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April 2023
The Unicode Consortium’s Board of Directors has adopted this Code of Conduct requiring all participants in Consortium activities to observe high standards of business and personal ethics and professionalism in the conduct of our duties and responsibilities. This document sets out the expectations of behavior, standards, and enforcement guidelines and processes.
Consortium Leaders, including Directors, Officers, and Technical Committee Chairs and Vice-Chairs, are responsible for clarifying and enforcing this Code and the Consortium’s standards of acceptable conduct.
This Code of Conduct applies to all directors, officers, employees, members, contributors, committee members, and all other participants in the Consortium’s activities and projects. It applies within all Unicode community spaces and also applies when an individual is representing the Consortium in public spaces.
Examples of representing the Unicode community include using an official email address, posting via an official social media account, referencing their Unicode Consortium title or participation, acting as a Consortium liaison to another organization, or acting as an appointed representative at an online or offline event.
All participants in the Consortium’s activities pledge to:
(1) Practice honesty and integrity in fulfilling our responsibilities and comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and Unicode Consortium policies.
(2) Make participation in the Unicode community a respectful, equitable, and harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, sexual identity and orientation, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, national origin, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, or religion.
(3) Act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community that can contribute to the mission of the Unicode Consortium.
Examples of behavior that contributes to a positive environment for our community include:
Examples of Unacceptable Behavior
Working with the CEO and the Compliance Officer, Consortium Leaders will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behavior that violates this Code of Conduct and our other policies. Consortium Leaders also have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct, and will communicate reasons for moderation decisions when appropriate.
Under the supervision of the Governance Committee of the Board, the Consortium’s CEO and Compliance Officer (“Compliance Team”) are jointly responsible for receiving and investigating potential violations of this Code of Conduct.
To report a potential violation please send an email to the CEO and Compliance Officer at compliance@unicode.org. In the subject line, please reference “Code of Conduct.” The email should include your name, the date(s) and place(s) of the potential violation, the name of the person who engaged in the potential violation, and a brief but specific description of the alleged violation. Please also include the best email to reach you for follow-up. If you prefer being contacted by phone, please also provide a phone number and best time of day to reach you.
In the event that the alleged violator is either the Unicode Compliance Officer or the CEO, please send your email to the Secretary & Chair of the Unicode Governance Committee. Officer information can be found on the Consortium website.
If you wish to make an anonymous report, please use the Consortium’s phone number or physical address found on the Consortium website.
Anyone reporting a potential violation of the Code of Conduct must be acting in good faith and have reasonable grounds for believing that a violation has occurred. Making misleading, unsubstantiated or speculative allegations, or allegations that prove to have been made maliciously or to have been knowingly false is an abuse of this process and will be treated as a violation of this Code of Conduct.
A report of a potential violation may be submitted on a confidential or anonymous basis. Confidentiality (or anonymity) cannot be guaranteed but will be respected to the extent possible while balancing the duties to conduct an adequate investigation and to protect the privacy and safety of the person reporting the violation. It should be understood that preserving a reporter’s anonymity may impact the ability to investigate alleged misconduct and ensure appropriate outcomes.
No person who in good faith reports a potential violation of this Code of Conduct shall suffer adverse consequences such as harassment, retaliation, limits on their right to participate, or adverse employment consequences. Anyone who retaliates against someone who has reported a potential violation in good faith is in violation of this Code of Conduct and is subject to discipline up to and including termination and/or a permanent ban from participating in the Consortium’s activities.
Upon receipt of a reported violation an investigation will be initiated, either by the Compliance Team or the Governance Committee or their delegates, as appropriate. This may include interviews with multiple parties, including the person reporting the potential violation, the person accused, any witnesses, and any other parties as needed.
Once the investigation is concluded, the Compliance Team will determine what corrective measures or sanctions are appropriate. In the case of more serious violations, the Compliance Team will consult with the Governance Committee, and potentially the Board of Directors, regarding appropriate sanctions. In all cases, every effort will be made to reach a fair conclusion while protecting the privacy and safety of the person reporting the violation and those impacted by it.
Corrective measures or sanctions will depend on the available evidence, the seriousness of the violation, the frequency or sustained nature of the objectionable behavior, and the impact on individuals and the Unicode community. Corrective measures or sanctions may include a warning, a request for apology or other mitigation, a temporary or permanent ban from participation in Consortium activities, reporting the matter to the accused person’s employer (if the person’s employer is a member), loss of membership in the Consortium, and/or in cases of unlawful activity, reporting the matter to appropriate legal authorities.
This Unicode Consortium Code of Conduct is derived in part from the Contributor Covenant: A Code of Conduct for Open Source Communities, which was created by Coraline Ada Ehmke in 2014 and is released under the CC BY 4.0 License. The Contributor Covenant is stewarded by the Organization for Ethical Source. The Unicode Consortium wishes to acknowledge and thank Coraline Ada Ehmke and OES.
