[ripe-list] RIPE NCC Executive Board Resolution on Provision of Critical Services

Dear all,

I have been quite surprised by the RIPE NCC Executive Board statement for several reasons, please allow me to outline some of them here:

1.
The RIPE NCC Executive Board writes that:

> The Executive Board of the RIPE NCC believes that the means to communicate should not be affected by domestic political disputes, international conflicts or war. 

I very much believe this should be the case too. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The Russian military is actively attacking civil communication infrastructures. A case in point is Kyiv's TV tower that was bombarded by the Russian military yesterday.

So communication is being affected. Furthermore, the Russian military is using the Internet and has registered several ASNs. So currently, we are facilitating interconnection for the Russian military while this very military is bombing communication infrastructure and civilians.


2.
Then the Board goes one step further:

> The Executive Board of the RIPE NCC is committed to taking all lawful steps available to ensure that the RIPE NCC can provide undisrupted services to all members across our service region and the global Internet community.

Here the board says that it will do everything within its power to keep, for example, facilitating the Russian military? Why?

This has nothing to do with human rights (law), because only individuals and communities have human rights. Not governments. Governments have obligations they need to live up to, whereas the Russian government is violating rights, both under human rights law as well as international law.

3.
Then the board makes another moral statement:

> It is crucial that the RIPE NCC remains neutral and does not take positions with regard to domestic political disputes, international conflicts or war.

The understanding of 'neutrality' here is very thin because it implies all sides have equal power. This is obviously not the case in the attack of Russia on Ukraine. Desmond Tutu said about this: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."

4.
The board could have said: we don't think RIPE NCC has the knowledge and expertise to make a judgment in this situation, we rely on 'X government or governance body' for guidance, it would have been clear. Now RIPE NCC is choosing to resist legal measures by governments but without developing its own politics outside of an underdeveloped (and frankly underwhelming) claim of 'neutrality' and the need for 'communication' whereas the current decision is not helping either.

Best,

Niels

  

On 01-03-2022 13:26, Christian Kaufmann wrote:
> Dear members,
> 
> At its meeting yesterday, the RIPE NCC Executive Board approved the following resolution:
> 
> The RIPE NCC provides critical services to its membership spread across a diverse geographical and political region.
> 
> The Executive Board of the RIPE NCC believes that the means to communicate should not be affected by domestic political disputes, international conflicts or war. This includes the provision of correctly registered Internet numbering resources.
> 
> The Executive Board of the RIPE NCC is committed to taking all lawful steps available to ensure that the RIPE NCC can provide undisrupted services to all members across our service region and the global Internet community.
> 
> The RIPE NCC will publicly document all its efforts to ensure that the registry is not negatively affected by laws, regulations or political developments.
> 
> —-
> 
> It is crucial that the RIPE NCC remains neutral and does not take positions with regard to domestic political disputes, international conflicts or war.
> 
> This guarantees equal treatment for all those responsible for providing Internet services. This is a fundamental reason why the RIPE NCC has been able to maintain its operations in the way it has for the past three decades. It also means that the information and data provided by the RIPE NCC can be trusted as authoritative and free from bias or political influence. Failure to adhere to this approach would jeopardise the very model that has been key to the development of the Internet in our service region.
> 
> The Executive Board also expresses solidarity with those operators who have the difficult task of maintaining Internet access to assist the people suffering from the terrible effects of armed conflicts and war.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Christian Kaufmann
> Chairman of the RIPE NCC Executive Board
> 

-- 
Niels ten Oever, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher - Media Studies Department - University of Amsterdam
Affiliated Faculty - Digital Democracy Insitute - Simon Fraser University
Research Fellow - Centre for Internet and Human Rights - European University Viadrina
Associated Scholar - Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade - Fundação Getúlio Vargas

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Read my latest article on Internet infrastructure governance in Globalizations here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14747731.2021.1953221