Movement Charter/Supplementary Document/Care Responsibility

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These supplementary documents are provided by the Movement Charter Drafting Committee for information purposes, and to provide further context on the Wikimedia Movement Charter’s content. They are not part of the Charter, and therefore are not included in the ratification vote, but they have been developed during the course of the MCDC’s research and consultation process. They include several types of documents:

Information on topics related to the Charter.
Suggestions for policy or process development or consideration by the Global Council after the Charter is ratified.
Processes related to the Charter ratification vote.

Alongside the publication of the final Movement Charter version on June 10, 2024, these supplementary documents were updated on June 18, 2024.

The “care responsibility” formalizes and describes the relationship between Wikimedia Movement Bodies and the communities they serve. It includes, but is not limited to:

maintaining communication channels with the community they serve;
providing an inclusive and diverse working environment for community members;
supporting activities in online Wikimedia projects;
conducting work to further free knowledge initiatives together with communities; and
serving as an intermediary between the communities and the general public.

All Wikimedia Movement Bodies are responsible to promote a constructive and welcoming atmosphere within the communities they support. They are accountable for this to the Global Council and its committees. All Wikimedia Movement Bodies will be required to produce an annual report that should discuss community health, including identification of areas for improvement.

Wikimedia communities can be under the Care Responsibility of multiple Wikimedia Movement Bodies, depending on the type, size, and geographical distribution of a community. Where no Care Responsibility can be established for a community, this duty falls back to the national or regional organizations.

Wikimedia Movement Bodies are not legally accountable for the content of Wikimedia projects in whole or in part. They provide the necessary support structures and representative functions to further the Wikimedia Movement’s vision of free knowledge.

These movement bodies have the right to call upon the Independent Dispute Resolution mechanism in case of a dispute around the Care Responsibility.