<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jul 25, 2021, at 04:33 , Lamiaa Chnayti <<a href="mailto:lamiaachnayti@gmail.com" class="">lamiaachnayti@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:107%" class=""><font face="arial, sans-serif" class="">Dear Eddy,</font></span></p><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; line-height: 107%;" class=""><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:107%" class=""><font face="arial, sans-serif" class=""> </font></span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:107%" class=""><font face="arial, sans-serif" class="">The Policy Development Process does not leave room to personal
interpretations and singular opinions. The bylaws and the CPM exist for a
reason, don’t they? </font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:107%" class=""><font face="arial, sans-serif" class=""><br class=""></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:107%" class=""><font face="arial, sans-serif" class="">The fact is, the board’s approval of policies that have reached
consensus is an integral step of the PDP, and nothing more. The Bylaws do not
expand the board’s power in judging or conducting a <i class="">“final checkpoint”</i> on
community made decisions. </font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:107%" class=""><font face="arial, sans-serif" class="">Please refer to the <i class=""><u style="" class="">CPM 3.4.4: “Approval”</u></i></font></span></p></div></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div>Speaking only as myself and certainly not representing the position of any of my clients…</div><div><br class=""></div><div>IMHO, the approval by the board is required (the board must approve) with few exceptions. Those exceptions are:</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>+<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>A fiduciary risk to the organization (Board cannot violate their fiduciary duties under the law by approving</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>a policy that would amount to violating those responsibilities if passed as a board motion)</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>+<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>A good faith belief that the PDP was not followed and that the consensus declaration is therefore flawed.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>I am not aware of any other circumstances in which the board may withhold its ratification of a proposal submitted</div><div>by the PDGW co-chairs for ratification.<br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:107%" class=""><font face="arial, sans-serif" class=""><i class=""><span style="color:rgb(118,113,113)" class=""></span></i></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 3.75pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="arial, sans-serif" class=""><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" style="" class="">The Working Group Chair(s) shall recommend the draft policy to the AFRINIC
Board of Directors for approval if it has the consensus of the Policy
Development Working Group. The recommendation shall include a report of the
discussions of the draft policy and feedback from the Last Call. The draft
policy shall be ratified by the AFRINIC Board of Directors.</span></i></font></p></div></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div>Ratify means to sign or give consent. Inherent in that is the assumption that there are at least some circumstances</div><div>where the board may not choose to consent. The statement “shall be ratified” does not create an inherent need</div><div>for the board to rubber stamp anything submitted to it, but it does create a strong presumption that they will</div><div>ratify anything for which they do not have strong and valid reasoning to reject such ratification.</div><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 3.75pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="arial, sans-serif" class=""><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" style="" class=""></span></i></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 3.75pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;" class="">Moreover, AFRINIC’s decision of not ratifying a policy
that has been approved by the community is far from representing the </span><i class="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">ethical
governance</i><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;" class=""> that the organization aspires to have. It is rather a clear violation
of the community’s wishes that no RIR has ever committed.</span></p></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div>IMHO, in this particular case, the board has provided good and valid fiduciary reasons on which to base</div><div>the refusal to ratify this policy.</div><div><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;" class=""> </span><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><p style="margin:0cm 0cm 3.75pt" class=""><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif" class="">As defined in the<b class=""> ICP-2</b>, Afrinic must operate
according to </span><b style="font-family:arial,sans-serif" class="">a <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial" class="">Bottom-up
self-governance structure for setting local policies</span></b><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif" class="">, and which </span>explicitly<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif" class="">
states that :</span></p><p style="margin:0cm 0cm 3.75pt" class=""><span lang="EN-US" style="" class=""><font face="arial, sans-serif" style="" class=""><i class="">“Policies are developed by the community through the
PDP that is also developed by the same community. AFRINIC implements what the
community has proposed, discussed and attained consensus on.”</i></font></span></p></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div>ICP-2 governs the creation and acceptance of new RIRs into the RIR system. It has no material bearing on the RIR once it has been accepted into the RIR system, so quoting it here is not particularly meaningful.</div><div><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class=""><font face="arial, sans-serif" class=""> </font></span></i><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><p style="margin:0cm 0cm 3.75pt" class=""><span lang="EN-US" style="" class=""><font face="arial, sans-serif" class="">To sum up, the only unfortunate thing in this (easily
avoidable) situation, is Afrinic’s violation of an entire clear and defined
process that is the backbone of the RIR itself. What is even the point of
recognizing the “<span style="" class="">voluntary work to author and discuss the proposals in a consensus-based
