Final Proposed Agenda 2025-10-29
GNSO Council Agenda 29 October 2025 -
Part I
Please note that all documents referenced in the agenda have been gathered on a Wiki page for convenience and easier access: https://icann-community.atlassian.net/wiki/x/_KefBg
This agenda was established according to the GNSO Operating Procedures v3.5, updated on 24 October 2019
For convenience:
An excerpt of the ICANN Bylaws defining the voting thresholds is provided in Appendix 1 at the end of this agenda.
An excerpt from the Council Operating Procedures defining the absentee voting procedures is provided in Appendix 2 at the end of this agenda.
GNSO Council meeting held in Dublin, Ireland 13:15 - 15:15 GMT: https://tinyurl.com/3m7ru8zw
Coordinated Universal Time: 13:15 - 15:15 UTC
03:15 Los Angeles; 06:15 Washington DC; 10:15 London; 11:15 Paris; 13:15 Moscow; 21:15 Melbourne
GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: Zoom link to be shared 24 hours in advance
Councilors should notify the GNSO Secretariat in advance if they will not be able to attend and/or need a dial out call.
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Item 1: Administrative Matters (5 minutes)
1.1 - Roll Call
1.2 - Updates to Statements of Interest
1.3 - Review / Amend Agenda
1.4 - Note the status of minutes for the previous Council meetings per the GNSO Operating Procedures:
Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 18 September 2025 were posted on 2 October 2025.
Minutes of the GNSO Extraordinary Council Meeting on 09 October 2025 were posted on 25 October 2025.
Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action List (0 minutes)
2.1 - Review focus areas and provide updates on specific key themes / topics, to include review of Projects List and Action Item List.
Item 3: COUNCIL VOTE: New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP - Interpretation of Intent for Select IGO/INGO PDP Recommendations (20 minutes)
During its September meeting, the Council discussed an issue that recently arose in the proposed implementation of the Subsequent Procedures PDP recommendations. Specifically, ICANN org staff prepared a discussion paper to explain the issue and to provide a path forward. The IRT was not aligned with ICANN org’s proposal. The Council was requested to provide guidance on the intent of relevant recommendations; without this guidance, the timeline for the Board’s adoption of the Applicant Guidebook and launch of the Next Round are likely to be negatively impacted.
GNSO support staff sought to identify the underlying question for the Council to consider:
What does it mean for the full name identifiers to be “protected,” but available for the relevant organization via an exception procedure?
Based upon discussions within the SubPro IRT, there are two interpretations:
Protected only means that no organization other than the relevant organization can apply for the exact match of the full name identifier. This implies that an unrelated third party could apply for a confusingly similar string, thereby preventing the relevant organization from securing their protected string in the future.
Or, protected means that no organization other than the relevant organization can apply for the exact match of the full name identifier AND the ability for the relevant organization to secure their protected string should persist. This implies that unrelated third parties would need to be prevented from securing confusingly similar strings (i.e., include the protected strings in string similarity).
The Council has been asked to help determine whether the intent of the relevant IGO/INGO PDP recommendations are aligned with interpretation 1 or 2 above. Councilors have been asked to consult with their respective groups to help reach alignment on the original intent of the recommendations.
Here, the Council will discuss the original intent of the relevant recommendations with the aim of voting on the interpretation of the original intent either via an email vote or at its upcoming meeting at ICANN84.
3.1 - Introduction of Topic (Tomslin Samme-Nlar, GNSO Interim Co-Chair)
3.2 - Council Vote (voting threshold: majority of each house)
3.3 - Next Steps
Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Celebrating GNSO Accomplishments between ICANN Meetings (10 minutes)
During the GNSO Council’s most recent Strategic Planning Session in January 2025, the Council discussed ideas for highlighting the work of the GNSO to a larger audience. To that end, Councilors agreed to highlight the GNSO Council’s accomplishments or milestones between each ICANN meeting during the Council’s public meeting.
In the period between ICANN83 and ICANN84, the Council and the groups under its remit accomplished the following milestones:
DNS Abuse - GNSO Council voted to request a Preliminary Issues Report, and the public comment period on this report recently closed.
Accuracy - GNSO Council Accuracy Small Team delivered a report with four Council recommendations, which the Council voted to approve in August.
Board readiness - The Council’s Board Readiness Small Team delivered its Findings Report to the GNSO Council, and the Council has started discussing the next steps for these recommendations.
Registration Data Request Service Standing Committee (“RDRS SC”) - the RDRS SC published its Findings Report for public comment, and has been reviewing the public comments during ICNAN84. The RDRS SC will soon deliver its Findings Report to the Council in preparation for the Board and GNSO Council dialogue on the System for Standardized Access/Disclosure (“SSAD”) recommendations.
