Summary

  • ARIN Chief Legal Officer Michael Abejuela told ARIN 58 that the NRO Executive Council has provided the draft RIR Governance Document to ICANN for consideration.
  • His slides list last call on a final draft, public comment, adoption by RIR and ICANN boards, and implementation procedures as the remaining milestones.

The document now has a recipient, and the recipient has a vote to think about. In his ARIN 58 governance update, Chief Legal Officer Michael Abejuela says the Number Resource Organization Executive Council has provided the RIR Governance Document to ICANN for consideration. RIR and ICANN teams, he says, met throughout ICANN 87. The slide promises an update on the next stage of community engagement after that meeting. That is a concrete institutional handoff, following the Number Council’s earlier delivery of its recommended draft to the NRO EC.

The draft matters because it is meant to replace ICP-2, the old framework for recognizing regional Internet registries. Its scope reaches recognition, operation, oversight, emergency continuity and derecognition. The Number Council’s September explanation laid out changes to decision thresholds, audit and compliance review, and safeguards around emergency arrangements. That content had already passed through the drafting body. The new development is that the executive council has now put the package before the other institution whose eventual agreement it needs.

Abejuela’s next slide is a useful antidote to ceremonial handshakes. It lists a last call on the final draft; a public comment process; adoption by RIR and ICANN boards; and implementation procedures developed by the RIRs and ICANN. Four headings, each with its own chance to alter the result or slow it down. The slide gives no dates and records no completed board vote. The document is being considered, while the public and institutional approval stages still have work to do.

ICANN’s September board workshop account said its directors had received an update and expected the document to be formally presented for consideration later. ARIN’s 22 October slide marks movement beyond that preparatory conversation. The NRO EC has given ICANN the actual document. It does not say which provisions, if any, the joint discussions changed this week.

The practical question is who gets to edit the text between today’s handoff and a board decision. The September Number Council post said further community input and updates would be coordinated by the NRO EC. The ARIN slide now places ICANN in the discussion and a new public comment stage ahead. An RIR member looking for the final rule should watch for a dated text and a clear account of revisions, not merely another photo of a binder changing hands.