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

Mon Feb 23 16:59:01 UTC 2015

Thank you, Niels, this is terrific - both the A19 paper and the report of the meeting in Singapore, which I was not able to attend in person since it was scheduled at the same time as the accountability session unfortunately.  I listened to the recording and indeed it was a terrific meeting and I'm very encouraged about this effort going forward.

I also wanted to point to the fact that the GNSO supported free expression for new gtlds in the policy that was actually passed by the GNSO Council and then sent to the board for ratification.  Unfortunately, in the subsequent "implementation" of the GNSO-approved gtld policy, the free expression guarantee was entirely ignored by staff, and most people don't even know it exists today.   These GNSO Principles and Recommendations were hard fought over many years to reach a consensus approval, and then to see the principles about respecting free expression ignored but the principles about "protecting" IP (or GAC "sensitivities") given maximum attention has shown a number of holes in the multi-stakeholder model for Internet governance, or at least ICANN's version of it.

See Approved Final GNSO Policy Recommendations:
http://gnso.icann.org/en/issues/new-gtlds/pdp-dec05-fr-parta-08aug07.htm#_Toc43798015

Principle G:
The string evaluation process must not infringe the applicant's freedom of expression rights that are protected under internationally recognized principles of law.

Recommendation 6:
Strings must not be contrary to generally accepted legal norms relating to morality and public order that are recognized under international principles of law.  Examples of such principles of law include, but are not limited to, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, intellectual property treaties administered by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS).

Best,
Robin

On Feb 23, 2015, at 5:49 AM, Niels ten Oever wrote:

> 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,
> you can subscribe yourself here:
> https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-humanrights
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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
> 
> PGP fingerprint    8D9F C567 BEE4 A431 56C4
>                   678B 08B5 A0F2 636D 68E9
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 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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