs in regards to the bottom-up self-governance for setting local policies “accessible to all interested parties”. The bylaws, clearly contradict the PDP, and that should *not* happen.


(b)  That in regard to the election of the PDWG Co-Chair and notwithstanding the fact same is held during the PPM, section 3.1 of the Consolidated Policy Manual (“CPM”) clearly and in no uncertain terms provides as follows: - “Internet number resource policies are distinctly separate from AFRINIC general business practices and procedures. General business practices and procedures are not within the purview of the Policy Development Process. 

[Jordi] And that clearly means that the PDP, neither the bylaws have authorized the board to take over the elections. The elections of the co-chairs, as the co-chairs itself, are part of the PDP. Again, I agree that meanwhile we don’t have in the PDP an explicit procedure, it is just fine to allow the board to assist on that and manage the elections. BUT this should be corrected ASAP by the community.


(c)   That in light of para (b) above, the election process applicable to the PDWG Co-Chair election does not form an integral part of the CPM and is thus a matter for the Board of Directors to determine;

[Jordi] I disagree. The chair position is a mandate of the PDP. Just look into other RIRs. Is the community the one that manages that. The board of each RIR is just delegated by the PDP to do that, as an oversight. And still note that I’m supporting, at the time being, the board decision on the way to do the next elections, but that’s different than confirming that this is a business of the board *unless* that task is delegated by the community to the board.

 


(d)  That, consistent with the above and having considered the exceptional context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board of Directors recently resolved, inter-alia, that the forthcoming PPM will be held virtually and has even caused an Election Process 2020 to be published applicable to all elections to be held during the year 2020;

(e)   That in so far as the role of the PDWG is concerned, the core responsibility of the latter is to discuss policy proposals via the Internet (mailing list) or in person (during face-to-face PPM). Hence, since time restrictions are prevalent for the policy discussions during the PPM, rough consensus of policy proposals is determined during the PPM by considering both online and on-site contributions. Final consensus is decided upon after consideration of the discussions in the Last Call period;

[Jordi] Fully agree here on the matter of time. It is ridiculous the time that was spent in the PPMs in previous meetings for elections. They should be from now on, regardless of the pandemic, electronic and open to non-on-site participants. HOWEVER, according to the actual PDP the consensus is determined only, according to the actual PDP “during the PPM”, and that’s why I’ve proposed a PDP change so it is explicitly clear that also the discussion on the list must be considered for the consensus.


(f)   That the right attributed to its community to contribute to policy discussions by either subscribing to the rpd mailing list or participating in the discussions in the upcoming PPM by registering for and attending the online meeting is sacrosanct and AFRINIC hereby renews its commitment that it will continue to give full effect to the principles of Policy Development as stipulated in section 3.2 of the CPM;

(g)   That, for the purposes of para (e) above, subscription to the AFRINIC rpd mailing list is considered as a step towards participation in the PDWG and AFRINIC undertakes to preserve this right so that no one who has recently subscribed to the rpd mail list will be debarred and/or ‘disenfranchised’ from participating in the Policy Development Process.

(h)  For purposes of clarity, below are subscription numbers from January 2019 to 13 August 2020.

 

2019Number
January3
February8
March3
April9
May30
June53
July8
August11
September3
October4
November11
December18
2020
January1
February 13
March7
April2
May5
June9
July177
August 13th 12:50 UTC27
Current number of list subscribers986
 

[Jordi] I think it is obviously suspicious that suddenly there is such big increase in the registration on the RPD once it is announced that there may be a need to do online elections, and considering that at that time there was not any open discussion on policy proposals or new versions of existing ones. So, once more, I support the board decision on the procedure for the electronic elections and limiting the participation for those that are registered several months up-front them.

 

On this note, AFRINIC encourages the PDWG to increase its engagement in the Policy Development Process through their active, substantial and constructive participation in developing resource policies that will help AFRINIC in its mission of managing Internet Number Resources for the African region.

Furthermore, AFRINIC would like to take this opportunity to renew its invitation to the AIS’20 meeting and recommend that the community follows all procedures put in place for their online registration in respect thereof.

