[cc-humanrights] Following up the ICANNs Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights meeting at ICANN52

[Niels ten Oever]

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you very much for attending the session on ICANNs Corporate
Responsibility to Respect Human Rights at ICANN52 in Singapore.

Please find underneath the summary of session, as prepared by Marilia
Maciel. For your convenience I also attached the report produced by
Article19.

We're looking forward to continue the conversation with you on this
topic at the e-mail list. We subscribed the people that indicated so,
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We're looking forward to continue the discussion on the list.

Best,


Niels ten Oever
Head of Digital

Article 19
www.article19.org

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Human Rights in ICANN: continuing the conversation

ICANN’s corporate responsibility to respect human rights

Summary of the main points raised during the session held at ICANN 52
Wed, February 11th


1. There is a need for ICANN to respect human rights in its policies and
procedures.  It was recalled that Article 4 of ICANN’s Articles of
Incorporation state that ICANN shall operate for the benefit of the
Internet community as a whole, carrying out its activities in conformity
with relevant principles of international law and local law. These
include legal instruments on human rights.
2. Internationally recognized standards for corporate responsibility,
such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, also
apply to ICANN. This point is further explored in a paper presented as a
background material to this session available at:
https://community.icann.org/display/gnsocouncilmeetings/Continuing+the+conversation+on+ICANN+and+Human+Rights
3. Actors operating in ICANN have different responsibilities with
regards to human rights. States in the GAC are bound by treaties and
international obligations to protect human rights, while ICANN as an
organization needs to respect human rights in its policies and procedures.

4. The mandate of ICANN is very specific and the discussion on human
rights needs to observe the limits of ICANN’s remit. The impact of
ICANN’s policies on first generation human rights, such as the right to
privacy and right to freedom of expression is particularly important and
needs to be assessed.
5. ICANN contracted parties have identified difficulties operate with
different national laws. There is need for guidance to reconcile the
need to respect local laws and their obligation to contractual
compliance with ICANN. The obligations faced by Registrars regarding the
collection of information and the need to harmonize it with data privacy
standards was mentioned as an example.

6. There is need to discuss mechanisms to make sure that policies are
developed in a manner that is consistent with human rights obligations.

7. A shared concern with this topic can be identified in ICANN
communities. Support to start a cross-community effort was expressed
during the session in the form of a working party or of a working group.
Some possible goals of this cross-community discussion could be:
To continue the process of raising awareness about the interplay between
ICANN’s policies and human rights;
To map and collect information on the concrete cases identified by the
community in which further guidance on how to harmonize policies and
procedures with human rights would be necessary;
To develop guidelines for the procedures that in place or that should be
created in the policy development process to ensure the respect for
human rights;
To propose mechanisms that could help to identify potential human rights
implications during the process of policy development.

8. Regarding the next steps, some action items have been suggested:
To create a cross-community working group or a cross-community working
party, after assessing which of these structures would be the best option;
To further the contact with SO and AC chairs in order to jointly assess
the way forward and the best way to foster cross-community engagement;
Terms of reference for this cross-community work will be developed;
Discussion about this topic should continue in ICANN 53 in Buenos Aires.


9. For further information:

The audio recording of this session is available at:
http://audio.icann.org/meetings/singapore2015/human-rights-11feb15-en.mp3

The transcripts of the session are available at:
http://singapore52.icann.org/en/schedule/wed-human-rights/transcript-human-rights-11feb15

Mailing list: cc-humanrights at icann.org

Article 19. ICANN’s corporate responsibility to protect Human Rights.
February, 2015.
https://community.icann.org/display/gnsocouncilmeetings/Continuing+the+conversation+on+ICANN+and+Human+Rights

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