ICANN wants to develop human rights impact assessment

• 03/09/2025

The multi-stakeholder community is meeting in Seattle (USA) at the ICANN 82 Community Forum to discuss current issues and developments to secure and further develop the Internet. From 8 to 13 March, the focus will be on (further) work on the initiative for Universal Acceptance, the development of a human rights impact assessment process and the use of the Domain Name System. Processes underlying ICANN's current activities will also be discussed. These include mutual information on the work programmes of the various groups and stakeholders as well as financial planning.

For the project ‘Child protection and children's rights in the digital world’, the importance of children's rights and the realisation of their protection, provision and participation in the digital environment must continue to be addressed. Against this background, the work for the development and implementation of a human rights impact assessment is of particular interest. In the past, the ICANN community has focused on organising and managing the processes and structures that underpin the Internet. However, dealing with content that is made available on the Internet is not part of ICANN's remit. Without denying this, the realisation that structures and processes the internet can also be misused for content and thus affect ICANN's sphere of influence is becoming increasingly relevant. This is illustrated by the phenomenon of child sexual abuse. While the provision of such illegal content and the combat against it is not part of ICANN's original sphere, there are nevertheless mechanisms for action if, for example, domain names are registered that clearly indicate illegal content. By developing a human rights impact assessment process, it would be possible to develop common regulations and procedures for the ICANN community that can fulfil the protection and other rights and interests of children and young people.