[cc-humanrights] ICANN Org HRIA + update on community model

Sat May 18 01:08:43 UTC 2019

Hi all

In addition to Collin's point on methodology:

it's never really clear what is the norm in question against which ICANN's
internal policies and practices are evaluated.

We seem to have a mix of US federal statutes, international law strictly
speaking, "secondary"/softer international law like ILO recommendations,
and then other stuff of unknown origin.

Another issue: international human rights law generally is not the most
precise kind of thing. One may have a right to a safe working environment
in some treaty somewhere, but there is actual lawyering work required to
assert that such a vague statement actually prescribes a concrete norm
applicable to a concrete situation. I have found little or no such
argumentation. It's mostly conclusory, jumping from vague/ill-defined
"human rights" (no textual references of any sort; at best a mention of
ILO.) to concrete rights or duties.

One example: ICANN has "well-managed and standardized procurement
practices, guidelines and trainings." That says very little about what IRH
law has to say about procurement, and the extent by which ICANN abides by
those rules.

Another one:  s.2.4: "Sick leave, as well as maternity and paternity leave,
are provided according to national law". Sure. I hope it is! What is
national law here? US federal or California law? Or other law for regional
offices? Is there IHR law on maternity and paternity leave? What does it
say? How does what it says translate into concrete norms? In general, and
in the US? If so, are such norms applicable to a US entity?

And indeed that is not even touching the fact that what is being discussed
here is ICANN's compliance with the whole universe of human rights, not
only those which are actually applicable to ICANN, a private entity in the
US. I get the idea of doing what they do, I'd just prefer to have things
stated clearly and separated, between compliance which "would be a good
thing" because IHR law talks about it and compliance which is mandated by
actual law (and there is little "actual law" in the US when it comes to
international human rights)

As for the GDPR, the report seems to imply that ICANN is bent on applying
the GDPR throughout. Is that the case? Meaning, is ICANN seeking to "apply"
the GDPR as if it were a EU-based entity? Fully and thoroughly? Even in all
its transactions and relations that have absolutely nothing to do with the
EU? (think US-based employees). Maybe I just missed something, but I felt
that the whole GDPR discussion was limited to WHOIS.

A nice weekend to all,

On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 2:18 PM Collin Kurre <collin at article19.org> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> ICANN Org has published the Human Rights Impact Assessment carried out on
> its operations. Find the announcement and link to the report here:
> https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2-2019-05-15-en
>
> I personally find the formatting of the report to be rather confusing. At
> first read, I would have liked to see additional focus on the methodology
> and substance of the assessment itself. An explanation about how impacts
> were measured and prioritized would have been good, along with additional
> details about the "Impact Assessment Frameworks" developed for each of the
> four assessment areas (Human Resources, Event Planning, Procurement, and
> Security Operations).
>
> Please share any additional thoughts or questions you may have and I will
> relay them to ICANN Staff and Löning, the assessment practitioner.
>
> On a related note, for those of you who missed the CCWP-HR call yesterday,
> new guidance has been produced about how to complete our PDP Human Rights
> Impact Assessment tool. [0] It can be found attached to this email as a
> PDF, or in the second tab of the Sub Pros trial HRIA:
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EKpMCef8kiZ2tJE2AU78q9_oeJehGbR7bWpQ5wt7D5I/edit?usp=sharing
>
> As always, feel free to leave comments or make any updates or
> modifications as you see fit. Akriti and I are working on the final report
> of this first trial run, and will be in touch shortly about the next
> assessments. Let us know if you'd like to get involved in this work —
> particularly if you're already engaging in PDPs!
>
> Kind regards,
> Collin
>
> [0] Find a retrospective of past HRIA iterations here:
> https://community.icann.org/display/gnsononcomstake/Meeting+Notes?preview=/53772757/104238303/CCWP-HR%20Feb19%20meeting.pdf
>
> --
> Collin Kurre
> Digital Program Officer
> ARTICLE 19
>
> _______________________________________________
> cc-humanrights mailing list
> cc-humanrights at icann.org
> https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-humanrights
>
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