CADE at ICANN84 Annual General Meeting 2025

CADE at ICANN84 Annual General Meeting 2025

GNSO: NCSG Discussion on DNS Blocking and Human Rights

Friday, 25 October 2025, 08:00–09:00 UCT
Convention Centre Dublin, Ireland
For details, visit: https://icann84.sched.com/event/29QGd/gnso-ncsg-discussion-on-dns-blocking-and-human-rights

Background

As part of the upcoming ICANN84 Annual General Meeting (25–30 October 2025) in Dublin, the Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment (CADE), in collaboration with the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG), will co-organise an open discussion titled DNS Blocking and Human Rights.

The session will explore how technical methods of content restriction – such as DNS blocking – are applied and what implications they carry for fundamental rights, particularly the freedom of expression and access to information.

By bringing together perspectives from the technical community, civil society, and human rights advocates, the discussion will examine how to balance security concerns and the protection of individual freedoms.

This event encourages constructive dialogue around the governance and policy dimensions of DNS-based interventions, focusing on transparency, accountability, and respect for human rights principles.

Objectives

Exploring the practice of DNS blocking: The session will provide space to unpack the technical and policy aspects of DNS blocking and its intersection with broader content governance frameworks.

Human rights implications: Participants will consider how such technical measures can be designed and applied in ways that uphold international human rights standards, prevent overblocking, and maintain online openness.

Participation

The discussion will take place in an open, roundtable-style format, inviting reflections from participants across stakeholder groups. There will be no formal presentations – the focus will be on dialogue and exchange of experiences and perspectives.

CADE invites all interested participants of ICANN84 (both in situ and online) to join the session and contribute to this conversation.