Summary

  • The NRO's process timeline marks the status-report and drafting stage as completed for the first and second quarters of 2026; the final-version drafting stage is in process for Q3 and Q4 2026, and approval and adoption remain listed for Q4 2026 with procedures still undetermined [2].
  • The Q1 2026 status report, published on 6 February 2026, sorted the issues outstanding from the 12–14 November 2025 Montevideo workshop into "Items in Progress" and "Items Under Drafting": third-party recognition review, the unanimity-minus-one recognition threshold, derecognition and ad hoc audit thresholds, and emergency-continuity procedures were all still open, several pending clarification of ICANN's role [3].
  • The May 2026 status report, published on 8 May 2026, updated the Q1 report on the basis of in-person meetings at ICANN 85 and framed itself as a transparency instrument while the Number Council worked toward the final draft [6][7].
  • On 28 July 2026 the ASO Address Council delivered the ASO AC Recommended Draft RIR Governance Document to the NRO Executive Council, transferring responsibility for the document to the NRO EC, which committed to review it, coordinate with ICANN and the RIRs, and publish an updated timeline [8].
  • The recommended draft appears in the NRO versions table dated 1 September 2026, accompanied by a rationale report and a redline against version 2; version 3 replaced the unanimity-based recognition mechanics with a two-thirds RIR support threshold excluding the RIR concerned [1][10][11].
  • As of the retrieved record, no completed adoption by the NRO Executive Council or ICANN's Board is evidenced; ICP-2, adopted on 4 June 2001, remains the governing instrument until a final version is adopted by ICANN and the RIRs [1][12].

The revision of Internet Coordination Policy 2 is the most consequential institutional project in the internet number-resource system since ICP-2 itself was adopted on 4 June 2001 [1]. ICP-2 is the instrument under which the five Regional Internet Registries — AFRINIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and the RIPE NCC — are recognized, operate and, in principle, could lose recognition. Its replacement matters not as a technical matter but as a constitutional one: it defines who may be admitted to the registry function, who may be stripped of it, and under what procedures.

Prior coverage of the draft "RIR Governance Document" has examined what version 2 changed relative to the first draft of 14 April 2025 — relaxed unanimity for recognition, lower thresholds for proposing derecognition, a wider role for ICANN, and a first-ever emergency-continuity regime — and has documented its supersession by the version 3 recommended draft delivered to the NRO Executive Council on 28 July 2026. What the published record does not yet answer is the trajectory question: after two status reports and a handover, is the process advancing toward an adopted instrument, or deferring the moment of decision?

The evidence assembled here suggests a process that is orderly, transparent and deliberately sequenced — and also one in which the hardest questions have been moved forward rather than resolved. The status reports are the instruments that show this.

The Q1 2026 status report: openness about what was not settled

The Q1 2026 status report was published on 6 February 2026 and announced through each RIR's channels [3][4][5]. ARIN's announcement of that date described the Number Council's work compiling a status report on outstanding topics from comments received during the consultation on the second version of the governance document — feedback gathered across the five RIR mailing lists, webinars and online sessions, RIR meetings, community fora, ICANN community engagement and the ICANN Public Comment process — following the NRO NC workshop held in Montevideo on 12–14 November 2025 [4].

The Number Council concluded, per ARIN's announcement, that "while a large part of the document is in place, there are certain questions that warrant further discussion," and the report lists open issues and heavily-commented issues with decisions taken, to be addressed by updating the language in the final version [4].

The report's internal organization is the telling part. It does not present a single consolidated position; it separates "Items in Progress" from "Items Under Drafting" [3].

Among the in-progress items named in the report: the recognition review mechanism (an independent third party), whose status was recorded as in progress and awaiting clarification of ICANN's role; the recognition threshold of unanimity minus one, with open discussion of how thresholds handle multiple recusals, conflicts of interest and inability to decide; the derecognition and ad hoc audit thresholds, also in progress; and the emergency-continuity initiation and renewal procedures, with the Number Council discussing whether unanimity is too high a bar for activation [3].

At least one proposal — making an audit a mandatory step in any derecognition — was decided as "no change" [3].

The pattern is a committee publishing its unresolved disagreements by name. That is unusual in institutional practice, where interim documents tend to conceal open seams. Here, the Q1 report told every stakeholder which provisions remained contested and on whose clarification — in several cases ICANN's — they depended.

