Hi everyone,
I’m pleased to announce that the Board of Trustees has unanimously approved
a Universal Code of Conduct for the Wikimedia projects and movement.[1] A
Universal Code of Conduct was one of the final recommendations of the
Movement Strategy 2030 process - a multi-year, participatory community
effort to define the future of our movement. The final Universal Code of
Conduct seeks to address disparities in conduct policies across our
hundreds of projects and communities, by creating a binding minimum set of
standards for conduct on the Wikimedia projects that directly address many
of the challenges that contributors face.
The Board is deeply grateful to the communities who have grappled with
these challenging topics. Over the past six months, communities around the
world have participated in conversations and consultations to help build
this code collectively, including local discussions in 19 languages,
surveys, discussions on Meta, and policy drafting by a committee of
volunteers and staff. The document presented to us reflects a significant
investment of time and effort by many of you, and especially by the joint
staff/volunteer committee who created the base draft after reviewing input
collected from community outreach efforts. We also appreciate the
dedication of the Foundation, and its Trust & Safety policy team, in
getting us to this phase.
This was the first phase of our Universal Code of Conduct - from here, the
Trust & Safety team will begin consultations on how best to enforce this
code. In the coming weeks, they will follow-up with more instructions on
how you can participate in discussions around enforcing the new code. Over
the next few months, they will be facilitating consultation discussions in
many local languages, with our affiliates, and on Meta to support a new
volunteer/staff committee in drafting enforcement pathways. For more
information on the process, timeline, and how to participate in this next
phase, please review the Universal Code of Conduct page on Meta.[2]
The Universal Code of Conduct represents an essential step towards our
vision of a world in which all people can participate in the sum of all
knowledge. Together, we have built something extraordinary. Today, we
celebrate this milestone in making our movement a safer space for
contribution for all.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees,
María Sefidari
Board Chair
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Draft_review
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct