Dear friends and colleagues,
I do understand the interest by members of the APNIC community in the
letter from the NRO to the government of Mauritius, dated on 12 July.
Accordingly, I provided background and explanation of this action in an
APNIC blogpost on 22 July:
https://blog.apnic.net/2022/07/22/why-the-nro-is-defending-afrinic/
As explained in this blogpost, the primary reason for the NRO’s
correspondence was to highlight the risks to the global Internet
operations from unintended consequences of decisions made by the
Mauritian courts, in the course of recent legal proceedings. The letter
was a product of the NRO and it expressed the NRO’s commonly held
concerns about the potential for serious damage to important Internet
operations, a matter which is of common concern to all RIRs and, we
believe, of great importance to all RIR communities.
A secondary reason for the correspondence was to express support for
AFRINIC’s previous requests to Mauritius for recognition of its status
as an international organisation. Whether such recognition is granted
and what this process entails under Mauritian law, are matters for the
discretion of the Mauritian Government and for AFRINIC. However it
should be noted that LACNIC has held a similar status for many years in
its host country of Uruguay, as one of numerous organisations in the
same category.
Finally, regarding the process for AFRINIC Board appointments, which
were not mentioned in the NRO letter or my blog post: my understanding
is that if ANY Mauritian company becomes unable to complete its usual
board appointment or election process, the Mauritian courts have
discretion to appoint board members in order to allow the company to
function.
In AFRINIC’s case, the court was provided with a list of suggested
candidate names, which had been solicited from the ATU (African
Telecommunications Union) as a recognised independent and authoritative
body, and along with other names from other sources (to my
understanding). As the court is entirely free to accept or reject any of
these candidates, this does not in any way represent an appointment BY
the ATU. Under the current circumstances this appears to be an entirely
legitimate process to enable the AFRINIC board to function and convene
elections in accordance with their by-laws.
I hope that these answers are useful and informative to interested
parties.
Paul.
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Paul Wilson, Director-General, APNIC [email protected]
http://www.apnic.net @apnicdg
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