Indian-based Centre for Internet
and Society (CIS) has petitioned the world Internet Protocol (IP) coordinating
body, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) over
suspected sexual harassment of its staff at the ICANN 55 public meeting in
Marrakech, Morocco, reports ITRealms.
The petition directed at ICANN board of directors by CIS Executive Director,
Mr. Sunil Abraham, entitled “Statement on Sexual Harassment at ICANN55”
condemned in strong terms the belittlement of ICANN public meeting.
The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS)
located in Banglore, India, he said, strongly condemns the acts of sexual harassment that took
place against one of CIS representatives, Ms. Padmini Baruah, during ICANN 55
in Marrakech.
“It is completely unacceptable that an
event the scale of an meeting does not have in place a formal redressal
system, a neutral point of contact or even a policy for complainants who have
been put through the ordeal of sexual harassment,” he said.
ICANN, Abraham noted, cannot claim to
be inclusive or diverse if it does not formally recognise a specific procedure
or recourse under such instances, especially for sexually harassed participant.
He pointed out that Ms. Baruah, a law student, is by no
means the first young woman to be subject to such treatment at an ICANN event,
but she is the first to raise a formal complaint which deserves element
of commendation.
CIS also lamented that following the
incident, she was given no immediate remedy or formal recourse, and that has
left her with no option but to make the incident publicly known in the interim.
Stressing that the ombudsman’s office
has been in touch with her, but this administrative process is simply
inadequate for rights-violations.
CIS further said that Ms. Baruah has received support from various community, staff, and board members.
However, CIS believes that this
situation could be better dealt with through some positive measures and urged
ICANN to carry out some steps in order to make its meetings a truly safe
and inclusive space.
Some of these steps, CIS canvassed to
include instituting a formal redressal system and policy with regard to sexual
harassment within ICANN, which must be displayed on the ICANN website, at the
venue of meetings and made available in delegate kits.
The Centre equally
requested ICANN to institute an ‘Anti Sexual Harassment Committee’ that is
neutral and approachable, insisting that mere having an ombudsman who is a
white male, no matter well intentioned, is inadequate and completely unhelpful
to the complainant.
“The present
situation is one where the ombudsman has no effective power and only advises
the board,” Abraham said.
In addition, ICANN
the Centre urged to conduct periodic gender and sexual harassment training of
the ICANN board to help them better understand these issues, as well as conduct
periodic gender and sexual harassment training for the ombudsman even if he or she
will not be the exclusive point of contact for complainants as the ombudsman
forms an important part of community and participant engagement.
Lastly, CIS advised
ICANN to conduct periodic gender sensitisation for the ICANN community.
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