Operating Standards for Specific Reviews

BACKGROUND:

Specific Reviews address specific topic areas, and were incorporated into ICANN’s Bylaws with the transition of the stewardship of IANA Functions to the global Internet community in 2016. Specific Reviews are conducted through community-led review teams to periodically assess ICANN’s performance and fulfillment of its commitments in four areas:

• Accountability and Transparency,
• Security, Stability and Resiliency of the DNS,
• Registration Directory Service, and
• Competition, Consumer Choice and Consumer Trust.

Each community-led review team operates according to Section 4.6 of the ICANN Bylaws and the Operating Standards for Specific Reviews.

The Operating Standards for Specific Reviews were drafted by ICANN org, through community consultation, to provide standards and criteria by which the community-led reviews are conducted. The Operating Standards ensure that Reviews are conducted in a transparent, predictable, and efficient manner. The Operating Standards were adopted by the ICANN Board on 23 June 2019 with the intent of being amended from time to time to reflect lessons learned and to implement necessary process changes.

CURRENT STATUS:

Over the course of recent Specific Review cycles, the community, Board, and ICANN org identified areas that posed challenges to ability of the Reviews to effectively fulfill their purpose. Some of these challenge areas include Review scope setting/planning, the efficiency and effectiveness of supporting and performing Review work, and garnering broad community support for recommendations.

To address these identified areas, ICANN org developed a series of process improvements and integrated them into an updated Draft Operating Standards for Specific Reviews. 

ICANN org is seeking input on proposed updates to six sections of the Operating Standards for Specific Reviews. This proceeding will be open for 88 days (23 December 2024 - 21 March 2025 | 23:59). For more information, and to participate in this proceeding, please visit this webpage.

NEXT STEPS:

Following the Public Comment on the proposed updates to the Operating Standards for Specific Reviews, ICANN org will produce an analysis of input received and present it to the ICANN Board.

The ICANN Board will then consider whether there is sufficient community support for the updated Operating Standards for it to adopt the updated document. If the Board determines there is not sufficient community support, it may decline to accept the updated Operating Standards and encourage continued community dialogue.