spirit” if there will be no consideration of the bottom-up process?</span></font></span></p></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div>I think one must consider what is and is not ratified before making such accusations. In this case, the board</div><div>provided a clear and sound reason not to ratify on fiduciary risk grounds. If the supporters of this policy really</div><div>wish to enforce it upon the board, it can easily be accomplished by inserting similar text defining the same</div><div>restrictions into the bylaws through a vote of the members on an appropriate motion at an AGMM or SGMM.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>I would suggest that pursuing such a motion would be far more productive than grousing about inaccurate</div><div>claims about violation of process here.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>Governing the board’s conduct is a matter for the organizations constitution (bylaws) and not for the CPM.</div><div>The proposal in question was proffered in the wrong forum and appropriately rejected. The clear and obvious</div><div>solution is to proffer it in modified form in the correct forum where the board cannot legitimately reject it.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>OTOH, if you want to argue about their failure to ratify the resource transfer policy, then you would have a</div><div>valid case as their refusal in that case has no legitimate basis and they have not offered any basis for it.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>Owen<br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><p style="margin:0cm 0cm 3.75pt" class=""><span lang="EN-US" style="" class=""><font face="arial, sans-serif" class=""><span style="" class=""><br class=""></span></font></span></p><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><font face="georgia, serif" class="">Lamiaa</font><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br class=""></div><br class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, 24 Jul 2021 at 05:58, Eddy Kayihura <<a href="mailto:eddy@afrinic.net" class="">eddy@afrinic.net</a>> wrote:<br class=""></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">Dear PDWG,</span></div><br class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">I have taken note of the concerns raised by Jordi with reference to the PDWG co-chairs </span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">Report on the Draft Policy Proposal "Board Prerogatives on the PDP" -AFPUB-2020-GEN-004-DRAFT02. </span></div><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class=""> </span><a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2021/013531.html" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank" class=""><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(17,85,204);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2021/013531.html</span></a></div><br class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">I would like to share some thoughts with you all on the matter.</span></div><br class=""><ol style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" class=""><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">AFRINIC staff produced an impact assessment report by staff on the concerned policy</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">. The impact assessment highlighted a conflict between the provisions of Sections 3.6 and 3.61 of the proposed policy and Section 3.5 of the CPM. </span></div></li></ol><br class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><a href="https://afrinic.net/policy/proposals/2020-gen-004-d2#impact" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank" class=""><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(17,85,204);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">https://afrinic.net/policy/proposals/2020-gen-004-d2#impact</span></a></div><br class=""><ol style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" start="2" class=""><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">Following a legal assessment of the proposed texts regarding the above sections of the proposed policy, the Board of Directors were further advised that their powers and prerogatives are provided for in the bylaws, and by extension are governed by the Companies Act of the Republic of Mauritius.</span></div></li></ol><div style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2020/012121.html" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank" class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:rgb(17,85,204);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2020/012121.html</span></a></div><br class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">In my opinion the Board ratification requirement is not a “symbolic stamp” but rather a final checkpoint by those who have been entrusted by the resource members to steer the organization towards a sustainable future by adopting sound, ethical, and legal governance and financial management policies.</span></div><br class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">It is very unfortunate that we reached such a “dead-end”. However, I believe that where there is a will there's a way and we can collaborate to swiftly address the issue.</span></div><br class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">I would like to propose to the PDWG co-chairs to organise a meeting with all interested parties. The aim of this meeting would be to better explain the rationale behind the current issue and hopefully get to a point that would address all the related concerns.</span></div><br class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">We also currently have four proposals under discussion that aim at bringing changes to the AFRINIC Policy Development Process. </span></div><br class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">I would like to commend the PDWG who put in voluntary work to author and discuss the proposals in a consensus-based spirit. </span></div><br class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">We are confident that our PDWG will work together and bring forward improvements that will strengthen the foundation of the current Policy Development Process and address its challenges.</span></div><br class=""><div style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">On a side note, I am sure the community has noticed that AFRINIC has not been communicating as swiftly as we normally do. I am aware that there are other threads where the PDWG expects feedback. All I can do at this point is apologise as we have faced multiple other threats that threaten the foundation of the entire bottom-up process system the PDP was founded upon.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class=""><br class=""></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class=""><br class=""></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">Please rest assured that more clarity will be shared with the community very soon (my hope is that we can share more over the course of next week). Till then I trust that the PDWG members willI continue to uphold the Code of Conduct while dealing with each other and refrain from unnecessary belittling comments.</span></div><div style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class="">
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