[NCUC-DISCUSS] Statement from NCUC executive committee

Wed Mar 30 22:09:12 CEST 2016

Dear Seun,  Harassment can certainly exist without physical contact.  You need to read up on this and next time I see you I shall surely give you an education on this set of issues.  We have been friends for too long for me to talk more in this forum but REALLY!

Dorothy K. Gordon
Director-General
Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT
Mobile: 233 265005712
Direct Line: 233 302 683579
Website: www.aiti-kace.com.gh
Encrypt Everything - https://gpgtools.org https://silentcircle.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Seun Ojedeji" <seun.ojedeji at gmail.com>
To: "Sana Ali" <sana.ali2030 at gmail.com>
Cc: "Ayden" <hostime at gmail.com>, "NCUC-discuss" <ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org>
Sent: Wednesday, 30 March, 2016 8:16:22 PM GMT +00:00 Casablanca / Monrovia
Subject: Re: [NCUC-DISCUSS] Statement from NCUC executive committee

Dear all, 

I will strongly suggest that we thread with caution here. IMO the Ombudsman has provided adequate information,(while staying within its obligations of maintaining confidentiality) that allows us who were not witnesses to have an idea of what happened. 

Now it will be a different story, if what was said by the Ombudsman is confirmed/challenged by either parties on grounds of misrepresentation of information. 

Personally some form of physical contact comes to mind whenever I hear of such an harassment and I don't think there is an indication of that in the write-up. This is however not to downplay the issue experienced by Padmini and definitely not a call against improving on existing policies to better protect every community member irrespective of race and gender as there is always room for improvement. 

Regards 

Sent from my LG G4 
Kindly excuse brevity and typos 
On 30 Mar 2016 19:52, "Sana Ali" < sana.ali2030 at gmail.com > wrote: 

I agree with all of Corinne’s points, and particularly think the first question should be conveyed back to the Ombudsman and a request made that he respond officially. Is the investigation he refers to, whether the incident happened, what it consisted of or who committed it? I also think this mention of multiple ‘suspects’ confuses the issue substantially and warrants further clarification. 

Sana Ali 

sana.ali2030 at gmail.com 
https://ca.linkedin.com/in/sanaali2030 

On Mar 30, 2016, at 1:56 PM, Corinne Cath < corinnecath at gmail.com > wrote: 

Dear all, 

I welcome the statements made by the Ombudsman on the necessity for opening a conversation about developing an anti-harassment policy, but am quite surprised by some of the wording in his blog. 

I feel it leaves several questions unanswered, which I am sharing with you below. 

1. Why is the breach of confidentiality presented as a reason to being unable to further investigate the alleged harassment case? Why does/should such a breach impede the Ombudsman from further investigating? 

2. “The matters alleged cannot be considered serious by any standard. If in fact the action and statement were made, it may have been a lapse of good manners and insensitive to gender. Such issues need to be taken in proportion, and best practice is not to debate this in a public forum where the issues are not yet clear. I note Ms. Baruah does not agree with my view.” 

Why and how was this assessment of the seriousness of the alleged harassment made? What standards has the Ombudsman looked at or taken into consideration when making this judgment? 

3. Why is the issue of jurisdiction mentioned in the blog? How is the issue of jurisdiction addressed in the anti-harassment policy for the board and the ICANN staff? What would have been the outcome of this case if it had been weighed according to the internal anti-harassment policy? 

4. Does the overall language in this blog strike a fair balance between the gravity of the alleged harassment case and the breach of confidentiality? 

5. How has the Ombudsman weighed these two issues (alleged harassment and the breach of confidentiality)? And to what extent should they be separated and addressed individually? 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments on this important matter and I hope that as the NCUC we can be part of the process to develop the necessary policies and procedures. 

Best, 

Corinne 

On Wed, Mar 30, 2016 at 3:52 PM, Ayden Férdeline < hostime at gmail.com > wrote: 

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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