Cross Community Working Party
ICANNs Corporate and Social Responsibility to Respect Human Rights
This cross community working party (CCWP) seeks to map and understand the
issues and potential solutions related to corporate and social responsibilities of
the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and this related, but not limited to
policies, procedures and operations, it particularly focuses on ICANNs
responsibility to respect human rights. It builds on a long term community
engagement on this topic, further catalyzed with the publication of the paper
'ICANN's procedures and policies in the light of human rights, fundamental
freedoms and democratic values', as commissioned by the Council of Europe, and
after sessions held in London, Los Angeles and Singapore. It seeks to improve
ICANN's measures to respect human rights in accordance with article 4 of ICANN's
articles of incorporation and and have established a programme for corporate
The CCWP on ICANNs Corporate and Social Responsibility to Respect Human
Rights would have the purpose to raise awareness, provide information, facilitate
dialogue and make suggestions to ICANN the corporation and the ICANN
community on ways to better harmonize ICANN’s policies and procedures with
internationally recognized human rights and corporate social responsibility
standards, such as UN Guiding Principles on Business and HUman Rights, the UN
Global Compact, and the European Commission and International Human Rights
and Business guidelines on implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on
Business and Human Rights for the ICT Sector. This specifically in the context of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The working party will focus on issues related
to human rights that are directly impacted by ICANN policy decisions, procedures
Responsibilities and scope of work
(i) To continue the process of raising awareness about the interplay between
ICANN’s policies, procedures and operations and corporate and social
responsibility issues, specifically with respect for human rights;
(ii) To map and collect information from the community about cases as well as
current ICANN policies, procedures and operations that present an impact on the
rights in which further guidance on how to harmonize policies and procedures with
increased respect of human rights would be necessary;
(iii) To develop corporate and social responsibility guidelines for the procedures
that are in place or that should be created in the policy development process to
ensure specifically, but not limited to, the respect for human rights;
(iv) To provide information, suggestions and recommendations to the chartering
organizations and to the broader ICANN community on how ICANN’s policies and
developed and implemented consistent with internationally recognized standards.
This input can inform the policy development processes as defined in the ICANN
(v) To propose procedures and mechanisms with the aim of producing
assessments on if and how policies and procedures under development and/or
being implemented may impact on human rights.
(vi) Draft Position Papers and Statements as deemed appropriate
(vii) To carry out further discussions about the pertinence and timing for the
creation of a cross-community working group on this issue.
The membership of the CCWP on ICANNs Corporate and Social Responsibility to
Respect Human Rights is proposed to include members representing the diversity
of the ICANN community. The Working Party will serve as a focal point for the CSR
discussion, knowledge dissemination and communication about the impact of
ICANN's policies and procedures on corporate and social responsibility, specifically
related to Human Rights. Its activities will be conducted in an open and fully
transparent manner.
