View source for 20140402 - Testimony of Fadi Chehade


<CENTER><BIG>'''Testimony: Fadi Chehadé, ICANN'''</BIG></CENTER>


Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, and members of the Subcommittee, I am Fadi 
Chehadé, the President and CEO of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for 
Assigned Names and Numbers. I am very pleased to be testifying before you 
today.

Forty-five years ago, America demonstrated its technological brilliance by 
inventing the Internet. We showed our diplomatic genius 29 years later, by 
establishing a multistakeholder community model to govern a part of the 
Internet’s basic functioning, free from the political pressures inherent in 
government-run institutions.  This was a bold and unprecedented experiment. 

Governance by those who make the Internet work for the benefit of all.  Over 
the past 16 years the multistakeholder community has demonstrated an 
extraordinary capacity to govern itself, and according to the framework laid 
out across three U.S. Presidential administrations, ICANN has matured into a 
responsible, representative, respected governing body. America’s great 
experiment has succeeded.

In recent years some have questioned the principle of the multistakeholder 
community. Some critics demand a greater role for governments, perhaps by
transferring functions performed by ICANN to an inter-governmental 
organization, such as the ITU.  They point out that the Internet is not truly free 
from government control if one government retains unique control for itself –
referring to the United States, via issuance of the contract with ICANN to 
perform the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions. The U.S., 
its allies, and the vast majority of stakeholders acknowledge this one 
exception to the “no government control” rule, but make clear that overseeing 
the IANA contract is ministerial, minor and has had no real impact on day-today 
operations of ICANN or the Internet.  And they remind us that for nearly 
16 years the U.S. has consistently voiced its support for the multistakeholder 
model rather than a government-run model. Additionally, the U.S. has
consistently reduced its unilateral involvement in ICANN matters and 
oversight of ICANN operations.

On March 14th, the NTIA announced its intent to transition this final element –
stewardship of Internet domain name functions via the IANA contract – to the 
global multistakeholder community. The U.S. called upon ICANN to convene a 
process to develop a proposal for that transition that will guarantee no future 
government control.  ICANN, the Internet technical organizations and many 
American organizations – such as AT&T, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Neustar, 
U.S. Chamber and Verizon – almost immediately voiced their support for 
NTIA’s announcement.

As outlined in the NTIA’s announcement, the NTIA’s stewardship role will not 
be replaced with a government-led or an intergovernmental solution. This is 
consistent with the unequivocal policy expressed in the 2012 bipartisan 
resolutions of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives (S.Con.Res.50 and 
H.Con.Res.127) affirming U.S. support for the multistakeholder model of 
Internet governance. 

In brief, the proposal generated through broad multistakeholder dialogue will 
meet the following four fundamental criteria: 

*  Supports and enhances the multistakeholder model 
*  Maintains the security, stability and resiliency of the DNS
*  Meets the expectations of affected parties 
*  Maintains the openness of the Internet

ICANN is committed to developing a robust bottom-up process to develop the 
proposal for transition. At ICANN’s forty ninth public meeting, which took 
place last week in Singapore, ICANN launched discussions with the 
multistakeholder community, in-person and remotely, for public dialogue on 
how the mechanisms for the transition should occur. Inputs are being 
compiled and on April 7 will be put out for public comment and community 
feedback. The feedback from the community will inform the process going 
forward. ICANN is facilitating the process, and in this regard will work with its 
partners to engage the global multistakeholder community in relevant forums 
and meetings around the world, in addition to ICANN’s public meetings.
In its role as administrator of the IANA functions since 1998, ICANN has been 
responsible for coordinating unique Internet identifiers – names, IP numbers, 
and protocol parameters – and has done so while maintaining the continued 
security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet. It is important to note that 
ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet; instead it coordinates the 
Internet's unique identifier functions. These functions are not apparent to 
most Internet users, but they play a critical role in maintaining a single, global, 
unified and interoperable Internet.  ICANN has performed the IANA functions 
for nearly 16 years, in a no-fee agreement with the U.S. government.
Since its inception in 1998, ICANN has evolved its accountability and
transparency mechanisms for the benefit of the global community. 

