by Paul Diaz, Vice President of Policy, PIR
Earlier this year, Public Interest Registry (PIR) worked with ARTICLE 19 and the Danish Institute for Human Rights to undertake an assessment to identify any activities that may contribute to adverse impacts on human rights. PIR did very well in each of the assessment sections (Employment, Procurement, Environment and Local Communities, Provision of Service, and Due Diligence). We also identified a few areas for improvement.
I’m pleased to report that PIR has addressed all of the recommendations:
- We have incorporated explicit commitments to international human rights in our existing policies. While the assessment found that our standards and processes already reflected such support, we agreed to take this affirmative step to underscore our human rights commitment.
- Last month we published a new Appeal Process for suspensions under our Anti-Abuse Policy. This solution creates new rights for .ORG registrants to appeal their domain name’s suspension to a neutral third party. This mechanism underscores PIR’s commitment to due process, a principle at the foundation of our anti-abuse efforts.
- PIR also developed a new Vendor Standards of Behavior policy that establishes our expectations of those who provide us goods and services. Publicly available along with our other Policies, these standards make clear that we expect our vendors to live up to our high standards for the way we conduct business, and to conduct themselves responsibly, transparently, and with integrity.
- Finally, we will be more transparent about human rights-related data. PIR already regularly reports DNS abuse take-down metrics including Court Orders. We’re also committed to highlighting in our Annual Report internal procedural adjustments that better reflect accepted human rights standards and/or to address any negative impacts of our practices.
PIR remains dedicated to operating as an exemplary domain name registry. This necessarily includes a commitment to uphold human rights and related foundational principles such as freedom of expression, access to information, and access to effective remedy. We will continue to strive for excellence in these areas and will work with other members of the ICANN community—in particular domain name registries and registrars—to educate all on the importance of respecting human rights and remediating any negative impacts.