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In rare public session, ICANN approves sexual harassment policy

Kevin Murphy, March 11, 2017, Domain Policy

ICANN’s board of directors this afternoon approved an anti-harassment policy designed to protect community members from unwanted sexual attention.
It’s the policy inspired by the now infamous Cheesesandwichgate incident at the Marrakech meeting a year ago.
But general counsel John Jeffrey noted that there have been multiple similar complaints to the Ombudsman over the last year or so, possibly as a result of increased awareness that such complaints are possible.
While the text of the resolution has not yet been published, I believe it’s approving a lightly modified version of the policy draft outlined here.
That draft sought to ban activities such as “sexually suggestive touching” and “lewd jokes” at ICANN meetings. A laundry list of characteristics (such as race, gender, disability) were also given special protection.
What’s possibly more interesting than the new policy itself is the manner in which the policy was approved.
It was the first time in goodness knows how many years — definitely over 10, and I’m tempted to say over 15, but nobody seems to know for sure — that the ICANN board has deliberated on a resolution in public.
By “in public” I mean the 30-minute session was live-streamed via Adobe Connect from an undisclosed location somewhere at ICANN 58, here in Copenhagen. An in-person live audience was not possible for logistical reasons, I’m told.
Apart from the first few years of ICANN’s existence, its public board meetings have usually been rubber-stamping sessions at the end of the week-long meeting, based on discussions that had gone on behind closed doors days earlier.
So today’s session was a significant attempt to increase transparency that is likely to be welcomed by many.
Unfortunately, its existence could have been communicated better.
For the first 15 minutes, there were no more than 19 people in the Adobe room, and I believe I may have been the only one who was not ICANN staff or board.
After I tweeted about it, another 10 or so people showed up to listen.


Given that increased board transparency is something many sections of the community have been clamoring for for years, one might have expected a bigger turnout.
While the meeting had been prominently announced, it was not listed on the official ICANN 58 schedule, so had failed to make it onto the to-do lists of any of the iCal slaves pottering around the venue.
The session itself came across to me as a genuine discussion — not stage-managed or rehearsed as some had feared.
Directors raised issues such as the possible increased workload on the Ombudsman, the fact that the current Ombudsman (or Ombudsperson, as some directors referred to him) is male, and the availability of female staff members to receive “sensitive” complaints.
Today’s open session is part of a “pilot” and is due to be followed up on Sunday with another, which will discuss ICANN’s fiscal 2018 operating plan and budget.
Again, turning up to watch in person will not be possible, but the 90-minute session will be streamed live at 0745 UTC here.
The first in the pilot program, which even I missed, was in Brussels in September.