Thank you Jeff
Your comments are well received and valid.  It behooves me to think that the meeting selection process ignores the prevailing attitudes in a particular location that makes people unsafe and uncomfortable 
Note ICANN Standard of Conduct.   I suppose the meeting site organizers are defacto exempt from these requirements

Those who take part in ICANN multi-stakeholder process, including Board, staff and all those involved in Supporting Organization and Advisory Committee councils, undertake to:

  • Act in accordance with ICANN's Bylaws. In particular, participants undertake to act within the mission of ICANN and in the spirit of the values contained in the Bylaws.
  • Adhere to ICANN's conflict of interest policies.
  • Treat all members of the ICANN community equally, irrespective of nationality, gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or beliefs, disability, age, or sexual orientation; members of the ICANN community should treat each other with civility both face-to-face and online.
  • Respect all members of the ICANN community equally, behave in a professional manner and demonstrate appropriate behavior. ICANN strives to create and maintain an environment in which people of many different backgrounds and cultures are treated with dignity, decency, and respect. Specifically, participants in the ICANN process must not engage in any type of harassment. Generally, harassment is considered unwelcome hostile or intimidating behavior -- in particular, speech or behavior that is sexually aggressive or that intimidates based on attributes such as race, gender, ethnicity, religion, age, color, national origin, ancestry, disability or medical condition, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
  • Act in a reasonable, objective and informed manner when participating in policy development and decision-making processes. This includes regularly attending all scheduled meetings and exercising independent judgment based solely on what is in the overall best interest of Internet users and the stability and security of the Internet's system of unique identifiers, irrespective of personal interests and the interests of the entity to which an individual might owe their appointment.
  • Listen to the views of all stakeholders when considering policy issues. ICANN is a unique multi-stakeholder environment. Those who take part in the ICANN process must acknowledge the importance of all stakeholders and seek to understand their points of view.
  • Work to build consensus with other stakeholders in order to find solutions to the issues that fall within the areas of ICANN's responsibility. The ICANN model is based on a bottom-up, consensus driven approach to policy development. Those who take part in the ICANN process must take responsibility for ensuring the success of the model by trying to build consensus with other participants.
  • Facilitate transparency and openness when participating in policy development and decision-making processes.
  • Support the maintenance of robust mechanisms for public input, accountability, and transparency so as to ensure that policy development and decision-making processes will reflect the public interest and be accountable to all stakeholders.
  • Conduct themselves in accordance with ICANN policies.
  • Protect the organization's assets and ensure their efficient and effective use.
  • Act fairly and in good faith with other participants in the ICANN process.
  • Promote ethical and responsible behavior. Ethics and integrity are essential, and ICANN expects all stakeholders to behave in a responsible and principled way.

Glenn McKnight, MA 
Virtual School of Internet Governance 
Chief Information Officer
www.virtualsig.org 
YOUR SOURCE FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE EDUCATION 
Mobile  437-237-4655



On Wed, 15 Jan 2025 at 09:55, Jeff Neuman <jeff@jjnsolutions.com> wrote:
Although not the same, but related, I filed a complaint against a particular vendor of ICANN at the end of 2023 for its clear antisemitic statements asking ICANN to terminate its relationship with that vendor. (NOTE:  ICANN mistakenly elevated that issue to deal with that vendor's participation in ICANN - which was not part of my complaint and that resulted in an escalation of the issue which is still not resolved today - they are still a vendor)

As part of my discussions with ICANN,  I expressed my disappointment in the selection of Oman as a meeting location because of their failure to recognize Israel as a sovereign nation and that both the vendor issue and the location was not sending a message to the Jewish participants of ICANN that they are welcome nor are they protected by ICANN's anti-harassment policy.  After all, if an ICANN vendor can openly state that he wished "Hitler should have finished the job" and killed all the Jews and it chooses to meet at a location which refuses to acknowledge the existence of Jewish people, then what is the use of having a code of conduct and anti-harassment policy.  As you can imagine, I am not happy with this outcome

Long story short, on the selection of Oman, ICANN's view is that they cannot take politics into consideration when selecting a venue.  Their only considerations are logistics and safety.  If the location is safe, and they can handle the ICANN meeting requirements, that is all that is considered.  Their political, religious or social views and policies are not taken into consideration.  According to ICANN's security assessment, which is fairly exhaustive, Oman is safe and can handle us.  

I am not making any value judgements on any of this as I clearly have my own opinions....just sharing with you my discussions with ICANN.

Happy to discuss further my experience.

Sincerely,

Jeff



From: avri--- via NA-Discuss <na-discuss@icann.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2025 6:19 PM
To: Glenn McKnight <mcknight.glenn@gmail.com>
Cc: NA Discuss <na-discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org>
Subject: [NA-Discuss] Re: ICANN Meeting in October 2025
 

hi,

I keep mentioning it as a problem, but no one really cares. 

It is one of those issues that ICANN does not worry about.

Decided i had become a broken record speaking of an irrelevant issue.

avri


On 2025-01-14 14:13, Glenn McKnight via NA-Discuss wrote:

Hi 
. It's interesting that ICANN was actively involved in participating at the recent  IGF 2024 in Saudi Arabia and I noticed that  ICANN's  Annual 2025 meeting will be held in Oman. 
Is this a current policy trend by ICANN.?
Anyone monitoring the human rights issues in these countries 
 
See reports
 
 
Anyone interested in this issue?

Glenn McKnight, MA 
Virtual School of Internet Governance 
Chief Information Officer
YOUR SOURCE FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE EDUCATION 
Mobile  437-237-4655
 

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