Council Privacy Proxy Services Accreditation Issues (PPSAI) Small Team - the Council’s PPSAI Small Team completed its draft responses to the threshold questions from ICANN org and the Implementation Review Team (“IRT”), which will be discussed later in this meeting.
Here, the Council will briefly highlight these milestones.
4.1 - Introduction of Topic (Tomslin Samme-Nlar, GNSO Interim Co-Chair) | Slides
4.2 - Council Discussion
4.3 - Next Steps
Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Council PPSAI Small Team Responses to Threshold Questions (30 minutes)
On 9 August 2016, the ICANN Board approved the Final Report of the Privacy Proxy Services Accreditation Issues (PPSAI) Working Group, which contains 21 policy recommendations. ICANN org convened an Implementation Review Team (IRT) in 2016 and worked on the implementation of the policy recommendations until 2019 when the implementation work was paused due to overlapping issues around the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data processing, and the Temporary Specification.
In June 2024, ICANN org reconvened the PPSAI IRT and has been refining a set of overarching threshold questions that require input from the GNSO Council in order for ICANN org to, in consultation with the IRT, move forward on implementation of the 21 policy recommendations from the Final Report. ICANN org sent the threshold questions to the GNSO Council for further guidance.
The threshold questions are:
Are there any policy questions or items the IRT already wants to bring to the GNSO Council for guidance?
Implementation Model: Accreditation Program or Alternative Implementation:
Can an implementation model without a new standalone accreditation program remain consistent with the policy recommendations?
Disclosure Frameworks (Intellectual Property and Law Enforcement)
Are there specific areas to revisit under new law/policy?
Can these frameworks be aligned with existing work on the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS), Registration Data Policy, and other existing procedures and remain consistent with the policy recommendations?
The PPSAI Small Team delivered its proposed responses to the Council on 29 September 2025.
Here, the PPSAI Small Team will present its draft responses, and the Council will determine next steps.
5.1 - Introduction of Topic (Paul McGrady, Council PPSAI Small Team Lead) | Slides
5.2 - Council Discussion
5.3 - Next Steps
Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Prioritization of Upcoming Work (35 minutes)
During the GNSO Council’s second Working Session at ICANN82, the Council discussed its immediate and longer term pipeline of work, including work that the Council has previously committed to, e.g. Latin Diacritics, RPMs Phase 2, and a list of potential topics the GNSO Council could consider for future PDPs.
Specifically, the GNSO Council discussed:
(i) a newly-started PDP: Latin Diacritics;
(ii) a previously committed to PDP: Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) in gTLDs, Phase 2, and
(iii) identified topics for potential future work:
DNS Abuse
RDDS (Accuracy, RDRS, PPSAI)
New gTLDs (from rounds to open process)
Expiration Policies
Transfers (dispute mechanism for registrants)
The Council generally aligned around the need to prioritize the DNS Abuse work, requesting an Issue Report on 14 August. The RDRS Standing Committee published its Council Report for public comment; the report provides some insight into anticipated next steps.
The Council suggested that level of effort be integrated into the prioritization document, to help provide important context for the prioritization exercise. An updated prioritization document was shared with Council on 05 September 2025. Following the Council’s September meeting, Councilors were asked to share the updated prioritization document with their respective groups for further feedback and guidance.
Here, the Council will continue this discussion for how to prioritize these topics given limited resources.
6.1 - Introduction of Topic (Tomslin Samme-Nlar, GNSO Interim Co-Chair)
6.2 - Council Discussion
6.3 - Next Steps
Item 7: Open Mic (10 minutes)
Here, interested individuals may use this time to address the GNSO Council directly with comments, ideas, and feedback. Comments may be provided virtually via the Zoom room or via the microphone in the meeting room.
7.1 - Introduction of Topic (Nacho Amadoz, GNSO Interim Co-Chair) -
7.2 - Council Discussion
7.3 - Next Steps
Item 8: Any Other Business (10 minutes)
8.1 - Update to Council on Latin Diacritics PDP Timeline (Prudence Malinki, GNSO Council Liaison to LD PDP WG)
8.2 - Proposed Updates to ICANN Bylaws and Customer Standing Committee (CSC) Charter
8.3 - Farewell to Outgoing Councilors | Slides
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Appendix 1: GNSO Council Voting Thresholds (ICANN Bylaws, Article 11, Section 11.3(i))
See https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en/#article11.
Appendix 2: GNSO Council Absentee Voting Procedures (GNSO Operating Procedures, Section 4.4)
See https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/file/field-file-attach/op-procedures-30jan18-en.pdf
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