ICANN has accepted the GAC’s advice that governments should not be compelled to use the “Limited Public Interest Objections” procedures in the previous version of the Guidebook. Although the ICANN Notes document indicates that ICANN has accepted the GAC’s recommendation that the procedures be re-named as “Objections Procedures”, the title in the revised Applicant Guidebook remains unchanged.
ICANN has accepted that governments can raise objections to proposed new gTLD strings through the GAC, as an alternative to its original proposal that its “Limited Public Interest Objections” procedures
should apply to governments. GAC members can raise concerns about any applications and the GAC can provide advice to the Board on any application, with no obligation to pay fees to register an objection to a proposed string. ICANN is proposing that such GAC advice be provided by the close of the Objection
Filing Period, or within a five month period after applications are posted. ICANN also expects that GAC advice will identify objecting countries, the public policy basis for the objection, and the process by
which consensus was reached.
GAC advice and comments:
- The GAC acknowledges the Board’s efforts to date to work with the GAC to find a mutually acceptable way forward.
- The GAC advises the Board that the current text in Module 3 that seemingly dictates to the GAC how to develop consensus advice is problematic and should be deleted, as it is inconsistent with the ICANN Bylaws and the GAC’s Operating Principles.
- Nevertheless, the GAC will clarify the basis on which consensus advice is developed (e.g. the UN definition of consensus) and consider amendments to Principle 47 of its Operating Principles consistent with the ATRT recommendations.·
- The GAC strongly believes that further discussions are needed between the GAC and the ICANN Board to find a mutually agreed and understandable formulation for the communication of actionable GAC consensus advice regarding proposed new gTLD strings.
This ICANN announcement was sourced from "
http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/gac-comments-new-gtlds-26may11-en.pdf