Criticism of the process:
* No public consultation or even announcement was done before the policy was finalized. No opportunity to influence the outcome was given.
* The policy was preceded by a human rights impact assessment, commissioned by the WMF. The report was given to the WMF in July, but has still not been made public.
* No details are given on the mentioned "Human Rights Steering Committee", including structure or membership.
* It looks like the policy wasn't even proofread before approval, and is exceedingly ambiguous in parts.
* The policy is stated to act as a "North Star" guiding the efforts of other parts of the movement as well, ignoring the WMF's actual position relative to the other groups and where movement guidance actually comes from.

Given the level of disassociation between this process and Wikimedia, it's hard to tell how to interpret these events. This looks to me like another example of the WMF simultaneously marginalizing itself from the movement while also pushing itself as a greater portion of activities. This is a problem.

(The merits of the actual text are separate from the process issues, and this criticism should not be taken as a position on the correctness/value of such a policy.)

-- Yair Rand

‫בתאריך יום ה׳, 9 בדצמ׳ 2021 ב-10:25 מאת ‪Richard Gaines‬‏ <‪rgaines@wikimedia.org‬‏>:‬

Hello,


The Wikimedia Foundation’s Global Advocacy team is excited to announce the approval of the Human Rights Policy by the Board of Trustees on 8 December 2021. Please read our blog post about the policy and what it means for the Wikimedia Foundation’s work in the coming years on Diff. We invite you to join representatives of the Foundation’s Global Advocacy and Human Rights teams here for a conversation hour tomorrow, 10 December, at 10:00 AM ET (15:00 UTC) to address any immediate concerns, questions, or suggestions regarding this policy or how it will be implemented. The session will be recorded for later viewing and you may submit questions by email to myself (rgaines@wikimedia.org) and Ziski Putz (zputz@wikimedia.org) ahead of or following the conversation hour. Additional conversation hours on this policy will be made available in the coming weeks. 


Best regards,

--
Ricky Gaines (he/him/his)
Senior Manager, Advocacy Audiences
Wikimedia Foundation

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