[rpd] clarify? - (Fwd) Adhoc Appeal Committee appointment

[Dr Paulos Nyirenda]

Board Chair, AFRINIC,  

Thank you for reminding me of the historical background of the Appeal Committee (AC) 
which I was already aware of.  

My understanding is that you and the Board should follow the current PDP and the current 
Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Appeal Committee, in particular Section 3 of the ToR to 
move forward. 

The PDP and AC ToR give the Board adequate right and power  to replace any or all 
members of the AC as well as to fill vacances if certain minimum requirements are satisfied 
and the resulting committee is still an Appeal Committee and not an Adhoc Appeal 
Committee.

So, please clarify if this appointment by the Board is to replace any or all members ? 

Or is it to fill a vacancy on the Appeal Committee ? 

Has the Board met the minimum requirements to do so ?

Regards,

Paulos
=============================
Dr Paulos B Nyirenda
NIC.MW & .mw ccTLD 
http://www.nic.mw
SDNP: http://www.sdnp.org.mw
Tel:  +265-(0)-882 089 166
Cell: +265-(0)-888-824787
WhatsApp: +265-(0)-887386433


On 8 Mar 2021 at 23:35, chair at afrinic.net wrote:


> Dear Dr Nyirenda,

> 

> Thank you for your email.

> 

> The following sentence was the consensus of the "RPD" group at the

> time when the current Public Development Process (PDP) was ratified as

> a policy: "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."  A reasonable application of that

> sentence, in my opinion, would entail interpreting it while taking

> into consideration the fact that the current PDP was intended to

> provide the flexibility to adapt to a variety of circumstances that

> can occur in a process.

> 

> In 2017, the Board approved a Resolution as follows:

> 

>    "Whereas the Board intended to appoint a permanent PDWG appeal

> committee by June 2018 in accordance with the published appeal TOR,

> 

>    Whereas there is the possibility of an appeal of the ruling of the

> PGWG co-Chairs in the nearest future,

> 

>    Resolved to appoint an interim PDWG Appeal Committee, made up of:

>      Adam Nelson

>      Paulos Nyirenda

>      Wafa Dhamani

>     [REDACTED]

>     Lala Andrianamamplanina"

> 

>    to hear any appeal that may be filed until the permanent appeal

> committee is appointed."

> 

> There wasn't any concern about whether the meaning of "Appeal 

> Committee" in the current PDP should be construed as allowing an

> interim Board committee to be appointed by the Board of Directors.

> 

> I suggest stepping back a little to get a better understanding of the

> circumstances:

> 

>     (a) You are already a member of the "AFRINIC PDP Appeal Committee"

>     given

>         that you were invited and accepted to represent Seat 1 on the

>         AFRINIC Policy Development Appeal Committee.

> 

>     (b) The members of the "AFRINIC PDP Appeal Committee" 

> representing Seat 4 and 5

>         resigned from the Committee.

> 

>     (c) AFRINIC provided advice to the members of the "AFRINIC PDP

> Appeal Committee"

>         after (b) occurred.

> 

>     (d) You received an email from the Board asking you whether the

>     Board could

>         could consider appointing you to an adhoc Appeal Committee.

> 

> I would like to thank you for seeking clarification about the terms of

> reference of a committee before accepting an appointment to the

> committee.  There would not have been a thirst of information on Item

> (c) if the question was asked in 2017 or 2018.  The intention  is to

> find a way forward.  At the moment there is a quorum issue as:

> 

>    (i) The appointing body did not state what the quorum should be in

> the terms of

>        reference; and

> 

>    (ii) The "AFRINIC PDP Appeal Committee" is no longer constituted as

> specified

>         in Section 2 of the terms of reference.

> 

> In normal circumstances I would have had a conversation with the Chair

> of the committee.  However, that is not possible as I don't know who

> is the Chair of the "AFRINIC PDP Appeal Committee".

> 

> The concern which you raised is that your term has not yet 

> expired.  There isn't any section in Committee's terms of reference

> which specifies the term of a member of that Committee.  Could you

> please provide some information on the "my term has not expired"?

> 

> I don't see how "a well founded acceptable committee" is related to

> the task of an Appeal Committee being "very heavy" or "very

> demanding".  Is it about the workload of the Committee?  If that is

> the case, I don't have any information about that as the Board did not

> receive any feedback about workload.

> 

> Regards,

> S. Moonesamy

> 

> Board Chair, AFRINIC




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