[bestbits] [governance] CIS' Statement on Sexual Harassment at ICANN55
Lorena Jaume-Palasi
lorena at collaboratory.de
Tue Mar 22 15:17:19 EDT 2016
Dear all,
I think RIPE NCC drafted last year an anti-harassment policy. They
certainly could contribute with best practices.
Cheers
Lorena
2016-03-22 18:43 GMT+01:00 Jac sm Kee <jac at apcwomen.org>:
> Dear all,
>
> Copying the Gender DC mailing list and also the 2 coordinators into this
> conversation. Like in Ms Padmini's statement, when this was raised at
> the last IGF during the Gender DC workshop, other participants shared
> their experience of sexual harassment. So discussing and tackling this
> issue seriously at esp a space on IG process and policy conversations is
> critical. Contributes significantly to creating an inclusive,
> respectful, non-discriminatory and diverse participatory environment.
>
> I think the DC is in the process of drafting a proposed policy to be
> taken up at the upcoming IGF. Would be great to see initiatives build
> and inform each other, and to also share best practices. There has been
> many initiatives and models in different contexts that can be drawn from
> - events, organisational, country specific, space/platform etc. Fully
> support the idea of a WG in ICANN.
>
> Best regards,
> jac
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Jac sm Kee
> Manager, Women's Rights Programme
> Association for Progressive Communications
> www.apc.org | www.takebackthetech.net | erotics.apc.org
> Jitsi: jacsmk | Skype: jacsmk | Twitter: @jhybe
>
> On 22/03/2016 00:15, Nadira Alaraj wrote:
> > Dear all
> > I commend Ms. Padmini Baruah courage for bringing this issue to ICANN
> > and to the civil society public forums.
> > The discussion here raises a questions and I would like to direct this
> > to those senior with ICANN.
> > How we can create a working group to discuss this issue under ICANN
> > umbrella? It is important the recommendations of this group to be
> > instituted into ICANN.
> > Which body of ICANN will grant the official existence of this group and
> > what constituency it will work?
> > Hoping these answers will bring the existence of this working group and
> > follow the pattern of button up approach in decision making of ICANN and
> > to follow with the recommendations of Padmini to make them happen.
> > Best wishes,
> > Nadira Alaraj
> >
> > On Mar 21, 2016 6:32 PM, <nigidaad at gmail.com
> > <mailto:nigidaad at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >
> >
> > First of all, I would like to say I think that Ms Baruah is an
> > incredibly brave woman for not only making her story public, but
> > also for not giving up despite being discouraged to report the
> > incident and CIS for issuing a statement on rather ignored issue
> > within our own circles. I personally know many women who don’t
> > report harassment because there is a lack of support and significant
> > discouragement. Unfortunately, this leads to silencing and harassers
> > are thus granted impunity.
> >
> > Ms Baruah’s statement betrays another reality that women in this
> > field have to live with if they wish to continue working: her
> > harasser was granted access to her space where he was allowed to
> > make her uncomfortable by staring. I have lost count of the number
> > of women who have spoken about this. Unless a strong accountability
> > mechanism is enforced, the rate of reporting harassment will remain
> > low. Women will not come forward unless they are guaranteed that
> > they will not have to face their harasser until they are ready to.
> > Furthermore, having to face a harasser is triggering and emotional
> > exhaustion leads to giving up.
> >
> > This incident should lead to reflection regarding harassment in our
> > own tech community and development in general.
> >
> > Strong policies should not only be enforced, but should be
> > culturally sensitive. For example, if women from a very patriarchal
> > country report harassment to someone, they should not be asked to
> > first officially report it legally. Some are unable to do so and
> > will hesitate to do so due to lack of support.
> >
> > More than anything else, as a community, we need to reflect on how
> > we got here and why. Perhaps some accountability on our own roles is
> > necessary because men would not able to harass women so easily
> > unless they knew they had impunity on some level. While it is
> > heartening to see conversations taking place, I don’t believe we can
> > have meaningful change unless we all collectively discuss how we got
> > here in the first place. Why does the tech development industry have
> > such a bad reputation when it comes to harassment? Surely it isn’t
> > the result of a conspiracy against us.
> >
> > Jac it would be great if we make this discussion happen at Gender
> > Dynamic Coalition in next IGF and discuss how to address the issue
> > of sexual harassment not only restricted to spaces like ICANN and
> > IGF but within our own community.
> >
> > My two cents..
> >
> > Best,
> > Nighat Dad
> > Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan.
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone
> >
> > On 21-Mar-2016, at 8:00 pm, Sunil Abraham <sunil at cis-india.org
> > <mailto:sunil at cis-india.org>> wrote:
> >
> >> The Centre for Internet and Society
> >>
> >> Statement on Sexual Harassment at ICANN55
> >>
> >>
> >> The Centre for Internet and Society (“CIS”) strongly condemns the
> >> acts of sexual harassment that took place against one of our
> >> representatives, Ms. Padmini Baruah, during ICANN 55 in Marrakech.
> >> It is completely unacceptable that an event the scale of an ICANN
> >> meeting does not have in place a formal redressal system, a
> >> neutral point of contact or even a policy for complainants who
> >> have been put through the ordeal of sexual harassment. ICANN
> >> cannot claim to be inclusive or diverse if it does not formally
> >> recognise a specific procedure or recourse under such instances.
> >>
> >>
> >> Ms. Baruah is by no means the first young woman to be subject to
> >> such treatment at an ICANN event, but she isthe first to raise a
> >> formalcomplaint. Following the incident, she was given no
> >> immediate remedy or formal recourse, and that has left her with no
> >> option but to make the incident publicly known in the interim. The
> >> ombudsman’s office has been in touch with her, but this
> >> administrative process is simply inadequate for rights-violations.
> >>
> >>
> >> Ms. Baruah has received support from various community, staff, and
> >> board members. While we are thankful for their support, we believe
> >> that this situation can be better dealt with through some positive
> >> measures. We ask that ICANN carry out the following steps in order
> >> to make its meetings a truly safe and inclusive space:
> >>
> >>
> >> 1.
> >>
> >> Institute a formal redressal system and policy with regard to
> >> sexual harassment within ICANN. The policy must be displayed
> >> on the ICANN website, at the venue of meetings and made
> >> available in delegate kits.
> >>
> >> 2.
> >>
> >> Institute an Anti Sexual Harassment Committee that is neutral
> >> and approachable. Merely having an ombudsman who is a white
> >> male, however well intentioned, is inadequate and completely
> >> unhelpful to the complainant. The present situation is one
> >> where the ombudsman has no effective power and only advises
> >> the board.
> >>
> >> 3.
> >>
> >> Conduct periodic gender and sexual harassment training of the
> >> ICANN board to help them better understand these issues.
> >>
> >> 4.
> >>
> >> Conduct periodic gender and sexual harassment training for the
> >> ombudsman even if he/she will not be the exclusive point of
> >> contact for complainants as the ombudsman forms an important
> >> part of community and participant engagement.
> >>
> >> 5.
> >>
> >> Conduct periodic gender sensitisation for the ICANN community.
> >>
> >>
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--
Lorena Jaume-Palasí ∙ Coordinator, Global Internet Governance Arbeitsgruppe
Internet & Gesellschaft Co:llaboratory e.V.
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