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INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION
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COUNCIL
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Document
C04/28-E
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20
April 2004
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Original:
English
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GENEVA
— 2004
SESSION — (9
– 18 JUNE)
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PLENARY
MEETING
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Report
by the Secretary General
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1 Subject:
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RESOLUTION
101 (Minneapolis, 1998): INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP)-BASED NETWORKS;
RESOLUTION 102 (Rev. Marrakesh, 2002): MANAGEMENT OF INTERNET DOMAIN
NAMES AND ADDRESSES;
RESOLUTION 133 (Marrakesh, 2002): ROLE OF ADMINISTRATIONS OF MEMBER
STATES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF INTERNATIONALIZED (MULTILINGUAL) DOMAIN
NAMES; AND INTERNET GOVERNANCE
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2
Purpose
To report on
ITU activities related to Internet Protocol (IP)-based networks and
management of Internet domain names and addresses; including
activities related to Internet governance.
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Ref.
doc.
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3
Background
Resolution
101 (Minneapolis, 1998): Internet
Protocol (IP)-Based Networks. Activities
reported previously to Council in documents C2000/27 and
C2000/27Add.
Resolution
102 (Rev. Marrakesh, 2002): Management of Internet domain names and
addresses. Activities
reported previously to Council in documents C99/51, C2000/27,
C2000/27Add.B, C01/EP/8, C02/46 and C03/27.
Resolution
133 (Marrakesh, 2002): Role of administrations of Member States in
the management of internationalized (multilingual) domain names.
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Res.
101 (PP-98)
Res. 102
(Rev. PP-02)
Res. 133
(PP-02)
C99/51
C2000/27
C2000/27Add.A
C20000/27Add.B
C01/EP/8
C02/46
C03/27
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4
Recommendation
The Council is
invited to endorse the activities described in this report and to
take any appropriate measures.
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5
Implications
The discussed activities are
undertaken using existing resources.
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Yoshio
UTSUMI
Secretary General
RESOLUTION
101: INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP)-BASED NETWORKS; RESOLUTION 102: MANAGEMENT OF
INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES AND ADDRESSES; RESOLUTION 133: ROLE OF
ADMINISTRATIONS OF MEMBER STATES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF INTERNATIONALIZED
(MULTILINGUAL) DOMAIN NAMES; AND INTERNET GOVERNANCE
1. Introduction
1.1
Resolution 101 (Minneapolis, 1998) on Internet
Protocol (IP)-Based Networks
was adopted in 1998 and reported on in C2000/27 and C2000/27Add.A.
Resolution 102 on Management of Internet domain names and
addresses was originally adopted at the 1998 Plenipotentiary and was
revised at the 2002 Plenipotentiary in Marrakesh.
Previous activities have been reported to Council in documents
C99/51, C2000/27, C2000/27Add.B, C01/EP/8, C02/46 and C03/27.
Resolution 133 (Marrakesh, 2002) on the Role of administrations of Member States in the
management of internationalized (multilingual) domain names
is a new resolution adopted in 2002.
ITU activities
related to these resolutions since Council 2003, as well as ongoing
developments in this area, are discussed below.
This report also describes activities related to “Internet
governance”, as referred to in the Declaration of Principles and Plan of
Action, resulting from the first phase of the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS), held in Geneva in December 2003.
