Thanks, Kathy. I agree with you, NCUC also has very good reasons to celebrate! Just a typo: we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UNDHR, not the 50th. bs --c.a. Kathy Kleiman wrote: > Hi All, > Yesterday was the 50th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human > Rights, and I wanted to congratulation us. Within ICANN, the NCUC, since > its founding, has been the voice of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, > especially Article 19, and it has been a difficult, but wonderful > responsibility. As you know, Article 19 proclaims the right of freedom > of expression: > > > /Article 19./ > > Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this > right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and > to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any > media and regardless of frontiers. > > > Since our first NCUC resolutions in August 1999 in Santiago, Chile > (1999), the NCUC has urged ICANN to protect freedom of expression and > personal privacy. We have worked so hard to protect the rights of > noncommercial speech, speakers and domain name holders. It has been our > job, and responsibility, to remind the commercial community, and the > rest of ICANN, of the importance of personal, political and religious > speech. They often forget (or never knew) that for its first few > decades, the Internet (under DARPA and NSF) barred commercial speech. > The only Internet speech allowed was noncommercial, educational and > research -- a ban that continued into the early 1990s. > > Many proposed policies -- including the UDRP (as first drafted) -- would > have been tremendously damaging to noncommercial speech. We fought them > and committed the Constituency to protecting highe values, those of the > Declaration of Human Rights. > My great thanks to our officers and GNSO reps for the wonderful job of > NCUC. Under difficult circumstances and almost always as a minority > voice, we fought for international human rights and giving meaning to > Article 19 in the Internet Age. We have made a unique and critically > important contribution to ICANN. We have made the Internet a better > place for our children. > > I think Eleanor Roosevelt, chairman of the UN Declaration of Human > Rights Committee (and my personal heroine) would have been proud. I > wish our current officers, GNSO reps and members the best in the > struggles ahead. Preserving human rights is an awesome task. > > Best, > Kathy Kleiman, Esq. > Co-Founder of ICANN's Noncommercial Users Constituency (back in the old > days of 1999) > > --------------------------------------------- > From the UN website: > > > On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations > adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights > the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following > this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries > to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be > disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in > schools and other educational institutions, without distinction > based on the political status of countries or territories." > > > http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html > >