Legal Capacity Learning Exchange Community Guideline

The goal of the legal capacity learning exchange community is to share experience, knowledge, and ideas to advance and aid in implementation of Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The community consists of activists, civil society organizations, human rights lawyers, policy makers, and academics who have been working in their own localities and through international exchanges to advance Article 12.

What is this Guideline?

This guideline is:

• a living document that is refined and changed over time based on experiences and learning over time
• a description of shared community responsibilities and a voicing of support
• a resource where people can find clear descriptions and examples of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in the community, focusing on the kinds of behaviours that might put the community at risk
• inclusive of digital and in-person interactions
• inclusive of the many types of contributions we make to the community like meetings, documents, presentations, etc.
• part of a larger movement among legal capacity communities that clearly affirms right to decide values
• supportive of open conversation discussion, including space for mistakes, cultural differences, perspective mismatches, and different levels of familiarity with the issues of legal capacity
• not intended to discourage debate, discussion, or differences of opinion and perspective, even when it's messy
• a reminder to contributors that consistently aggressive or harassing behaviour is not welcome in our community, and that we share a collective responsibility to address unacceptable behaviour

The Guideline

Our Pledge

In the interest of fostering an open and welcoming environment, we as members of this community pledge to making participation in our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, level of experience, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

Our Standards

Examples of behavior that contributes to creating a positive environment include:

• Using welcoming and inclusive language
• Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences
• Gracefully accepting constructive criticism
• Focusing on what is best for the community
• Showing empathy towards other community members

Examples of unacceptable behavior by participants include:

• The use of sexualized language or imagery and unwelcome sexual attention or advances
• Trolling, insulting/derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks
• Public or private harassment
• Publishing others' private information, such as a physical or electronic address, without explicit permission
• Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting

Our Responsibilities

Community maintainers are responsible for clarifying the standards of acceptable behavior and are expected to take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any instances of unacceptable behavior.

Community maintainers have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject messages, documents, resources, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Community Guideline, or to ban temporarily or permanently any contributor for other behaviors that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.

Scope

This Community Guideline applies both within community spaces, online, in-person, and in public spaces when an individual is representing this community. Examples of representing the community include using or referencing the community, its membership, its initiatives, e-mail addresses, or acting as an appointed representative at an online or offline event. Representation of a community may be further defined and clarified by community maintainers.

Enforcement

Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported confidentially by contacting the community maintainers. All complaints will be reviewed and investigated and will result in a response that is deemed necessary and appropriate to the circumstances. The community maintainers are obligated to maintain confidentiality with regard to the reporter of an incident.

Project maintainers who do not follow or enforce the Code of Conduct in good faith may face temporary or permanent repercussions as determined by other members of the community's leadership.