Hello!
In December 2021, the Wikimedia Foundation announced https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/12/09/what-the-wikimedia-foundations-new-human-rights-policy-means-for-our-movement/ our new Human Rights Policy. At the time, we also committed https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Human_Rights_Policy/Frequently_asked_questions#Frequently_asked_questions_(published_9_December_2021) to publishing more information from the Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) that helped to inform the policy. Today, I am glad to be able to share that HRIA with you all.
Wikimedia projects play an important role in enabling people around the world to exercise their human rights, including the right to access knowledge. As host of these projects, the Foundation is committed to protect and respect the human rights of all those who use our projects to access, share, and contribute knowledge. In recognizing this critical role, we commissioned the Human Rights Impact Assessment in 2020 to provide a better understanding of potential human rights harms our projects may inadvertently cause as well as recommendations to address them. We release the report now to invite broader discussion on the report’s findings and recommendations in order to determine which ones the Foundation should prioritize moving forward.
You can find the assessment on Meta-Wiki https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Human_Rights_Impact_Assessment, which includes a foreword authored by the Foundation, an executive summary of the assessment, and a detailed analysis of the five categories of human rights risks identified in the report (harmful content, harassment, government surveillance and censorship, impacts on child rights, and limitations on knowledge equity). The foreword and executive summary are also available in Arabic https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_HRIA_Foreword_%2B_Executive_Summary_(Arabic).pdf?useskin=vector-2022, Chinese (Traditional) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_HRIA_Foreword_%2B_Executive_Summary_Chinese_(Traditional).pdf?useskin=vector-2022, French https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_HRIA_Foreword_%2B_Executive_Summary_(French).pdf?useskin=vector-2022, Russian https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_HRIA_Foreword_%2B_Executive_Summary_(Russian).pdf?useskin=vector-2022, and Spanish https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_HRIA_Foreword_%2B_Executive_Summary_(Spanish).pdf?useskin=vector-2022. You can also find more information about the assessment in a blog post https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/07/12/what-does-the-wikimedia-foundations-human-rights-impact-assessment-mean-for-the-wikimedia-movement/ on Diff.
We will be hosting a series of conversation hours in the coming weeks where we invite feedback and ask questions about the assessment:
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14 July (18:00–19:30 UTC): Community Affairs Committee Meeting
28 July (12:00 UTC): Global Advocacy Community Conversation Hour
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Public_policy/Conversation_hours_and_Events -
28 July (17:00 UTC): Global Advocacy Community Conversation Hour https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Public_policy/Conversation_hours_and_Events
We also invite questions and feedback on the discussion page https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Human_Rights_Impact_Assessment&action=edit&redlink=1 of the assessment on Meta-Wiki as well as through the Movement Strategy Forum https://forum.movement-strategy.org/t/did-you-see-the-wikimedia-foundation-published-a-human-rights-impact-assessment/1175 .
This assessment can help all stakeholders in the Wikimedia movement to better understand the human rights risks and threats that we jointly face, and the work required to reduce those risks. By doing so, the Foundation, volunteers, and affiliates can work together to protect both our movement and our people.
We look forward to engaging with all of you on this HRIA, its recommendations, and your thoughts on how to move forward on the insights offered by this report.
Thank you,