Approaching Public Interest and Human Rights within ICANN
From my experience elsewhere with regard to how NCSG might
approach the issues of Public Interest (PI) and Human Rights (HR)
with regard
to ICANN, there are two levels of discourse. One is a global level
discourse,
involving Not-for-Profit and Civil Society sectors, and revolves
around the
core meanings of PI and HR. Those discussions have better structure
with
reference to HR since we have the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR)
as a reference point and navigational beacon. One way of looking at
UDHR is that
it helps answer the question "What constitutes a just society?". For
PI the discourse
is more ragged and
contentious since
self-interests come into play. There is no single PI reference
point, but the
same question "What constitutes a just society?" can be a
navigational beacon.
Our NCSG discourse about PI and HR in the context of ICANN
and ICANN policy is a second level discourse that is nested within
the global
discourse. Rather than trying from the ground up to build a HR and
PI strategy
for ICANN, the ICANN discussion should start by asking itself three
questions.
First, using the UDHR as a preference point, where are the ICANN
policy areas
that impact on building, sustaining and protecting a just society?
Second, on both the HR and PI fronts, what
is ICANN’s track record (key performance indicators?) with regard to
building,
sustaining and protecting a just society? Third, what are the lessons
learned here with
regard to corrective and future ICANN policy?
For those who would argue that this just shifts the the discussion
away from what we mean by PI and HR, to what is "a just society",
it is important to remember that while that is a subject of an
ongoing discourse at the global level, there is enough guidance
from that global discussion to give substance to addressing these
three questions at the practical level as one element of assessing
ICANN performance and policy.