As provided in the ICANN Bylaws, Article XI, Section 2, part 4, an advisory process has been created to allow the interests of individual Internet users to be represented in the ICANN community.

As part of the process provided in the Bylaws for individual Internet users to organise themselves at the regional level, the Latin American and Caribbean ("LAC") region of At Large has reached a consensus on the contents of a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") between the region and ICANN, and accompanying Operating Principles of the Latin American Regional At Large Organisation. ICANN's Legal staff have reviewed these two documents and believe, with a couple of minor points, that these represent a complete and valid basis for the MOU to be signed by the representatives of the LAC region and ICANN at the Sao Paulo ICANN Meeting.

The remaining issues to be dealt with in the attached documents are to be discussed and agreed by representatives of the LAC Region in Sao Paulo, from 2-4 December. The issues remaining are as follows:

It has been proposed that the texts should provide that the General Assembly of the RALO shall set its agenda as part of the work of its sessions. There has been no dissent to this idea, but the drafting of the actual language will be finished in the upcoming meeting.
It has been proposed that the General Assembly shall, except in rare circumstances, operate by consensus. This proposal has also faced no dissent, and like the first issue, simply remains to be agreed in formal text in Sao Paulo.
The process by which At Large Structures (ICANN Bylaws, Article IX, s.2, p.4, i). shall be certified remains to be inserted into the text, however, the following is what will be discussed at the SP meetings:

"We recognize that ICANN has established criteria and standards for the certification of ALSes. The LACRALO will encourage organizations to apply for certification and assist with certification, including by:
- reviewing ALS applications from organizations in Latin America / Caribbean islands upon submission to ICANN and recommending whether or not the organization should be certified as an ALS;
- providing LAC ALS applicants with LACRALO information and, if recommended by the LACRALO for certification, provisional membership in the LACRALO whilst the ALS application is under consideration by the ALAC;
- when ALS certification is verified by the ALAC for LAC applicants, these applicants will be granted membership in the LACRALO."
Synchronisation of language between the two documents with respect to the criteria for selection of the two regional representatives to the At Large Advisory Committee ("ALAC"), and specifying the voting mechanism for the selection.
Discussion of the ending date of the MoU and the proposed addition of a termination clause.
Elaborate slightly in respect of Clause 4.4 of the MOU. The following text is being proposed to regional representatives by ICANN:
"ICANN may provide resources to help support LAC RALO activities as determined in ICANN's annual operational and budgetary plans and processes."
Discuss and agree the level of translation of documents which can be expected related to Clause 4.6 of the MoU.

ICANN have determined that a public comment period on these documents is appropriate. Those wishing to comment are suggested to make their comments not later than 2 December 2006 at 12:00 EST, so that regional representatives may take account of the comments made during their final stage discussions on these texts which begin on the same date.

Comments are therefore encouraged; they may be sent by email to lacralo-comments@icann.org, and reviewed at http://forum.icann.org/lists/lacralo-comments.

The two documents can be retrieved below:

LAC RALO MOU: English Version [PDF, 16K] | Spanish Version [PDF, 19K]

Operating Principles: English Version [PDF, 10K] | Spanish Version [PDF, 10K]