ICANN Should Strenghten Mechanisms for Ensuring Freedom of Expression in TLD Decisions
The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers adopted a declaration Wednesday urging its 47 member nations to ask ICANN to strengthen its mechanisms for respecting freedom of expression and privacy in top-level domain (TLD) decisions. The council said it adopted…
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the resolution in response to concerns that ICANN decisions on the use of particular words or characters in TLDs, such as .xxx or .sucks, affect the right to freedom of expression. The Council of Europe’s member states should encourage ICANN to create “an explicit policy statement” committing to respect internationally recognized human rights standards and to use “due diligence mechanisms and human rights impact assessments to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for any harm ICANN may cause,” the Committee of Ministers said in the declaration. The council also urged in the resolution its member nations to work with ICANN to “ensure that a more attentive approach towards human rights and corporate responsibility contributes to the development of more transparent and accountable policy-development processes, with measurable standards and in full respect of the public interest.” The Committee of Ministers separately adopted a declaration reaffirming the Council of Europe’s support for multistakeholder Internet governance and asking the U.N. General Assembly to extend the Internet Governance Forum’s mandate through 2025.