Cook Islands at ICANN63
Cook Islands has been regularly represented at ICANN meetings for the past 5 or 6 years by Pua Hunter on the GAC, representing the interests of governments and their sovereign rights and national laws and by Maureen Hilyard on the ALAC, representing the interests of global internet end-users. These interests are defended by these key advisory groups (AC) to ensure that a multistakeholder approach to any decision-making that takes place within ICANN about the use and coordination of the internet, is upheld.
During the ICANN63 meeting in Barcelona, along with other constituency meetings, the GAC (Government Advisory Committee) met with the ALAC (At-Large Advisory Committee). This was an opportunity to discuss some policy issues from the perspectives of their related groups — governments and internet end-users — and to look at commonalities where we could support each other’s views. These discussions centred on policies relating to top level domains — Generic TLDs and Country Code TLDs. Privacy and the growing global influence of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has created much excitement within ICANN as cross community groups endeavour that develop policies that can achieve ICANN’s information needs without contravening the rulings of the new GDPR policy that has far-reaching consequences.
As the incoming Chair of the ALAC, Maureen Hilyard was also able to take a lead in the discussions with the ICANN Board about what activities the ALAC will be involved in during 2019. The main activities will be the At-Large Review Implementation Plan, plus preparation for the third At-Large Summit Meeting (ATLASIII) which will be held in Montreal, Canada in October 2019.
Maureen was able to meet with the Chair of the Board during one of the lead up days to the ICANN meeting to explain her organisational plan for the ALAC and the ways in which the core activities for At-Large with be undertaken. Fortunately, the proposed plan was met with some agreement as a means of coordinating At-Large’s activities more efficiently and effectively, as well as a means of gaining more recognition for the leaders within At-Large who take on the responsibility to represent the interests of global internet end-users.
During the week, having two regional groups from Europe and Africa attend the ICANN meeting enabled Maureen to explain to them how their work would be coordinated, and how they would be able to contribute to the role of At-Large in supporting the provision of policy advice to the Board, as well as encouraging outreach and engagement within our five regions (Europe, Africa, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Asian, Australasian and Pacific Islands).
