Wikimedia Education SAARC conference/CoC

Objective

This Code of Conduct and Friendly Space Policy aims to ensure a friendly, safe, and non-discriminatory environment for all participants in the Wikimedia Education SAARC Conference organized by Christ (deemed to be University), in collaboration with the Access to Knowledge Programme at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru, from June 20 to 22, 2019.

This code of conduct applies to all the conference community spaces, both online and offline, including main and auxiliary events, meetings, mailing lists, and informal gatherings. Violations of the CoCFSP may invite sanctions, temporary ban or expulsion from community spaces.

This event maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards harassment of participants in any form. Some community spaces may have additional rules in place, which will be made clearly available to participants. Participants are responsible for knowing and abiding by these rules and encouraged to help us create a welcoming and positive experience for all.

Diversity Statement

We are committed to creating an open and inclusive forum for conversations through the event and are available to listen to any concerns that may arise through the event.

Although this list cannot be exhaustive, we explicitly honour diversity in age, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and background, culture, ethnicity, language, national/sub-national origin, political beliefs, profession, race, religion, and bodily and technical ability. We will not tolerate discrimination based on any of the protected characteristics above, including participants with disabilities. In keeping with the values of diversity in open knowledge movements, the programme strives to:

Create a friendly and welcoming environment for all
Show open-mindedness and respect in collaboration
Remain professional, considerate, and stay sensitive
Embrace diversity; understand the disagreement
Show acceptance and patience

General Community Guidelines

Do

Be kind and polite, and assume good faith in each other
Be patient and welcoming
Embrace and appreciate the diversity and differences among each other
Be careful and sensitive to your actions and words
Be a good listener
When disagreement or conflicts occur, discuss and resolve it in an open, civil, and respectful manner, and consult event organisers if needed
Obtain participants’ consent when taking pictures, videos, or posting anything on your social media
Respect personal space and privacy of all members
Respect all speakers and raise questions without interrupting others and the flow of the program
Express discomfort if you ﬁnd yourself in an uncomfortable environment or conversation
Be mindful of your behaviour and interactions in the presence of minors and/or children at the event or in the conference premises
Point out or report harassment, discrimination, or personal attacks when it happens to the Response Team

Don’t

Commit harassment or discrimination or engage in unacceptable behaviour in any forms (see the section on unacceptable behaviour and how to report it)
Directly or indirectly attack or maliciously organizer one’s identity, appearance, beliefs, opinions, or behaviour
Talk over another member in a group conversation or deliberately ignore their questions, but enable everyone to participate in the discussion
Waste resources, be it food, electricity, plastic, paper, etc.
Force members to participate in activities or conversation they do not wish to join or continue
Smoke or consume alcohol on the conference premises (including inside the hotel rooms and corridors)

Unacceptable behavior

Harassment and other types of inappropriate behaviour are unacceptable in all public and private spaces at the conference. Examples include but are not limited to:

Personal attacks, violence, threats of violence, or deliberate intimidation
Offensive, derogatory, or discriminatory comments
Gratuitous or off-topic use of sexual language or imagery
Inappropriate or unwanted attention, touching, or physical contact (sexual or otherwise)
Inappropriate or unwanted public or private communication, following, or any form of stalking
Unwanted photography or recording
Disclosure of a person’s identity or other private information without their consent (remember that disclosure of some identifying information is not consented to disclose other identifying information)
Inappropriate or unwanted publication of private communication – publishing or reporting private communication or personally identifying information for the purposes of reporting harassment (as explained here) and/or in the case of whistleblowing, is acceptable
Harming the discussion or community with methods such as sustained disruption, interruption, or blocking of community collaboration (i.e. trolling)
Discrimination, particularly against marginalized and otherwise underrepresented groups
Inappropriate conduct (verbal and physical) towards/in the presence of children and minors at the event premises
Using the code of conduct system for purposes other than reporting genuine violations of the code of conduct (e.g., retaliating against a reporter or victim by filing a report claiming their response was harassment)
Attempting to circumvent a decision of the Response Team e.g. unblocking someone during a period the team banned them.

How to Report a Complaint

People who experience or observe unacceptable behaviour by a participant, organizer or any community member are encouraged to follow these steps:

Ask the person who is behaving unacceptably to stop. Make them aware of this Code of Conduct.
Report the problem to the Response Team
Response Team members: 1) P P Sneha (sneha@cis-india.org) and 2) Tito Dutta (tito@cis-india.org)

Also, anonymous feedback can be shared using this link: http://tiny.cc/anonyfeedback

If you have a complaint against someone on the Response Team, they will recuse themselves from handling the reported incident. We will respond as promptly as we can to take note of your complaint, discuss the matter, and resolve the issue in a safe and respectful manner for all parties involved. We will also accept good-faith reports of unacceptable behaviour, including harassment seriously and respond as promptly as possible. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent. In order to protect volunteers from abuse and burnout, we reserve the right to reject any report we believe to have been made in bad faith or to silence legitimate criticism.

Please note that this event prioritises marginalised people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. The response team reserves the right to not to act on complaints regarding:

‘Reverse’ -isms, including ‘reverse racism,’ ‘reverse sexism,’ and ‘cisphobia’
Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you”
Communicating in a ‘tone’ you don’t find congenial
Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behaviour or assumptions

Consequences

Participants asked to stop any harassing behaviour are expected to comply immediately. The Response Team may also take any other action they deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from all community spaces during the event, and identification of the participant as a harasser to other participants or the general public.

This code of conduct was compiled from Wikimedia policies on friendly space and keeping events safe (text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License); and the Community Anti-Harassment Policy on Geek Feminism Wiki (available under the Creative Commons Zero license)

Please see

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Code_of_Conduct