Universal Code of Conduct/Project
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The Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) provides a global baseline of acceptable behavior for the entire movement without tolerance for harassment. The UCoC content, which includes the policy and the enforcement guidelines, was created in two phases, and work is currently being done to implement the UCoC policy and enforcement guidelines.
History
The Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) is a key initiative from the Wikimedia 2030 community conversations and strategy process. Providing for safety and inclusion within the communities and creating a code of conduct was rated the highest-priority initiative of the third Movement Strategy recommendation.
The UCoC provides a global baseline of acceptable behavior for the entire movement without tolerance for harassment. The UCoC was created through a collaborative process through two phases. Phase 1 included drafting the policy. This comprised policy research (Report on Phase 1 feedback on enforcement pathways, Research in Wikipedias, and in other Wikimedia Projects), community consultations (Initial 2020 consultations) and a first drafting phase (Drafting Committee, meeting summaries, Draft consultation, Final text, change log).
Phase 2 included drafting enforcement guidelines. Consultations were held (2021 on-wiki consultations, 2021 local consultations, Affiliates, Functionaries, Roundtables, Roundtable summaries). This was followed by a drafting process (Drafting Committee, Drafting committee meeting summaries, Draft guidelines review, Ratification survey, Conversation hours).
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees ratified the policy on 2 February 2021, and the community voted on the enforcement guidelines in March of 2022. The first vote indicated community support for the guidelines, with several specific improvement areas identified through comments submitted in the process (Enforcement guidelines, change log, Voting, voter information, results and voting statistics, summary of voter comments, all voter comments). The Board’s Community Affairs Committee (CAC) requested that a community-led revisions committee address some parts of the guidelines (Revisions Committee, meeting summaries, Conversation hours). This refinement process finished, and the second community led vote was held in January 2023 (Revised enforcement guidelines, comparison, voter information, results and voting statistics, report of voter comments, all voter comments). Based on the results, the Board of Trustees voted to ratify the Enforcement Guidelines on 9 March 2023.
Phase 3 was about building the U4C. It began with assembling a U4C Building Committee (U4CBC, Call for nominations, Meeting summaries). The U4CBC developed the U4C Charter (Draft charter text, discussion, Conversation hours). The charter was voted upon (Voter information, results and voting statistics, report of voter comments).