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
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Policy#Frequently_Asked_Questions>
by the Board of Trustees on 8 December 2021. Please read our blog post
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/12/09/what-the-wikimedia-foundations-new-human-rights-policy-means-for-our-movement/>
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
<http://meet.google.com/wio-vdkw-phd> 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(a)wikimedia.org) and Ziski
Putz (zputz(a)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
rgaines(a)wikimedia.org
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