Since becoming an observer to the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of ICANN in 2010, the Council of Europe Secretariat has been exploring ways to assist the GAC, ICANN and its communities in making arrangements to ensure that human rights and the rule of law are referred to and considered by ICANN with regard to its policies and procedures.

This has resulted in the adoption of two declarations by the Committee of Ministers and the production of independent expert reports.

• ICANN website
• Declaration of the Committee of Ministers on ICANN, human rights and the rule of law
• Report on "Applications to ICANN for Community-based New Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs): Opportunities and challenges from a human rights perspective" by Eve Salomon and Kinanya Pijl
• Report on ‘ICANN’s procedures and policies in the light of human rights, fundamental freedoms and democratic values by Dr Monika Zalnieriute and Thomas Schneider 
• Declaration of the Committee of Ministers on enhanced participation of member states in Internet governance matters – Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)