Page History

Purpose: This public comment proceeding seeks to obtain community input on proposed revisions to the language of the ICANN Expected Standards of Behaviors.

Current Status: The revisions to ICANN Expected Standards of Behaviors have been drafted to improve the Standards and set out an affirmative expectation that harassment of participants in the multistakeholder community will not be accepted.

Next Steps: Upon completion of the public comment period, staff will summarize and forward any community input to the ICANN Board for consideration.

The Expected Standards of Behavior set out how the participants in the ICANN community are expected to behave when participating in ICANN processes. The Standards were developed with community consultation in 2008, and were updated in 2012 after public comment.

In March 2016, at the ICANN55 meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, the issue of community-member conduct towards each other was highlighted as a matter of concern. The ICANN Board was requested to work with the community to address this issue. One area that can be improved is refining the Standards document to more specifically set out what respectful treatment among community members should be, and to make clear that harassment is not appropriate conduct when participating in ICANN's work.

The proposed improvement to the Standards are now provided for the community's input. The revised text is based in generally accepted broad standards for areas of protection against harassment.

During and after the ICANN55 meeting, the issue of certain community-member conduct toward one another has been raised in various sessions and lists.

It was determined by ICANN Board that revisions to the language of the Expected Standards of Behavior is needed that align with generally accepted board standards for areas of protection and recommended that the revised version be posted for public comment.

Additional work, such as retention of an expert to assist in a policy and procedure to guide when potentially improper behavior is reported, is also under way.

Proposed revisions to the Expected Standard of Behavior [PDF, 67 KB]

For more information see https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/expected-standards-2012-05-15-en