[lac-discuss-en] Recent LACRALO List postings

Wed May 30 01:13:17 UTC 2012

Dear Cintra

I remain committed to assisting resolution of the working difficulties between the parties. I am available at any time to have a conference to discuss these matters. I am not sure how many will be attending Prague, but certainly that may be our next opportunity to meet in person to work through these issues. Before the meeting, I am available for a telephone conference at short notice.

Regards

Chris LaHatte
Ombudsman
Blog  https://omblog.icann.org/
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ICANNOmbudsman

Confidentiality
All matters brought before the Ombudsman shall be treated as confidential.  The Ombudsman shall also take all reasonable steps necessary to preserve the privacy of, and to avoid harm to, those parties not involved in the complaint being investigated by the Ombudsman.The Ombudsman shall only make inquiries about, or advise staff or Board members of the existence and identity of, a complainant in order to further the resolution of the complaint.  The Ombudsman shall take all reasonable steps necessary to ensure that if staff and Board members are made aware of the existence and identity of a complainant, they agree to maintain the confidential nature of such information, except as necessary to further the resolution of a complaint

From: Cintra Sooknanan [mailto:cintra.sooknanan at gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2012 12:57 PM
To: Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond
Cc: LACRALO discussion list; Chris LaHatte; Tracy F. Hackshaw; Evan Leibovitch
Subject: Re: [lac-discuss-en] Recent LACRALO List postings

Dear Olivier,

In the interest of transparency it is important that such complaint is sufficiently recorded and that those who such complaints are being levied against have enough scope and opportunity to publicly respond. Also it is necessary that any and all complaints are dealt with in turn to demonstrate equality, I do not have the ALAC rules of procedure in front of me (and the ICANN website is timing out at the moment) but a rule against discrimination and defining equal opportunity must be present in such an organisation (if you are able to assist with this citation I would be most grateful).

In fact for WELL OVER ONE YEAR ago the Caribbean Alses have on record (via the mailing list, the conference calls, through public comments on the wiki, face to face conversations, the General Assembly and at the ombudsman meeting) several past and ongoing complaints against LACRALO Leadership. Unfortunately such complaints have gone unanswered by the ones they are levied against and not attracted a similar immediate response even though these actions have already proved to have a debilitating effect on participation.  Notwithstanding this a handful of us have sought the best interest of LACRALO, ALAC and At Large and tried to continue to work in such hostile environment in the hope that leadership (ALAC and LACRALO) will offer some solution. While these few work, they rightly continue to represent and share the interests and viewpoint of end users and some other Lacralo Members. Your email can be interpreted as an attempt to silence these interests and viewpoint, can you please clarify?

Three weeks ago I requested and implored you and the Ombudsman (as well as LACRALO leadership) to come up with some firm path forward to avoid further degeneration and hardening of positions and while I acknowledge your confirmation that a response would come, to date we have no clear plan of action. In effect no one is asking you or the ombudsman to exercise favouritism, but in the least we expect fairness and professional conduct.

I am a firm believer in Mediation, it is part of my job. For this reason I took the time to listen to the Ombudsman and limited my contribution at the meeting in Costa Rica, not because I thought it was a success (certainly that would not happen in one meeting) but because I was interested in his mediation style and defined objectives. To believe that the parties in the region would drive the process is foolish and for there to be no response even now is highly unprofessional. Perhaps I am mistaken, and I look forward to an explanation if it exists. If no explanation is available then please consider the blatant negligence that is being demonstrated and give immediate attention to this lacuna (perhaps by the Future Challenges Working Group).

It is sad for me to say it, but in effect the postings you are seeing is a result of both sides finding the only recourse they can because mediation has (to this date) failed them. Let's be real, there was no excellent work from Costa Rica but a failed GA clearly demonstrating deepening divergence and bitterness, which has continued to grow due to lack of action. Further please let's recognise that there is a problem which can no longer be limited to a small select group but has bled into all of LACRALO. The ombudsman discussions must now take place with full transparency and with engagement by all members. This is a problem that exists for all of us!

I know this is not an easy situation and it is difficult to stay optimistic... this was not an easy email to write, but I hope you do not take the above as criticism rather as a heartfelt plead by someone who cares about the region enough to recognise there is a problem and try to find a solution.

Thank you and looking forward to your response,

Cintra

On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 12:35 PM, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond <ocl at gih.com<mailto:ocl at gih.com>> wrote:
This is the English Version. Spanish Version will be sent to the Spanish
language list.

Dear All,

I have received complaints from members of the region about several
recent postings on the LACRALO lists. Those postings relate to ongoing
disagreements between several individuals relating their point of view
regarding the running of LACRALO.

I am concerned about those postings because they do not appear to be of
help towards improving Internet user input in LACRALO and in ALAC. Quite
the contrary, they re-iterate established positions from several
individuals and end up turning other volunteers off from being involved.

The time spent discussing these issues on the list ends up taking
precedence over the time that members from the region could devote to
more productive tasks such as commenting on Current Comment periods and
other activities which were advertised on the ALAC-Announce list.

Some of the postings contravene parts of Rule 22 of our ALAC Rules of
Procedure. They are inappropriate according to:

22.9 Unprofessional commentary, regardless of the general subject,
22.10 Postings libelous being used to abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten
others,
22.11 Postings that are, knowingly false, ad-hominem, or misrepresents
another person,

I am not going to stand accused of taking sides, nor will I contravene
the very rules I have quoted here by pointing the finger at anyone.
However, I will kindly ask you all, Ladies and Gentlemen, that you
please moderate your language.

We are working with ICANN staff and LACRALO leadership in order to
continue on a dialog to improve relations, by making use of the
neutrality and fairness of the ICANN Ombudsman who can act as a
mediator. This mediation takes place out of this forum and has no place
on public mailing lists.

An excellent amount of work has taken place in Costa Rica and the region
should be looking at building on this. Like every region, this takes a
lot of time and effort. We, the At-Large community and ICANN as a whole,
have some serious challenges coming up in the form of a threat to the
multi-stakeholder system. We clearly have to work smarter with each other.

Yours sincerely,

Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond
ALAC Chair

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