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<font size="+1"><font face="Century Schoolbook">Niels: As usual, you
bring up an important point. While ICANN activities may affect
many human rights indirectly and directly, in trying to develop
human rights guidance it makes sense to focus on specific human
rights that are directly affected by ICANN activities. Some of
these rights may be economic and social rights. But the
problem is if we are going to demand ICANN take steps to protect
respect and remedy its human rights impact, ICANN must be able
to measure its effects upon human rights (as put forward in the
Guiding Principles). But as of today, the metrics for human
rights accountability are inadequate. We have plenty of metrics
of government respect for human rights (as in political or civil
rights). I call this supply side data on human rights. It is
all based on the perception of experts (which makes me
uncomfortable). In contrast, UNDP and other organizations have
started multidimensional polling of people around the world,
essentially asking them if they think they are "realizing" their
rights. This kind of demand side human rights metric is not
widely available, but there is a good start in the
multidimensional poverty metrics done by UNDP when it asks
people about whether they have access to sanitation or access to
education. so my long winded point is that in delineating that
ICANN do x, y and z, it will be very difficult to measure if
they are actually doing things right or wrong. <br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Susan Ariel Aaronson, Ph.D.
Research Professor of International Affairs, Institute of International Economic Policy
Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.gwu.edu/~elliott/faculty/aaronson.cfm">http://www.gwu.edu/~elliott/faculty/aaronson.cfm</a>
Please visit the Trade and the Internet Project Web site:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.gwu.edu/~iiep/signatureinitiatives/governance/taig/">http://www.gwu.edu/~iiep/signatureinitiatives/governance/taig/</a>
The Trade, Trust, Transparency and Accountability page is: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.gwu.edu/~iiep/signatureinitiatives/governance/Trade_Trust_Transparency_Accountability/">http://www.gwu.edu/~iiep/signatureinitiatives/governance/Trade_Trust_Transparency_Accountability/</a>
For the Repression, Civil conflict, and Leadership Tenure Project:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/spp/research/conflict-repression">http://www.ucl.ac.uk/spp/research/conflict-repression</a>
To see many of my publications go to: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://ssrn.com/author=1145702">http://ssrn.com/author=1145702</a>
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