2. ITU
and its Activities Related to Internet-Protocol (IP) Networks
2.1
As a follow-up to Resolutions 101, 102 and 133, the ITU Strategy
and Policy Unit (SPU), in cooperation with the TSB and BDT, has prepared a
new report on how Internet Protocol (IP) networks and the Internet, as
well as their convergence with other kinds of networks, have impacted on
ITU’s activities. The
report provides a current overview (March 2004) of the wide scope of the
ITU’s activities related to IP networks and the Internet—ranging from
technical standards to regulatory and policy matters to development
initiatives. This report can
be found at:
3. IP
Policy Manual
3.1
Following a decision by Council 2003, the Director of TSB, in
cooperation with the Director of BDT, has created a project group to
prepare an IP Policy Handbook. The purpose is to advise Member States,
especially developing countries, on issues related to Internet-Protocol
(IP) based networks, including the management of Internet domain names and
related issues. The intended
audience is policy makers at the national level who are or may be called
upon to influence or to decide national policies with respect to IP-based
networks and/or IP-based services. Full
details, including a questionnaire and draft table of contents, are in TSB
Circular 168 and its Addendum 1, available at:
3.2
The status of the work, including membership of the project team,
replies to questionnaires, input contributions, and the current draft of
the Handbook is available at:
4. Top
Level Domain Management of “.int”
4.1
In accordance with Resolution 102, the Director of TSB organized a
workshop on 15-16 September 2003, in cooperation with the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), to develop a
Recommendation to clarify the management of the Internet top level domain
“.int”. The workshop was co-chaired by Mr. Francis Gurry, Assistant
Director General and Legal Counsel, World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO), and Mr. Paul Twomey, President and CEO, ICANN.
4.2
Information on the workshop, including the agreed output, is
available at:
4.3
The output of the meeting included a first draft of an ITU-T
Recommendation, temporarily numbered as E.int.
This draft was submitted to Study Group 2 (TD 126 WP1) and
discussed at the 25-31 October 2003 SG2 meeting in Florianopolis, Brazil.
On the basis of contributions and discussions, SG2 appointed Ms.
Cathy Handley (United States) as editor for the recommendation.
Editor’s Group meetings were held on 23 March 2004 and 13 April
2004. On the basis of
contributions received subsequent to the 25-31 October 2003 meeting, and
discussions during the Editor’s Group meetings, a new draft has been
prepared and submitted for discussion at the 18-28 May 2004 Study Group 2
meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.
5. DNS
Root Server System
5.1
Given recent discussions concerning the distribution of the
Internet Domain Name System (DNS) root server system (e.g., ref. 13(d) of
the WSIS Plan of Action, see 13.1 below) attention is drawn to ITU-T SG2
Information Document 23, DNS root server mirror service, which
provides information for Member States on the potential benefits of
locating a mirror of a DNS root server within their national context.
Potential benefits include: national infrastructure protection and
self-sufficiency; performance; costs; resilience; and, emergency response.
The document was brought to the attention of SG2 via TD 118 WP1 and
provides information on how to arrange a mirror of the Internet F root
server. The document is available at:
5.2
Information about the APNIC root server trial in the Asia-Pacific
region is available at:
5.3
Guidelines for hosting a mirror instance of the Internet K root
server are at:
6. ITU-D
Workshops and Symposia
6.1
In accordance with Resolution 102 and the Istanbul Action Plan
(WTDC-02), the BDT has organized several workshops to discuss general
policy, operational and technical issues concerning the Internet, and the
management of Internet domain names and addresses, in particular, for the
benefit of Member States, especially for least developed countries.
6.2
The BDT organized an ITU-NEPAD Workshop in April 2003 in Arusha,
Tanzania, aimed at assisting Africa in elaborating an ICT roadmap to meet
NEPAD objectives. The Arusha
Workshop was attended by delegates from 30 ITU Member States including
regional organizations such as ATU and ECOWAS, and resulted in a
Declaration requesting, inter alia, the following actions to be
undertaken:
“ITU
should assist Africa to establish its own Regional Structure for the
Management of Public Internet Resources (IP Addresses, country code top
Level Domains)”
6.3
An IP Symposium was held in Kigali, Rwanda in July 2003 which
brought together representative from governments, industry and Internet
organizations from more than 20 African Member States. They made proposals
on actions ITU should undertake in addressing policies and strategies for
Internet domain names and IP address management for Africa.
