ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade refuted rumors that the organization was planning to move its headquarters to Geneva. He made this statement as he responded to a reporter’s question following a panel discussion on Internet management at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. He called for an end to “speculation” about ICANN’s possible move to Geneva and said that he couldn’t have made the decision as it is at the competence of the ICANN board of directors, which can’t make it without the agreement of the Internet community at large. No such consultations have taken place. “We have an office in Geneva, that’s the end of it,” Chehade said.
Still, there is reason to believe that ICANN did consider the possibility of moving its headquarters to Geneva. In February, ICANN’s board of directors approved the creation of several “President’s Globalization Advisory Groups.” One of these groups was tasked with establishing a parallel international structure to “enhance ICANN’s global legitimacy.” Six weeks later, however, the groups were dissolved on the grounds that “they were no longer needed in light of the process to transition stewardship of the DNS root away from the US government."
Apparently, ICANN had considered moving to Geneva as part of its strategy to leave the US jurisdiction, but the US government’s initiative to relinquish the DNS root control has made the move unnecessary.