 

Eddy Kayihura

CEO

 

……………………

 

 

Chers collègues,

 

Suite à son communiqué publié le 5 août 2020, l'AFRINIC souhaite informer sa communauté que suite à son annonce concernant la tenue des élections du co-président du groupe de travail sur l'élaboration des politiques ("PDWG") et de l'ASO-AC du NRO pour l'année 2020, elle a examiné toutes les réponses obtenues à cet égard.

 

En conséquence, AFRINIC considère qu'il convient de clarifier, pour le bénéfice de sa communauté, ce qui suit :

 

(a) Que la réunion de politique publique ("PPM") est convoquée par le Conseil d'administration de l'AFRINIC conformément aux dispositions des articles 11.2 et 11.3 des statuts ;

 

(b) En ce qui concerne l'élection du co-président du PDWG, et bien qu'elle ait lieu pendant la Réunion de politique publique, la section 3.1 du Consolidated Policy Manual ("CPM") prévoit clairement et sans ambiguïté ce qui suit : - "Les politiques en matière de ressources de numéros Internet se distinguent clairement des pratiques opérationnelles et des procédures générales d'AFRINIC, qui ne sont pas du resort du processus d'élaboration des politiques''. 

 

c) Qu'à la lumière du paragraphe b) ci-dessus, le processus d'élection applicable à l'élection du coprésident du PDWG ne fait pas partie intégrante du CPM et donc est du ressort du conseil d'administration ;

 

(d) Que, conformément à ce qui précède et après avoir pris en compte le contexte exceptionnel de la pandémie COVID-19, le Conseil d'administration a récemment décidé, entre autres, que la prochaine réunion de politiques publiques se tiendra virtuellement et a même fait publier un processus pour les élections pour l'année 2020 applicable à toutes les élections devant se tenir en 2020 ;

 

e) Que, en ce qui concerne le rôle du PDWG, la responsabilité principale de ce dernier est de discuter des propositions politiques via Internet (liste de diffusion) ou en personne (lors de la réunion en face-à-face). Par conséquent, étant donné que le temps imparti aux discussions politiques pendant la réunion est limité, un consensus approximatif sur les propositions politiques sera déterminé pendant la réunion en tenant compte des contributions en ligne et sur place. Le consensus final sera décidé après examen des discussions durant la période du dernier appel ;

 

(f) que le droit attribué à sa communauté de contribuer aux discussions politiques, soit en s'inscrivant à la liste de diffusion rpd, soit en participant aux discussions de la prochaine Réunion de politiques publiques en s'inscrivant et en assistant à la réunion en ligne est sacro-saint et que l'AFRINIC renouvelle par la présente son engagement à continuer à donner plein effet aux principes d'élaboration des politiques comme stipulé dans la section 3.2 de la CPM ;

 

(g) Que, aux fins du paragraphe (e) ci-dessus, l'inscription à la liste de diffusion rpd d'AFRINIC est considérée comme une étape vers la participation au PDWG et AFRINIC s'engage à préserver ce droit afin qu'aucune personne qui s'est récemment inscrite à la liste de diffusion rpd ne soit exclue et/ou "privée" de sa participation au processus d'élaboration des politiques.

 

(h) Par souci de clarté, voici le nombre d'abonnement de janvier 2019 au 13 août 2020.

 

 

2019Nombres
Janvier3
Février8
Mars3
Avril9
Mai30
Juin53
Juillet8
Août11
Septembre3
Octobre4
Novembre11
December18
2020
Janvier1
Février 13
Mars7
Avril2
Mai5
Juin9
Juillet177
Août 13 12:50 UTC27
Nombre d'abonnements actuels986
 

 

Sur cette note, AFRINIC encourage le PDWG à accroître son engagement dans le processus d'élaboration des politiques à travers leur participation active, substantielle et constructive dans l'élaboration des politiques de ressources qui contribueront à aider AFRINIC dans sa mission de gestion des ressources numériques Internet pour la région africaine.

 

En outre, AFRINIC voudrait saisir cette occasion pour renouveler son invitation à la réunion de l'AIS'20 et recommander que la communauté suive toutes les procédures mises en place pour leur inscription en ligne à cet égard.

 

Eddy Kayihura

CEO

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