Further information is available at:
6.4
The Kigali Declaration contained a number of recommendations to ITU
on its role in DNS management and IP address allocation, the development
of an Internet policy handbook, cooperation with the African Union on the
establishment of Afrinic, the development of an international framework
for ccTLD management recognizing the sovereign rights of ITU Member
States, and the protection of country names. This document is available at:
6.5
An IP Symposium was held in Moscow, Russia in September 2003 which
brought together representative from government, industry and Internet
organizations from more than 15 CIS and European States. They made proposals on actions
ITU should undertake in addressing policies and strategies for Internet
domain names and IP address management for the region. Further information
is available at:
6.6
The Moscow Declaration contained a number of recommendations on
ITU’s role in DNS management and IP address allocation, convergence in
naming and addressing systems, best practices and repatriation in ccTLD
management, assistance to Member States in the protection of country
names, and recommendations on best practices in fostering Internet
deployment, VOIP, IPv6, and internationalized domain names. This document
is available at:
6.7
An "ITU and Southern African Telecommunication Association (SATA)
Workshop on ICT Trends" was held in February 2004 in Victoria Falls,
Zimbabwe. Internet strategies
including Internet exchange points, IPv6, broadband challenges and
opportunities were discussed. Further information is available at:
6.8
The BDT cooperated with TSB on two related events in 2003/2004:
A workshop on
standardization was held in February 2004 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which
considered standardization and policy activities related to IP-based
networks. APNIC presented the
situation concerning IP address allocation.
58 participants from two countries attended the workshop. Further
information is available at:
6.9
Information on the above events as well as additional activities
can be found at:
6.10
Future IP Symposia are planned for the Arab States (2004) and in
the Americas region (2005). Training
workshops on DNS and IP address management are also planned during
2004-2005.
7. ENUM
7.1
ENUM continues to merit close attention by ITU Member States, due
to its potential impact on national policy, regulatory and/or legislative
frameworks. ENUM takes
numbers from the international public telecommunication numbering plan
(ITU-T Recommendation E.164) and incorporates them into the DNS for the
purpose of identifying and finding network resources; this includes the
possibility of assigning E.164 resources to IP-based devices.
The development of a stable international framework for ENUM
deployment will require the assignment of authority over elements of the
E.164 number space when mapped into the DNS, as well as the assignment of
ongoing management to one or more responsible authorities in each ITU
Member State. Work in ITU-T SG2 continues to progress, based on the
explicit understanding that the
existing role and sovereignty of Member States with respect to the
allocation and management of their country code numbering resources,
including the potential provisioning of those resources in the DNS, will
be respected. A draft ITU-T
Recommendation (provisionally entitled E.A-ENUM) is under preparation and
will be further discussed in SG2.
7.2
Reports on ENUM trial activities within Member States can be found
at:
7.3
General information on ENUM, including a tutorial paper, can be
found at:
7.4
In addition, recent news and reference material related to ENUM can
be found at:
7.5
Liaisons have been exchanged between SG2 and the Internet
Architecture Board (IAB) on technical and administrative issues related to
the administration of the top-level registry for ENUM.
See in particular COM 2 LS 55 and COM 2 LS 56.
7.6
As reported in 2003, ITU Member States continue to consider the
appropriate infrastructure, responsibility, delegation and authority for
the ENUM “root zone”, which is the location in the DNS where E.164
country code entries would be assigned.
While considerable discussion has taken place, no final decision
has yet been made. This could have an impact on the interim designation of
the domain “e164.arpa” as well as its administration.
7.7
In a related activity, the SPU and TSB jointly organized with the
Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) a workshop on ENUM held in August 2003 in
Bangkok, Thailand. The
agenda, presentations, and conclusions of that workshop can be found at:
7.8
A second ENUM workshop in cooperation with APT will be held in May
2004 in Brunei Darussalam. Further information can be found at:
7.9
ICANN recently solicited applications for new top level domains.
Some of these applications may have implications for the management of the
ITU-T E.164 numbering plan. Resolution 133 instructs the Secretary-General
“to take any necessary action to ensure the sovereignty of ITU Member
States with regard to country code numbering plans and addresses will be
fully maintained, as enshrined in Recommendation E.164 of the ITU
Telecommunication Standardization Sector, in whatever application they are
used”. In accordance with this instruction, a letter has recently been
sent to the President and CEO of ICANN which can be found at:
This letter has been brought to the attention of
ITU-T Study Group 2, via TD 168 (WP1/2).