The May 2026 status report: engagement, not resolution

The May 2026 status report, published on 8 May 2026, updated the Q1 report "based on discussions held during the in-person meetings at ICANN85" [6]. The ASO's announcement of the same date framed the document's purpose in continuity terms: it "continues to track progress on updating the document, providing transparency on issues under discussion, areas where drafting is underway, and topics that remain in progress as the NRO NC works towards the final draft," ahead of publication of a final draft that "will advance to the RIRs and ICANN for approval and adoption" [7].

The significance of the May report is less its content than its timing and its function. ICANN 85 was the engagement point at which the Number Council took the still-open questions to ICANN's community in person; the report records that engagement and carries the open items forward rather than closing them. The NRO's page for the report shows a last-modified date of 11 May 2026 [6].

Read together with the Q1 report, the sequence shows a drafting committee using two consecutive transparency instruments to keep the community inside the process while the contested provisions — recognition review, thresholds, continuity — moved from workshop to drafting.

The handover: 28 July 2026

On 28 July 2026 the NRO Executive Council announced that the ASO Address Council, fulfilling the NRO Number Council role, had completed version 3 of the governance document in response to the NRO EC's request to review and update ICP-2, and that the ASO AC Recommended Draft RIR Governance Document had been formally delivered to the NRO EC [8].

The announcement stated that "responsibility for the document has now transitioned to the NRO EC," and set out next steps: "The NRO EC will now review the ASO AC Recommended Draft RIR Governance Document and progress the next stages of the process, including coordination with ICANN and the RIRs, and the pathway toward a final version. An updated timeline will be published soon" [8].

The versions table on the NRO's ICP-2 page dates the "ASO AC Recommended Draft RIR Governance" to 1 September 2026 and describes it as the final version developed by the ASO AC, submitted to the NRO EC for review and discussion with ICANN; it also marks version 2 as "replaced by the ASO AC Recommended Draft" [1]. The rationale report and a redline against version 2 were published alongside the recommended draft [9][10][11].

Among the changes recorded in the version 3 materials: the unanimity-related recognition mechanics of version 2 were replaced with a two-thirds RIR support threshold, excluding the RIR concerned [1][11].

Where the process stands

The NRO's process-timeline page organizes the review into numbered stages. Stage 8, the status report and drafting of the final version, is marked Completed for the first and second quarters of 2026, with the two status reports as its named outcomes. Stage 9, drafting the final version, is in process for the third and fourth quarters of 2026, noting the 28 July 2026 delivery and the transition of responsibility. Stage 10 is "Approval and Adoption – Q4 2026," listed as Upcoming, and states that "the NRO EC and ICANN will determine the procedures for approval and adoption" [2].

The timeline also anticipates engagement points at LACNIC 46, ICANN 87, ARIN 58, RIPE 93 and an AFRINIC meeting to be confirmed [2].

Three conclusions follow. First, the process is not stalled: it has a published timeline, a delivered draft and named engagement points through the rest of 2026. Second, the decisive stage is procedurally undetermined: neither the NRO EC nor ICANN has yet fixed how approval and adoption will occur, which means the instrument's entry into force depends on procedures not yet written. Third, until a final version is adopted by ICANN and the RIRs, ICP-2 remains the governing instrument — the RIRs' recognition and the terms of their accountability continue to rest on a 2001 policy document throughout this transition [1][12].

For network operators and resource holders, the practical implications are limited in the near term and significant over the medium term: nothing about current registry obligations changes under ICP-2, but the identity of the recognition authority, the thresholds for derecognition and the emergency-continuity machinery will define who is accountable when a registry fails — and those provisions have been the most contested parts of every version so far.

Sources: [1] NRO ICP-2 page; [2] NRO process and timeline; [3] RIR Governance Document Version 2: Status Report Q1 2026 (PDF); [4] ARIN announcement, 6 February 2026; [5] RIPE NCC announcement; [6] RIR Governance Document Version 2: Status Report May 2026; [7] ASO announcement, 8 May 2026; [8] ASO AC delivers Recommended Draft to NRO EC, 28 July 2026; [9] Recommended draft rationale report and next steps; [10] RIR Governance Document Version 3; [11] Version 3 summary of differences and rationale; [12] NRO ICP-2 FAQ; [13] ICANN public comment proceeding; [14] ICANN summary report, 12 December 2025; [15] ICP-2 round 2 consultation summary (PDF); [16] APNIC EC meeting minutes, February 2026; [17] AFRINIC announce list, 2026.