Code of Conduct for EC nominees

Overview

1. The APNIC Executive Council (EC) serves as the governing body of APNIC, as defined in the APNIC By-laws.

2. As the representatives of APNIC Members, EC Members have certain duties, including to act honestly and in the best interests of APNIC. Appropriate conduct from nominees for the APNIC EC (Nominees) is often a strong indicator of how they will conduct themselves if elected.

3. This Code of Conduct has been developed to help promote a high standard of professional and ethical conduct of all Nominees and to ensure the election process remains transparent and equitable.

4. This Code of Conduct applies to Nominees from the time they accept their nomination until the declaration of the election results by the Election Chair.

General Provisions

5. Consistent with APNIC’s Community Code of Conduct, it is expected that Nominees behave properly and positively at all times: showing respect and courtesy to others wherever possible, and ensuring a safe and inclusive environment.

6. All APNIC Members and Nominees should feel welcome and comfortable to participate fully to ensure that there can be a free and open exchange of ideas in a respectful and positive manner for the benefit of the APNIC community.

7. To this end, Nominees are required to:

   1. Act with honesty and integrity at all times in relation to the EC election; and

   2. Conduct themselves in a manner consistent with that of an EC member and in a way that promotes integrity in the EC election process.

8. Nominees must also ensure they do not:

   1. Do anything that would be considered a breach of the APNIC Community Code of Conduct;

   2. Share false or misleading information, including with respect to the Nominee or the personal affairs of other Nominees or APNIC Members, which they know or ought to know is untrue;

   3. Share or misuse others’ personal information;

   4. Misuse or abuse the APNIC Whois Database, Member data, or mailing lists for electioneering or spam (for example, by using whois data to send unsolicited emails);

   5. Provide, directly or through a third party, any monetary benefit, gifts, or other forms of inducement to influence votes or in exchange for inappropriate access to the voting system; and

   6. Impersonate others or register multiple accounts to avoid moderation or mislead participants in the EC elections.

Breaches of the Code of Conduct

How to report a breach

9. If an APNIC Member experiences or witnesses any behaviour that breaches this Code of Conduct, they are encouraged to report the behaviour to election-conduct@apnic.net.

Evaluating a report

10. The EC will appoint a Code of Conduct Chair to review reports of breaches of this Code. The Secretariat will support the Code of Conduct Chair in carrying out their duties.

11. Following a review of the reported breach, the Nominee who is the subject of a report under this Code will be contacted by the Code of Conduct Chair and given an opportunity to respond.

12. If, having considered any response received from the relevant Nominee, it is determined that a breach of the Code has occurred, the relevant information will be published by APNIC:

    “APNIC EC Election Code of Conduct Notice

    The Nominee has been found to have breached [relevant section(s)] of the Code of Conduct for Executive Council Election Nominees. [details of breach].”

13. If it is determined by that a breach of the Code has not occurred, both the Nominee and the person who made the report will be notified of the outcome and no further action will be taken.

How reports will be handled

14. All reports will be handled confidentially while being reviewed. Details of the report (excluding the personal information of the person making the report) may be published in accordance with section above and in any public reports made by APNIC.

15. If you make a report under this Code of Conduct your personal information will not be provided to the Nominee who is the subject of the report. However, the Code of Conduct Chair may need to share with the Nominee specific information you have provided in order to give them an opportunity to respond. Depending on the circumstances, this may result in you being identifiable to the Nominee (particularly if you were the only witness to the behaviour).