This is a follow up to the discussion on holding IETF 100 in Singapore, arising
from the issue of the existence of Singapore laws that discriminate against
LGBTQ people.
Jari, as IETF Chair, is sending a note outlining the forward-looking steps from
the perspective of IETF community actions, so this note is focused on IAOC
actions as part of the bigger context.
The IAOC has carefully reviewed feedback from the community, available
alternative venue options and consulted with the IESG. We have decided to
keep the IETF 100 meeting in Singapore, while recognizing that the discussion
of Singapore’s appropriateness as an IETF meeting site for other future
meetings is not completed.
We, and we believe the whole IETF, value and respect our LGBTQ participants and
their families. It was and is not our intention to make them feel unwelcome at
IETF 100. In making this decision, we recognize that it was our mistake in
missing the issue in the first place. For that, again, we can only apologize.
More detail about the decision process itself is outlined in detail below —
this message has been difficult to structure in order to both clearly deliver
the decision and provide detail about how we reached it, without burying the
former in the important detail.
I do want to thank everyone who has shared their knowledge and perspective in
the discussion — I appreciate it has been difficult. And, there are
significant substantive issues in this discussion that remain unresolved in the
larger context beyond IETF 100. We have to move on with continued discussion
and respectful engagement in order to determine the right answers for venues
for future IETF meetings. As part of that, the IAOC remains committed to
continue to address the larger context by:
1/ Listening. While it is important for the community to move on from the
discussion of IETF 100, we in no way think this conversation about what we take
into account when we do venue selection is completed.
2/ Not viewing this as a precedent for future meeting venue selection. This is
a choice for IETF 100, and any future evaluation of Singapore or any other
venues will be made in the light of whatever the IETF community decides are
requirements for meeting locations in areas that discriminate against any
members of our community.
3/ Selecting sites that support the advancement of the IETF mission
4/ Seeking clarity from the community about parameters for venue selection.
Along with others in the community, we have asked the IETF Chair to formalize
the MTGVENUE effort into a working group to produce a meeting selection BCP
with consensus from the community about how to address diversity (of our
community, of the laws in different parts of the world) as part of the
selection criteria for meeting venues
5/ Improving our site selection process so that issues of which the community
may be aware can be brought to light before we have signed contracts for a
meeting.
In characterizing Singapore as a place where he could not bring his own family,
because of its laws, Ted Hardie asked at the IETF 95 plenary meeting that those
who had made the decision to meet in Singapore not bring their families,
either. In an earlier message, the IAOC outlined that it has to date focused
on the suitability of venues/countries for meeting purposes, but not explicitly
for suitability of meeting attendees bringing companions, family members, etc.
That understanding has now obviously evolved, and we understand better
situations where companions are necessary. We note Ted's request. Individual
participants here will have to make their own decisions about how to answer it.
As a group we are focusing on making sure we improve our processes so that we
don’t surprise or undermine any segments of our community.
In taking a broader view and reflecting on issues where IAOC announcements may
have surprised the community (not solely related to IETF 100, nor just meeting
venues) we also consider that there is merit in a broader review of the IASA
structure, 10+ years after its inception. At the same time, the practical
demands of the meeting arrangements discussion and the IANA-related work at the
IETF Trust need to be satisfied first. So we plan to initiate the evaluation
of IASA work before the end of this year.
The IAOC’s decision making process
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We (IAOC) don’t believe the discussion of Singapore’s appropriateness as an
IETF meeting site (beyond IETF 100) is completed. There are many strong
positions: we have heard people say that Singapore’s laws clearly violate human
rights and it is unconscionable to propose meeting there; we have heard people
say that our meeting locations are about getting the work done and if national
politics enter into it the IETF is lost beyond any hope of relevancy; people
urge that we cannot avoid places where people are oppressed without denying the
important contributions of those oppressed; some worry that we cannot attend to
any particular oppression because once we start there will be no place left for
us to meet. All of these views have arguments in their favour; determining an
outcome to the conversation is well beyond the scope of the IAOC (we look to
the IETF Chair/IESG for determination of IETF policy), and they cannot be
reconciled to a clear pointer to what to do now.
Against that backdrop, we perceived no obvious answer for where to hold IETF
100.
Absent a clear answer to the question of suitability of decision criteria
for/against Singapore, and having reviewed resources to ascertain that everyone
would be able to travel to Singapore with a reasonable expectation of personal
safety and respect, the IAOC was guided by a few principles.
First, we obviously wanted to take into account all the feedback we received,
both on- and off-list. We could only take it into account, rather than reflect
it, because we received responses from many different people who identified in
many different ways, and sometimes those responses were diametrically opposed
to others.
Second, we did not believe it was practically possible to consider alternative
dates only 18 months before the meeting was to happen, especially because we
already have a challenge in ensuring we have adequate support for the ordinary
contract negotiation that needs to happen; so we decided that we had to stick
with the dates we had.
Third, we believed that it was necessary that, if we were going to move, we
would need to move to a site where we had already had an unambiguously
successful meeting, otherwise we could run the risk of substituting one
potentially unsuitable venue for another. With less than 18 months to the
meeting (practically no time for planning purposes), we focused on specific
sites we had been to before. (We were also somewhat worried about the
financial effects on the IETF of moving the meeting. We have had throughout
strong support from our meeting sponsor. So we believed that these effects
could have been blunted but not completely eliminated when undertaking a new
negotiation, since it would be clear to anyone with whom we were negotiating
that we did not have a lot of options.)
Finally, we determined that that this meeting should take place in Asia if at
all possible, to honor the 1-1-1* policy in 2017. None of the candidate sites
in Asia could accommodate us on the dates we already had, making Singapore the
only Asian venue available. There were a number of potential sites in Europe
and North America.
Part of our problem is that the requirements for meeting venue selection were
sketchily defined, and reasonable people can perceive different priorities; we
look forward to successful conclusion of MTGVENUE work to remove ambiguity from
those requirements.
We acknowledge that much of this could have been avoided if we had attempted
earlier the strategy of calling out potential venues early, to see whether
there are problems. We regret very much that we did not do that, and we shall
certainly heed that lesson in the future.
Leslie, for the IAOC.