[governance] [bestbits] CIS' Statement on Sexual Harassment at ICANN55

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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