The Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) together ensure the stability of the Internet Numbers Registry System. In order to strengthen their accountability, efforts are under way to revise the criteria for the accreditation of RIRs, and the obligations they must continuously meet.
The RIR communities are invited to share their input on the proposed principles that will form the basis of the revised criteria for the accreditation of Regional Internet Registries.
In March 2024, I published an article discussing why the RIR system is under scrutiny. As self-regulatory bodies, the RIRs along with their respective communities increasingly need to prove that there are adequate checks and balances to ensure the stability and self-governance of the Internet Numbers Registry System. In the same article, I also shared the Number Resource Organization’s (NRO’s) plan to strengthen the accountability of the RIR system to this end.
In this follow up article, I want to share an update regarding the plan to revise the criteria for the accreditation of the RIRs.
Background
The challenges AFRINIC’s governance is facing in the last couple of years have drawn the attention of many parties towards the overall resilience, governance and accountability of the global RIR system. Each RIR is an independent legal entity, with its own processes and governance, but the RIRs jointly form the Internet Numbers Registry System and have committed to be collectively responsible for it.
The NRO Executive Council (consisting of the heads of the RIRs), considered that a revision of the criteria set in 2001 for the accreditation of an RIR, aka ICP-2, was needed to strengthen the accountability of the RIR system to the Internet community. These criteria are now being revised through a broad community-led consultation driven by the NRO Numbers Council (the NRO NC), consisting of representatives from across the RIR communities.
Public consultation via the questionnaire
As a first step, the NRO NC has published a document with proposed principles for the recognition of RIRs and ongoing requirements that RIRs should meet. They are now seeking input from Internet communities, including the RIPE community, on these principles via a questionnaire. The RIR communities are invited to provide their input from Tuesday, 8 October until Tuesday, 19 November 2024. The NRO NC is also presenting on and raising awareness about this process during the RIR meetings. Hervé Clément will talk about this during the RIPE Community Plenary session taking place at RIPE 89.
The road ahead
Q4 2024
The public consultation with the RIR communities is open until 19 November 2024. Since ICANN has a role in the accreditation of RIRs, its community is also invited to comment. ICANN is therefore also launching its own public consultation in parallel to the work mentioned above.
Q1 2025
From January 2025 until April 2025, the NRO NC will be working on a draft revised policy based on the input received on the principles document through the questionnaire.
Q2 2025
In April 2025 the NRO NC will publish a first draft policy of the RIR requirements. This draft will also be subject to community review.
Q3 and Q4 2025
By September 2025 the NRO NC expects to have revised the draft policy based on the review by the community and to provide a final document report of policy for the NRO EC and ICANN Board consideration. If more consultation is needed, the timeline may extend.
At the conclusion of this process, we should be able to defend the accountability of the RIR system and of course provide members of the RIR communities with the reassurance that their RIR will remain capable of shouldering its responsibilities and that the Joint Internet Registry will be stable and reliable.
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