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ICANN creates female-heavy anti-harassment team

Kevin Murphy, January 21, 2019, 13:50:10 (UTC), Domain Policy

ICANN’s board of directors has created a new team to look at issues of harassment in the community.
The new Board Working Group on Anti-Harassment has eight members, six of whom are women.
In fact, all six female members of the board, including non-voting liaisons, have been appointed to the group.
The members are Becky Burr, Chris Disspain, Avri Doria, Lito Ibarra, Manal Ismail, Merike Kaeo and Tripti Sinha. It will be chaired by Sarah Deutsch.
The board said “a focused group of Board members can be part of a group that is trying to help create an environment where the ICANN community is free to focus on the mission and not on behaviors that should not be a part of the working environment.”
Harassment, particularly sexual harassment, has been a simmering topic in the community for a few years, ever since the infamous Cheesesandwichgate affair.
In response, ICANN created its first anti-harassment policy, to complement its longstanding Expected Rules of Behavior.
At ICANN 63 in Barcelona last October, I noticed several unavoidably prominent warnings — billboards the height of a man person — warning attendees against harassing their fellow participants, citing the policy.
In late 2017, an unscientific survey of ICANN community members found that one in three women had experienced or witnessed sexism while participating.
But ICANN’s Ombudsman told DI at the time that no complaints had been filed under the harassment policy in the first eight months it was in effect, even as the #MeToo movement took off.
Critics say that women are reluctant to report incidents to the Ombudsman because he is a man. I expect this is something the new board working group will look at.
In March last year, a group of female community members wrote to ICANN with a set of stories about how they had been harassed at ICANN meetings.
While stopping short of any serious criminal allegations, the stories depicted a working environment that can sometimes be very hostile to women, particularly when alcohol is involved.


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