An update on the AfriNIC situation

Mon Aug 30 06:50:39 UTC 2021

> On Aug 29, 2021, at 17:41 , Masataka Ohta <mohta at necom830.hpcl.titech.ac.jp> wrote:
> 
> John Levine wrote:
> 
>> I would be astonished if ICANN had a position. For one thing, they
>> have no provision for dealing with competing IP registries since the
>> issue has never come up
> 
> As
> 
> 	ICP-2: Criteria for Establishment of New Regional
> 	Internet Registries
> 	https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/new-rirs-criteria-2012-02-25-en
> 	2) The new RIR must demonstrate that it has the broad
> 	support of the LIRs (ISP community) in the proposed region
> 
> if overwhelming majority, which means there is no competition,
> of LIRs in AfriNIC region request to abandon AfriNIC and to
> have an alternate RIR, ICANN should honor the request.

ICANN _MIGHT_ be able (under ICP-2) to honor the request to accredit
a new RIR if one is created. ICANN has no authority under ICP-2 to do
anything about any RIR once it is accredited. There is no process for
revoking an RIR’s accreditation and there is no mechanism for any entity
to do so that I am aware of.

>> For another, they are extremely allergic to
>> anything that might even possibly involve them in a lawsuit.
> ICANN was established to protect governance structure (including
> RIRs, of course) of the Internet free from government (especially
> USG) interventions. As such, ICANN is expected to work to isolate
> African RIR operations from existing lawsuit.

I think you have that somewhat wrong. Regardless of what you or anyone
else may think ICANN was established for, the simple reality is that ICANN’s
only ability to engage on any of this is that granted to it by the various IANA
functions contracts from the empowered communities (IETF, NRO/ASO/RIRs,
and various Domain-Related organizations). (No, I don’t have all the exact
details spelled out correctly here, it’s almost impossible to identify them).

ICANN does not have any ability to isolate African RIR operations from an
existing lawsuit. If you think I’m wrong, please identify the authority and
mechanism by which they could possibly do so.

Owen