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I offer the following as food for thought:<br>
<br>
Having read the ICANN Community Anti-Harassment Policy draft I would
like to table two concerns for discussion. The ICANN anti-harassment
policy is intended to insure that individuals of all backgrounds and
cultures are made to feel welcome in ICANN and within its activities
irrespective of the specified characteristics of individuals. Well
and good, but I am left with two concerns. <br>
<br>
While noting that harassment may take many forms, nine of the ten
examples related to sexual harassment. The tenth refers specifically
to conduct or commentary that shows hostility, disrespect, or the
demeaning individuals, because of specified characteristics
including but not limited to those listed in the policy document.
The sexual harassment list looks to be an arbitrary selection of
nine from what could be an exhaustive list of conducts and
commentaries.<i> Might it be more appropriate to simply re-affirm
that harassment, sexual or otherwise, will not be tolerated with
the ICANN community?</i> Policy could further state that
allegations of harassment, sexual or otherwise, will be handled
according to the procedures set down in the anti-harassment policy
document, policies to be further refined in light of ICANN
experience. <br>
<br>
My second concern is that this policy draft implicitly assumes that
incidents of harassment are one time incidents. <i>What are the
processes for dealing with ongoing harassment?</i> In 2013 I had
to deal with a persistent stalker, for six months. I and my
university had to resort to an escalating sequence of measures to
finally terminate that episode. There was no point at which an agent
of the university could have simply ruled on, and stopped, the
persistent behavior. <br>
<br>
Sam L.<br>
<br>
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