8. Internationalized
Domain Names
8.1
The deployment of internationalized (multilingual) domain names (IDN)
raises a number of complex issues. These
include, inter alia, technical and interoperability issues,
administrative arrangements for multilingual domains and top level
domains, competition policy and market access, intellectual property and
dispute resolution, as well as cultural and social issues.
8.2
For more information on IDN, please refer to the briefing paper at:
and the presentations available at:
8.3
The SPU and TSB jointly organized with the APT a workshop on IDN in
August 2003 in Bangkok, Thailand. The
agenda, presentations, and conclusions of that workshop can be found at:
8.4
A second IDN workshop in cooperation with APT will be held in May
2004 in Brunei Darussalam. Further information can be found at:
8.5
The holding of IDN workshops in other locations are under
consideration (for example, for Arabic language scripts).
Proposals from ITU Member States to host related events are
welcome.
9.
Country Code Top Level Domains
9.1
Following issuance of TSB Circular 160, which contained a
Questionnaire on Member States’ experiences with ccTLDs, an Addendum was
published on 15 September 2003, extending the deadline for replies and
pointing to a web site containing the replies that had been received up to
that date. Additional replies
were received and a summary tabulation was published on 12 December 2003
in Addendum 2 to TSB Circular 160. The
summary tabulation as well as the complete set of replies can be obtained
at:
9.2
To follow-up the first Workshop on Member States' Experiences with
ccTLDs reported to Council 2003 in C03/27, the Director of TSB, in
cooperation with ICANN, is organizing a second workshop in July 2004, in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For further information, see:
9.3
Recently, the ccTLD .ly corresponding to the Socialist People's
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya stopped functioning. A statement by ICANN can be
found at:
10.
IP addresses
10.1
Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are an essential resource required
for the operation of IP-based networks.
General information on IP addresses, their allocation, and the
evolution to a new generation of IP addresses (IPv6) can be found at:
10.2
A summary of the activities of the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs),
which allocate IP address, can be found in TSAG TD (GEN) 128 Rev 1, SG2 TD
(WP1) 75, and SG2 TD (WP1) 111.
10.3
Statistics regarding the allocation of IPv4 addresses can be found
at:
10.4
The RIRs have made some changes to the way they cooperate and
interact with external entities (e.g., ICANN) through the creation of an
umbrella organization called the Number Resource Organization (http://www.nro.org).
A recent description of the background on the formation of the NRO
is available at http://www.nro.org/presentations/2004/lacnic-VI.pdf.
ICANN and the NRO have recently proposed to sign a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU). Annex A of this draft MoU, which can be found at http://www.icann.org/aso/icann-aso-mou-30mar04.htm,
could be interpreted to imply that global policy making for IP address
assignment will become essentially the purview of the NRO.
11.
ITU Participation in ICANN Bodies
11.1
ITU representatives continue to participate in ICANN bodies. The
ITU-T continued its participation in the ICANN Technical Liaison Group, of
which ITU-T is a member. Representatives
of the SPU, TSB, and BDT continued their attendance at ICANN Government
Advisory Committee (GAC) meetings. It
should be noted that ICANN has recently been cited as a defendant in
lawsuits that raise issues of US competition (anti-trust) law.
11.2
ICANN’s “Ninth Status Report Under ICANN/US Government
Memorandum of Understanding” can be found at http://icann.org/general/status-report-07apr04.pdf.
11.3
The GAC has initiated a process to amend its operating rules of
procedure (GAC Operating Principles).
The ITU Secretariat requested that the following statement be
recorded in the minutes of the most recent 29 February-3 March 2004 GAC
meeting in Rome, Italy:
"The ITU
Secretariat notes that its interpretation of provisions for amending the
GAC Operating Principles is that the first step is a GAC decision to
support the Operating Principles being open to revision at a face-to-face
meeting at which there is a quorum (see Principles 43 and 54).
Since that step has not been completed, the ITU Secretariat
dissociates from the present discussion and decisions regarding amending
the Operating Principles."
