Dear Susan and Council Members, During our bilateral meeting with the GAC in Dublin, we submitted a question regarding the GAC’s approach to Human Rights and their incorporation of Human Right Impact Assessments to their processes. Please find below and attached the answer prepared by their Human Rights and International Law Working Group. I remain available to continue facilitating the conversation on this topic. Kindly, Sebastien Ducos GoDaddy Registry | Senior Client Services Manager [cid:image001.png@01D81E10.09821660] +49 172 690 8418 Germany sebastien@registry.godaddy<mailto:sebastien@registry.godaddy> From: Tahir, Rida (ISED/ISDE) Date: Friday, 21 November 2025 at 7:32 pm To: Sebastien Ducos <Sebastien@registry.godaddy> Cc: Manal Ismail Subject: RE: Human Rights Impact Assessment response Hi Sebastien, Hope you are doing well. Thank you for your inquiry for the Human Rights Impact Assessment. We have received the below response from topic leads on this issue. We welcome your thoughts on the next steps and are happy to further discuss. Kindly, Rida *********************************************** We would like to share an update on our work for your review (the update was presented during the GAC session with the NCSG in Dublin with attached HRILWG Options Paper for Human Rights Core Values too) As background, the GAC Human Rights and International Law Working Group explored four possible implementation options through an online questionnaire circulated to GAC Members and Observers in February 2019, followed by a discussion at ICANN64 in Kobe. 1. Option 1: Establishing a standing item or question to be considered during the Communiqué drafting process, such as "Does the subject-matter Communiqué have Human Rights impact and/or relevance? 2. Option 2: Implementing a similar standing item or question for other GAC communications where a position is conveyed. 3. Option 3: Creating the position of a GAC Human Rights Rapporteur, responsible for flagging issues and leading in Options 1 and 2. 4. Option 4: Providing for the participation of the GAC in Human Rights Impact Assessments or similar procedural steps established for Policy Development Processes, as outlined in the work from the Cross-Community Working Party on ICANN's Corporate and Social Responsibility to Respect Human Rights. The survey results provided valuable insights into members’ awareness, priorities, and challenges in integrating human rights within ICANN’s policy processes. Building on these findings, the most supported is the Option 4 by participating in Policy Development Processes (PDPs), as it offers the most practical and sustainable way to ensure that human rights are meaningfully considered where they matter most — within the policy development process itself. This option allows human rights to be addressed early and systematically, rather than as a separate or parallel process. Through this approach, we aim to ensure that human rights are not treated as an afterthought, but as a core element of evidence-based and inclusive policy development across ICANN. We are at your disposal for additional information and clarification. We would like to ask for your opinion in order to define our next steps. Best regards Giacomo and Suada
