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RIRs Message to the AFRINIC Community
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17 JUN 2022
This is a message to the AFRINIC community from the undersigned Regional
Internet Registries (RIRs).
The five RIRs ensure the uniqueness of Internet number resources across
the world. A key strength of the RIRs is that our regional basis allows
distinct communities with their own histories, cultures, political
systems and needs to determine the policies that best govern the
registries in their respective regions. We believe this system is
robust, effective and worth fighting for.
The current challenges affecting AFRINIC are of great concern to us. We
urge the AFRINIC membership and the wider community in Africa, including
civil society and governments, to work together to support their RIR at
a time when it needs assistance and guidance in the form of constructive
input.
The excessive number of court cases against AFRINIC are of particular
concern to other RIRs because they represent a threat to AFRINIC’s
autonomy and its community. These challenges are designed, we believe,
to cause serious damage to both.
All RIRs have faced various challenges over the years, whether legal,
political, financial or otherwise. Financial and political interests are
also becoming a factor in the registration of Internet resources in a
way that they were not previously. In such a situation, robust
governance is essential if the RIR is to be able to meet the challenges
it faces. More than anything, this requires the constructive involvement
of that RIR’s members.
So while we acknowledge that there is still work to be done within
AFRINIC to address the challenges that it faces, these challenges will
not be solved in an adversarial environment. For positive outcomes to be
achieved, AFRINIC, its membership and its community must all be
committed to working together in an open and transparent way to ensure
the outcome is in the best interest of the membership and inline with
the community-developed policies.
Our commitment
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With this message, the other four RIRs (APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and the
RIPE NCC) wish to reaffirm the following:
- The purpose of an RIR is to support community self-determination
on the best approach to regional Internet issues, balancing
individual and regional needs with the regional and global needs
of the Internet.
- Each RIR community is autonomous, but it must work to maintain
relationships and trust among its members, and it must be able to
do so free from the threat of outside interference.
- The regional activities and policy process of an RIR are solely in
the hands of that community, but the health of those processes is
of paramount importance to the global Internet community.
- We are committed to ensuring the health, stability and success of
the system that we administer, as well as the Internet and its
constituent RIR communities.
To the AFRINIC community, we wish to say, AFRINIC is your RIR.
Its challenges are your challenges, and its successes are your
successes. We urge you to come together to help steer AFRINIC in a
positive direction and to build on the contributions that you have all
made to the development of the Internet on your continent.
Thank you.
Signed this 17 June 2022, by:
Paul Wilson
Director General,
ASIA PACIFIC NETWORK INFORMATION CENTRE
John Curran
President and Chief Executive Officer,
AMERICAN REGISTRY FOR INTERNET NUMBERS, LTD.
Oscar Robles
Executive Director/CEO,
LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN INTERNET ADDRESSES REGISTRY
Hans Petter Holen
Managing Director,
RÉSEAUX IP EUROPÉENS NETWORK COORDINATION CENTRE
Sent on behalf of the NRO EC. This is also available to view on the NRO
website:
https://www.nro.net/rirs-message-to-the-afrinic-community
________________________________________________________________________
APNIC Secretariat [email protected]
Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) Tel: 61 7 3858 3100
PO Box 3646 South Brisbane, QLD 4101 Australia Fax: 61 7 3858 3199
6 Cordelia Street, South Brisbane, QLD http://www.apnic.net
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