RIR Accountability Assessment Reports
In 2015, as part of their role in the IANA Stewardship Transition, each RIR completed a review of its governance policies and procedures with a special focus on assessing the viability of their multi-stakeholder governance and policymaking mechanisms, to assess the risk of capture, i.e. whether one constituency could gain unwarranted control over an RIR’s governance and policymaking.
Each RIR retained independent legal counsel (or other expert advisers) to conduct the assessment. The assessments began with the completion of a data-collection questionnaire, prepared by ARIN and Caplin & Drysdale, that queried each RIR in 13 areas of concern, including the nature of the organization’s governing documents, the election and removal of the governing body, the rights of the members in governance and otherwise, which regulatory bodies (and voluntary associations) have jurisdiction over the organization, and what financial-disclosure and -oversight and ethics policies the organization had adopted.
Using the data collected, each counsel prepared a confidential report for the governing board of their RIR detailing the organization’s governance procedures, determining how responsive those procedures are to each organization’s constituents, and assessing the probability that any one constituency could gain improper control over the RIR as a whole or of any of its prominent functions. In response to the detailed reports from counsel, each RIR’s governing body prepared a summary report, presenting the general assessment of the RIR’s accountability and highlighting areas for improvement. In conclusion, each RIR committed to reviewing the suggestions for improvement and continuing the governance-assessment process on a regular basis.
Last modified on 26/06/2018