FINAL VERSION TO BE SUBMITTED IF RATIFIED

The final version to be submitted, if the draft is ratified, will be placed here by upon completion of the vote. 

FINAL DRAFT VERSION TO BE VOTED UPON BY THE ALAC

We are deeply concerned about the flawed process that led to the creation and adoption of the so-called strawman proposal for new gTLD rights protection mechanisms. Despite assurances that staff would not create or alter community-developed Policy, some aspects of this proposal were adopted outside of the appropriate policy development processes.

While we appreciate staff's admission that this particular proposal was a policy issue and not an implementation detail, the explanations provided for the adoption of the policy that the GNSO Council did not support and that the ALAC deemed to require GNSO development have been woefully inadequate. Circumvention of the bottom-up model is a serious issue that deserves attention and redress. We call upon ICANN to reverse this trend and respect the community-led bottom-up multi-stakeholder policy development process that ICANN claims to champion.

FIRST DRAFT SUBMITTED

We are deeply concerned about the flawed process that led to the creation and adoption of the so-called strawman proposal for new gTLD rights protection mechanisms. Despite assurances that staff would not create or alter community-developed Policy, some aspects of this proposal were adopted outside of the appropriate policy development processes.

While we appreciate staff's admission that this particular proposal was a policy issue and not an implementation detail, the explanations provided for the adoption of the policy that the GNSO Council did not support and that the ALAC deemed to require GNSO development have been woefully inadequate. Circumvention of the bottom-up model is a serious issue that deserves attention and redress. We call upon ICANN to reverse this trend and respect the community-led bottom-up multi-stakeholder policy development process that ICANN claims to champion.