[council] RE: Letter regarding Harassment / Conduct at ICANN Meetings

[Phil Corwin <psc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for sharing this, James.

These are strictly personal comments, as I have not yet had an opportunity to 
share these materials with BC members or receive their feedback. I will share 
your message and this response with them.

I am generally OK with the letter, but would propose one additional bullet 
point, as follows:

*         What procedural due process protections will be established for 
parties to the dispute, and what standard of proof shall be required for an 
adverse finding.

In regard to the Key Points document, I appreciate that the subjective term 
"offensive" was struck after my prior comments, and replaced with the somewhat 
better "unwanted/inappropriate" characterization. However, especially as 
pertains to speech of a non-sexual character,, I believe we need a standard 
that requires some intent on the part of the alleged harasser to demean, 
denigrate, harass, etc.

In regard to physical conduct, I would suggest that the policy needs to be 
further developed to make clear that conduct of a criminal nature (assault, 
indecent exposure, rape) is outside the scope of any harassment policy and is 
to be reported by ICANN to the proper authorities.

In regard to the sentence "You should report any actions that you believe may 
violate this policy no matter how slight the actions might seem" I would 
suggest deleting everything after the word "policy", leaving more discretion to 
a target or witness to decide when to invoke whatever procedures may be created 
to deal with harassment.

Finally, I would suggest that the term "ICANN Conference" needs to be clearly 
defined to make clear its breadth. That is, does it only cover incidents that 
occur  at the official meeting site or are other locations and activities 
covered; such as meeting sponsor social events, official meeting hotels, etc.?

I hope that these comments are useful in formulating a policy that effectively 
deals with harassment incidents while providing adequate specificity and due 
process.

Best, Philip




Philip S. Corwin, Founding Principal
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From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of James M. Bladel
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2016 4:19 PM
To: GNSO Council List
Subject: [council] Letter regarding Harassment / Conduct at ICANN Meetings

Council Colleagues -

As discussed during yesterday's call, we intend to send a high-level letter to 
ICANN (Akram) on behalf of the GNSO Council, thanking him for his blog post and 
drawing his attention to statement from the NCUC and the draft policy created 
by Jennifer and others.  (On this latter point, I've edited the Key Points 
document to reflect the most recent comments on the thread).

If you have any comments or edits to the letter or "Key Points" document, 
please post these to the list by EOD Monday, 18 APR.  Edits could include 
changes/additions to the language, as well as inclusion of other materials or 
links to statements from other groups.

The target is to post this letter by Tuesday, 19 APR.

Thanks-

J.

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