Due Diligence Human Rights Strategy

At DNS Belgium, we believe that the protection and promotion of human rights are crucial to responsible and sustainable business operations. As the manager of all .be, .vlaanderen and .brussels domain names, we acknowledge our role and responsibility in ensuring respect for human rights, with specific focus on the rights to privacy, online security and the trust that citizens and users can have in our domain name zones. 

With a view to promoting these important values and minimising our impact on society, we have developed a due diligence strategy in relation to human rights. This strategy helps us to identify risks, take measures to manage them and promote the necessary cooperation and dialogue with stakeholders. 

This engagement statement helps us to strengthen our business activities in a way that is ethical, responsible and sustainable. Through this strategy and our commitment to transparent reporting, we aim to make a positive contribution to protecting and respecting human rights, both within our organisation and in the wider society. 

Together with our stakeholders, we will continue to intensify our efforts while making every effort to improve going forward. We are determined to learn, grow and take responsibility for the impact we have on human rights, because we believe this is essential to building a safer, more respectful, just and inclusive digital world. 

Engagement statement 

DNS Belgium recognises the importance of human rights as an essential element of sustainable and responsible business operations. We are committed to ensuring respect for human rights and minimising the potential negative impact that our activities may have on respect for human rights. 

For that reason, we hereby declare that we: 

• Recognise our responsibilities: We acknowledge that DNS Belgium has a responsibility to respect and protect human rights, in particular the rights to respect for private, family and family life, the right to liberty and security, the prohibition of discrimination and the right to an effective remedy.  
• Identify risks: We are committed to identifying the risks relating to human rights that are associated with our operations, including the impact that our activities have on the rights of third parties, such as our customers, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders. 
• Take measures: We take measures to manage and mitigate these risks, in particular by carrying out a due diligence process to ensure human rights. 
• Encourage collaboration and dialogue: We work with our stakeholders to minimise the impact that our operations have on human rights. We also have an open dialogue with our stakeholders regarding human rights and our due diligence process. 
• Promote reporting and transparency: We report annually about our activities and the progress made in complying with human rights, including our due diligence process. We also make this information public. 

DNS Belgium is fully committed to respecting and protecting human rights and to contributing to sustainable and responsible business practices. This engagement statement forms the basis of our due diligence strategy on human rights and we will continue working to implement and improve it.