The Infringement Festival is founded on principles of respect for freedom of artistic expression, the nurturing of non-commodified community culture, and also on a wider commitment to basic principles of social and environmental justice. Within our own organization, we insist on non-discrimination, participatory governance, transparency, and a responsible approach with respect to the way we connect with our community, society, and the environment. We seek sponsors who are similarly committed to basic ethical standards.
The following guidelines are the ethical criteria we use to judge whether an organization can be accepted as a sponsor of the inFringement festival.
Human Rights and Diversity
An ‘ethical organization’ must:
– uphold basic human rights (i.e. as stipulated in basic UN documents including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)
– avoid links with other organizations which do not uphold basic human rights
– respect diversity of gender, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, and belief with regard to both internal policies and external (especially promotional) policies
Anti-War / Anti-Repression
An ‘ethical organization’ must:
– not be involved in the manufacture or transfer of armaments
– not be involved in the manufacture or transfer of equipment designed for the repression of citizens
– not be involved in war profiteering
Labour Rights
An ‘ethical business’ must:
– uphold basic labour rights (i.e. as stipulated in core International Labor Organization documents; i.e. the Fundamental ILO Conventions and the Priority International Labour Standards)
– not market the goods or services of other organizations which are complicit in undermining basic labour rights (e.g. goods produced in sweatshop conditions by a third party)
– not undermine labour solidarity through the use of outsourcing
Animal Welfare
An ‘ethical organization’ must:
– not engage in (or subcontract) activities which involve cruel treatment of animals
Environment
An ‘ethical organization’ must:
– be committed to environmental protection and therefore not profit from practices which cause significant environmental damage (e.g. old growth logging, clear-cutting, manufacture of toxic substances, etc.)
Transparency / Integrity
An ‘ethical organization’ must:
– conform to established standards for transparency and integrity in accounting practices
– meet reasonable expectations for transparency and integrity of governance (e.g. published record of principal shareholders and administrators, free from corruption and serious conflict of interest)
Reputation for Ethical Behaviour
A thorough and ongoing ethical audit takes time and resources. Therefore, in addition to our own information gathering, we rely on the results of other ethical oversight initiatives undertaken by well-recognized human rights, labour, environmental, and other social justice advocacy groups. We accept the judgement of well-recognized advocacy groups which base ethical evaluations on principles similar to those as described above.
Support of Local Culture
We give priority to sponsors which are locally based, and particularly to those which make an active effort to enrich and to participate in local culture.