[CCWG-ACCT] What are the WS2 activities that ensue from a WS1 bylaws commitment to human rights?

Malcolm Hutty malcolm at linx.net
Fri Jul 31 09:05:35 UTC 2015


On 31/07/2015 09:11, Avri Doria wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> In order to outline some of the work that would need to be done in WS2,
> given a WS1 bylaws commitment to human rights, e.g.  Drazek as ammended
> by Lisse
> 
> /Within its mission and in its operations, ICANN will be committed to respect the fundamental human rights, inter alia, the exercise of free expression and the free flow of information./
> 
> I have extracted the following text from
> 
> * Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
>    <http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf>
> <http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf>*
>

That doesn't look like a multistakeholder document to me. It seems to
have set out responsibilities for businesses without involving
businesses in its formulation. So, valuable input as a reference point,
but is it something we would simply accept as an unimpeachable statement
applicable to this community?

> 13. The responsibility to respect human rights requires that business
> enterprises:
[...]

>     (b) Seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that
>     are directly linked to their operations, products or services by
>     their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to
>     those impacts.

As this applies to ICANN, do you think this creates a duty to use its
business relationships with Registries and Registrars seek to prevent
human rights abuses by domain registrants?

I think it could be argued that that is what the quoted text means, and
I would disagree strongly with accepting it without qualification for
that reason.

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            Malcolm Hutty | tel: +44 20 7645 3523
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