11.4
One of the proposed changes is to change the status of
intergovernmental organizations, including ITU, from full GAC members to
observers. If that change is approved, the ITU Secretariat will
correspondingly adjust its participation in GAC meetings.
11.5
Subsequent to the adoption of Resolution 102 (Rev. Marrakesh 2002)
and 133 (Marrakesh 2002), there have not been any related discussion at
subsequent GAC meetings.
12. Protection
of Country Names
12.1
The issue of protecting the names of countries in the Domain Name
System (DNS) has been raised previously in Council: "No second-level
domain name corresponding to the official or common name of a sovereign
State should be registered by an entity other than the sovereign State in
question. Country names are symbols of sovereignty and it is not
unreasonable to request that they be given special protection, just as
other aspects of heritage are protected by conventions" (see 2.6 of
Council 2002 Summary Record of the Thirteenth Plenary Session, 2 May
2002). The Member States of
WIPO recently adopted two decisions in respect of the Report of a Second
WIPO Domain Names Process. These
decisions constitute recommendations that the Uniform Domain Name Dispute
Resolution Policy (UDRP) be amended to permit complaints to be filed in
respect of the abusive registration, as domain names, of (i) the names and
acronyms of international intergovernmental organizations, and (ii)
country names. Full details
of the Second WIPO Internet Domain Name Process are at:
and the final report is at:
12.2
On 6 October 2003, ICANN created a committee, which included a
representative of ITU, “for the purpose of analyzing the practical and
technical aspects of implementing the WIPO recommendations, and notably
the implications for the UDRP”. That committee worked primarily by
electronic methods and is expected to present an interim report to the
ICANN Board in May 2004. Although
no consensus has been reached within the committee regarding whether or
not to recommend implementation of the WIPO recommendations, it is
expected that the committee will continue its work and that it will
present options for implementation to the Board at a later date, while
also reporting any continuing lack of consensus within the committee. For
the announcement on the creation of the committee, see:
13. Internet
Governance and the World Summit on the Information Society
13.1
Lengthy, and at times difficult, negotiations concerning the topic
of Internet governance were held during the preparatory meetings for the
first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
As the differences could not be resolved, the WSIS Declaration of
Principles (paragraphs 48-50) and Plan of Action (paragraphs 13 b-d)
provide that the “Secretary General of the United Nations to set up a
working group on Internet governance”. The relevant texts can be found
at:
13.2
At the invitation of the ITU Secretary-General (DM-1108), a
Workshop on Internet Governance was held at ITU Headquarters from 26-27
February 2004. The Workshop
was organized by SPU as part of the Secretary-General’s “New
Initiatives” programme. The overall objective of the Workshop was to contribute to
the ITU's process that will prepare its inputs and position vis-à-vis the
United Nations working group to be established on Internet governance.
For complete information, see:
13.3
Approximately 140 participants took part in the workshop.
All contributions and presentations made at the Workshop are being
collated, along with the Chairman’s report, into a book that will be
distributed to all ITU Member States.
The Chairman’s Report from the workshop is available at:
13.4
A web page has recently been created at http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/intgov/
where it will post resources and information for the ITU Membership
related to Internet governance.
14. Countering
Spam Activities
14.1
During the Geneva phase of the WSIS, unsolicited commercial
communication, more commonly known as spam, was identified as one of the
major problems affecting today's online world. In this regard, SPU is
organizing an “ITU WSIS Thematic Meeting on Countering Spam”, which
will take place 7 to 9 July 2004, at the International Conference Center
of Geneva (CICG). The meeting is organized as a candidate WSIS Thematic meeting
for the Tunis phase of WSIS in 2005 subject to approval by the WSIS
process. At the invitation of
the ITU Secretary-General (DM-1130), the ITU Membership has been invited
to participate in this meeting and asked for written contributions.
Regularly updated information can be found at:
14.2
A mailing list for representatives of national bodies with
responsibilities in countering spam has been set up to share information
on national spam-related initiatives as well as ITU’s ongoing activities
in this area. For information on participation in this mailing list, please
contact counteringspam@itu.int.
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