Historical Resolution Tracking Feature » Establishment of Board Working Group on Anti-Harassment

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Establishment of Board Working Group on Anti-Harassment


Resolution of the ICANN Board
Meeting Date: 
Wed, 16 Jan 2019
Resolution Number: 
2019.01.16.01
Resolution Text: 

Whereas, the ICANN Board takes the issue of harassment very seriously and is committed to taking all appropriate and reasonable steps to help create a harassment-free environment for the ICANN Community.

Whereas, as part of the Board's commitment, the Board has determined to establish a Board Working Group on Anti-Harassment.

Resolved (2019.01.16.01), the Board hereby establishes a Board Working Group on Anti-Harassment with the following members: Becky Burr, Sarah Deutsch (Chair), Chris Disspain, Avri Doria, Lito Ibarra, Manal Ismail, Merike Kaeo and Tripti Sinha.

Rationale for Resolution: 

The ICANN Board takes the issue of harassment very seriously and is committed to taking all appropriate and reasonable steps to help create a harassment free environment for the ICANN Community. As part of the commitment, in March 2017, following community discussion, the Board adopted the Community Anti-Harassment Policy (https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/community-anti-harassment-po...). Following the adoption of this Policy, there have been some ongoing discussions among community members and various members of the Board regarding the issue of harassment. As part of those discussions, the Board has determined to create a Board Working Group on Anti-Harassment to focus on this issue.

Accordingly, the Board has established the Board Working Group on Anti-Harassment with the following Board members (including voting directors and non-voting liaisons): Becky Burr, Sarah Deutsch (Chair), Chris Disspain, Avri Doria, Lito Ibarra, Manal Ismail, Merike Kaeo and Tripti Sinha.

Creating this working group also is intended to help support the Core Value of "[s]eeking and supporting broad, informed participation reflecting the functional, geographic, and cultural diversity of the Internet at all levels of policy development and decision-making to ensure that the bottom-up, multistakeholder policy development process is used to ascertain the global public interest and that those processes are accountable and transparent." (Bylaws, Art. 1, § 1.2.(b)(ii).)

This decision is clearly in the public interest and the interests of the ICANN Community as taking all appropriate steps to help create a harassment free environment is important for those who participate in the ICANN multistakeholder model. To that end, this decision also falls squarely in support of ICANN's mission, as 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.

This decision will not have a fiscal impact on ICANN and will not have an impact on the security, stability or resiliency of the domain name system.

This action is an Organizational Administrative Function that does not require public comment.