Third Accountability and Transparency Review

The Third Accountability and Transparency Review (ATRT3) was initiated in January 2017. As of May 2021, the review is in the plan implementation phase.

Background

The Affirmation of Commitments, an agreement between ICANN and the United States Department of Commerce, establishes ICANN's obligations to perform its duties with specific commitments in mind. All of the commitments bear on public and consumer trust of the organization. ICANN is to perform its functions in a manner that:

• ensures accountability and transparency of decision-making;
• preserves the security, stability, and resiliency of the DNS;
• promotes competition, consumer trust, and consumer choice; and
• enables access to registration data.

It is also charged to periodically review and assess its performance through the lens of each of the above commitments.

ICANN's board enshrined these commitments (and the associated reviews) in its Bylaws in Article 1 (Mission, Commitments, and Core Values) and in Article 4 (Accountability and Review). Article 4.6 deals with "Specific Reviews," each of which are tied to one of the commitments in the Affirmation of Commitments.

The Organizational Effectiveness Committee of the board oversees the conduct of specific reviews. The ATRT is one such specific review.

Process and Findings

Delays in Launching Substantive Work

The call for volunteers for ATRT3 was initially put out in January, 2017. It was subsequently extended in April 2017. At the time of extension, the Board noted that multiple factors were impacting the timing of ATRT3. Because of the timing of ATRT2, the ICANN Bylaws required that the review be launched not later than October 2017. Meanwhile, the Cross Community Working Group on ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) notified that Board in 2016 that its work was overlapping substantially with the scope of ATRT reviews. The CCWG-Accountability co-chairs raised the possibility of crafting a narrow scope for ATRT3, to avoid duplication of work. At the same time, the IANA Transition was just wrapping up, and many voices within the ICANN community were speaking up about volunteer fatigue. As a result, in 2018 the Board submitted three separate papers for public comment: "Short-Term options to Adjust the Timeline for Specific Reviews," "Long-Term Options to Adjust the Timeline of Reviews," and a follow-up "Next Steps on Reviews" document.

In October 2018, the board approved a resolution to instruct ATRT3 to begin work, encouraging them to promptly submit their work plan and begin substantive work in January 2019. It also appointed Maarten Botterman to the ATRT3 team.

Findings and Recommendations

The ATRT3 review team held its first in-person meeting in April 2019 to set the scope of the review and establish its work plan. Unlike previous ATRT reviews, the review team did not identify a need for an independent expert to consult. Instead, they identified four top-level issues for the review team's work parties to address:

1. Board governance and community interaction;
2. GAC interaction with the board and the broader community;
3. Review processes - how ICANN receives public input, as well as a review of implementation of recommendations from ATRT2;
4. The impact of ICANN's decision-making process as it relates to the broader Internet community, and the effectiveness of ICANN's policy development process in fostering cross community particiipation.

The four work parties presented findings that were consolidated into a draft report and recommendations, published for public comment on December 14, 2019. The draft report received comments from many ICANN bodies, as well as the board. The review team analyzed and incorporated the comments into the final version of its report, which was delivered to the board in May 2020.

The final report generated substantial dissenting opinions in the public comment period. In particular, the recommendations to suspend certain specific reviews until after the next cycle of the ATRT review was met with strong opposition from some constituencies. Following the public comment period, in November 2020, the ICANN Board approved a set of recommendations from the final report, "subject to prioritization."

Implementation

ATRT3 is, as of July 2021, in the implementation phase.

Impact on Organizational Reviews

In June 2021, the board agreed to defer GNSO3, in large part because of the recommendations of the ATRT3 final report. The board also effectively place a hold on all pending organizational reviews until such time as the ATRT3 recommendations were integrated into an implementation plan:

Resolved,...the Board determines that it is not feasible to initiate the GNSO3 Review at this time. The Board is deferring the initiation of the GNSO3 Review until such time as the Board, community and org better understand the impact of the ATRT3 Recommendations on the next Organizational Review cycle, as well as in consideration of the current community workload. Resolved,...the Board directs the ICANN President and CEO, or his designee, to develop a comprehensive plan for the timing and conduct of the next Organizational Review cycle, taking into consideration the timing of the implementation of the ATRT3 recommendations. This plan should be developed in consultation with the ICANN community, and ICANN org shall provide periodic updates to the Board on progress towards such plan.