[NCUC-DISCUSS] Statement from NCUC executive committee

[Ayden Férdeline]

Hello, all-
Shared without comment: Chris LaHatte, the Ombudsman, has published a post on
his blog in relation to the alleged incident.
https://omblog.icann.org/index.html?m=201603.html
Kind regards,
Ayden
On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 6:36 AM, Padmini pdmnbaruah at gmail.com wrote:
Dear Stephanie You are very spot on when you say more work needs to be done. I do believe
there is an absolute vacuum on procedures for sexual harassment that are
impartial, diverse and reflective of fairness. Therefore, on issues like say
privacy, confidentiality, definition alone, there are significant lacunae. That
is what I meant.

Padmini Baruah V Year, B.A.LL.B. (Hons.) NLSIU, Bangalore
On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 11:03 AM, Stephanie Perrin < stephanie.perrin at mail.utoronto.ca > wrote:
ICANN's expected standards of behaviour are not fulsome, I agree, but they do
cover inappropriate conduct. https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/expected-standards-2012-05-15-en
In particular, the following (bullet 3) section covers how we treat one another
at ICANN (including at meetings):

Treat all members of the ICANN community equally, irrespective of nationality, gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or
beliefs, disability, age, or sexual orientation; members of the ICANN community should treat each other with civility both face to face and online. [emphasis added]
Not a great deal of detail, but "equally", particularly when accompanied by the
following recital, goes a long way to addressing gender bias and inappropriate
behaviour, as does the expression "with civility". The redress mechanism is the
Ombudsman. The 2005 RMAF https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/rmaf-08feb05-en.pdf (Results-based Management Accountability Framework) details how the model is
expected to work. You might not think it is adequate, fair enough, but it is not
accurate to say there is nothing, in my view. We need more, that's all.
I am not criticising here, just trying to provide background documents. As the
statement says, more work on policies and procedures needs to be done, and we in
NCUC will help with that work.

Cheers Stephanie
On 2016-03-24 1:05, Padmini wrote:
Thank you for this clear statement, and the support for many of the issues I
raised. I would just like to put on record that the phrases “ substantive due process ” and “ evidentiary burden being met ” have been echoed by me vocally and repeatedly throughout the entire process,
both to the ombudsman and to many of you. I am a student of the law, and have
these principles, including natural justice well drilled into my head. If there
wasn't a failure of process, and such a short time span to engage with the issue
at the site of the cause of action arising itself [given that the conference was
in Marrakech for 5 days], I might not have taken these steps that I felt
constrained to later. Just pointing out, there is no trial, no court, and my statement is my own,
which I can back up with evidence. I do not understand why issues of unfairness
of procedure are being raised when there is no procedure in the first place . I would really appreciate it, generally, if that were acknowledged.
Thanks everyone.
Padmini Baruah V Year, B.A.LL.B. (Hons.) NLSIU, Bangalore
On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 10:26 AM, Stephanie Perrin < stephanie.perrin at mail.utoronto.ca > wrote:
Thank you very much for publishing this statement. I think it is very helpful,
and indeed crystallizes some of the issues.
Stephanie Perrin

On 2016-03-23 22:44, Rafik Dammak wrote:
STATEMENT OF THE NONCOMMERCIAL USERS CONSTITUENCY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (NCUC-EC)
ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Accusations of sexual harassment at ICANN 55 raise two issues, which must be
kept distinct. One is whether this particular incident constituted sexual
harassment and if so, what would be an appropriate response. The other is
whether ICANN needs to be better prepared to handle situations like this with
well-defined policies and procedures. We believe that these two issues are being
confused.

With regard to the alleged incident, there is very little objective evidence,
and the community is grappling with this issue in the absence of a clear,
commonly accepted definition of sexual harassment.* We hope that this question
is resolved fairly and proportionately through further investigation and
verification rather than through allegations in public forums and email lists.

With regard to the second issue, we strongly agree that action needs to be taken
and look forward to assisting the staff and the board with the development of
appropriate policies and procedures. Since NCUC is a rights-focused stakeholder
group, the Executive Committee takes a principled stance toward the issue and
requests that any sexual harassment policy must:

a) be developed in an atmosphere of impartial, open discussion in which all
viewpoints can be heard and respected;
b) be based on clear, unambiguous definitions of sexual harassment that can be
readily understood and applied by all ICANN participants;
c) respect the privacy, procedural and substantive rights of both the accuser
and the accused



* A typical definition of SH from U.S. law is: “Unwelcome sexual advances,
requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual
nature constitute sexual harassment when submission to such conduct is made
either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's
employment, submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used
as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individuals, or such
conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an
individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive
working environment. (29 C.F.R. § 1604.11 [1980])


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Ayden Férdeline +44.77.8018.7421
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