Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) reportedly disregards Kenya advice at ICANN 46 in Beijing

ICANN concluded its 46th meeting held in Beijing China last week, some of the highlights of the meeting as per the announcements is that it was one of the largest meetings ever.

However aside from the normal attendance this was also set as a platform for the much awaited GAC advice on applications that were presented. This follows the GAC early warnings that GAC Members issued on November 20, 2012, and applicants and GAC Members have been exchanging information with the aim of reaching an understanding or agreement on concerns raised, wherever possible. GAC had issued 242 early warnings to new gTLD applicants involving 145 strings.

GAC draft gTLD agenda for Beijing entailed advice to the ICANN Board on controversial or sensitive strings and applications.  However there has been a simmering fight as to how GAC wanted to present this advice.  One applicant who has been fighting for ICANN to waive the governmental support for perceived conflict of Interest by AU who is a principal partner of Uniforum a competitor to DotConnectAfrica. Read more