A few quick comments on the thread above.
It is important that we be precise with our verbs. The Ruggie Principles use three verbs, each with different meanings and with application to different actors: "respect," "protect" and "enforce." I'm not suggesting we should adopt the Ruggie Principles' meanings for all of these words, but they could be useful as a starting point. As a matter of fact, I don't think we can or should adopt the Ruggie Principles' definition of "respect" in the ICANN context. But we should be careful about how we use these words, and how we use other verbs.
As was already noted, "uphold" is a whole new verb, with no standard meaning in the human rights context that I'm aware of. "Enforce" was also used in this thread, but in a very different context than in the Ruggie Principles, where "enforcement" applies only to the activities of states. We need to determine what we mean by each verb we use, and especially by "respect" since it appears in the Bylaw.
I believe that Niels quoted from the Ruggie Principles definition of respect earlier in this thread when he referred to the draft FoI document. I believe Paul Twomey in particular has pointed out the significant issues that could arise if ICANN were to adopt part (b) of this definition:
(b) Seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that aredirectly linked to their operations, products or services by theirbusiness relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.
As I understand this, it requires a party to exert pressure, through business relationships, on third parties. I don't think it's at all settled that ICANN's relationships with applicants, registries and registrars are "business relationships," even where these parties have contracts with ICANN. But if some or all of these are "business relationships," this could easily be read to require ICANN to impose restrictions on registries and registrars, and on applicants, that would be extremely broad-ranging and may we be antithetical to ICANN's mission.
I generally agree with John Curran regarding application concerns in the implementation phase. Once the ICANN policy process has resulted in recommendations which are adopted, the primary focus in implementation needs to be faithfully carrying out the policy recommendations. It's fair to assume that human rights have been taken into account in the policy development process, along with and balanced against other rights and concerns, and that what results from the multistakeholder process should be given effect in implementation.
Greg