Bylaws, and the Affirmation of Commitments, establish clear mechanisms for 
ICANN’s evolution, review of its processes, and improvements, through 
community input and multistakeholder review committees. With the eventual 
transition, ICANN recognizes the urgency of enhancing and extending its 
accountability mechanisms. At the meeting in Singapore, the ICANN 
multistakeholder community began a dialogue on this subject, taking the 
Affirmation of Commitments as a baseline.

In relation to the IANA functions, ICANN’s Performance Standards for 
timeliness and accuracy of processing stakeholder’s requests are published on 
a monthly basis. In addition, ICANN is subject to an annual audit of the
security of the IANA functions systems. Over the years, ICANN has performed 
the IANA functions with increasing autonomy, demonstrating in the process 
both operational excellence and maturity in organization – as illustrated by 
the findings of the IANA Functions Satisfaction Survey of December 2013.  In 
addition, after an independent assessment, the IANA Functions Department 
received recognition from an international organization for its business 
excellence.

Now, let me be clear: this announcement will not affect the status quo. The 
continued strength and stability of the IANA functions are critical to the 
operation of the Internet. The IANA functions will continue to be administered 
by ICANN in coordination and cooperation with the affected parties (country 
code and generic top-level domain operators, root server system operators, 
regional Internet registries, the Internet Architecture Board and the Internet 
Engineering Task Force). These bodies continue to hold policy authority for
names, IP numbers and protocol parameters. They also maintain oversight 
responsibility to ensure that ICANN administers these functions according to 
those policies. Finally, this announcement does not affect Internet users and 
their use of the Internet. While stakeholders work through the ICANNconvened process to develop a transition proposal, NTIA’s current role will 
remain unchanged.

Since ICANN’s beginning, the U.S. government has envisaged transitioning its 
modest stewardship role to the private-sector led, multistakeholder 
community. Today, ICANN is uniquely positioned, as both the current IANA 
functions contractor and the global coordinator for the DNS, to convene the 
multistakeholder process to develop the transition plan.  NTIA’s 
announcement in fact represents the final triumph of the American ideal for 
self-governance by the Internet community, free from government control, 
even our own. Few nations in history have had such vision, magnanimity and 
consistency.  ICANN understands and accepts the responsibility of the task at 
hand, and I am confident in ICANN’s ability to lead the community in this 
effort.

Both ICANN and the U.S. government have championed the multistakeholder 
model, in which standards and policies are developed by large and small 
businesses, the technical community, not-for-profit organizations, civil 
society, intellectual property experts, governments, academia, and Internet 
users from around the globe. American corporations – such as AT&T, Cisco, 
Google, Microsoft, Neustar and Verizon – and the Internet technical 
community (the IAB, IETF, the Internet Society, the RIRs and the World Wide 
Web Consortium) are also supporters of the multistakeholder model. These 
entities have welcomed the U.S. government’s announcement as the way to 
bring more countries to support the multistakeholder approach to Internet 
governance, moving them away from a model in which only governments hold 
sway.  NTIA’s announcement preserves and prolongs the free and open 
Internet that has brought so much economic growth and social and cultural 
development. 

Thank you for inviting me to testify. I would be happy to answer any 
questions you may have.  


== Reminder ==

* On March 14th, the NTIA announced its intent to transition this final element – stewardship of Internet domain name functions via the IANA contract – to the global multistakeholder community.
*  As outlined in the NTIA’s announcement, the NTIA’s stewardship role will not be replaced with a government-led or an intergovernmental solution.
*  Over the past 16 years the multistakeholder community has demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to govern itself, and according to the framework laid out across three U.S. Presidential administrations, ICANN has matured into a responsible, representative, respected governing body. 
*  ICANN has performed the IANA functions for nearly 16 years, in a no-fee agreement with the U.S. government.
* Overseeing the IANA contract is ministerial, minor and has had no real impact on day-to-day operations of ICANN or the Internet. 
*  ICANN is facilitating the process, and in this regard will work with its partners to engage the global multistakeholder community in relevant forums and meetings around the world, in addition to ICANN’s public meetings.
* While stakeholders work through the ICANN-convened process to develop a transition proposal, NTIA’s current role will remain unchanged.

.