The FOCS steering committee and the FOCS 2021 organizers are committed to an inclusive conference experience, respectful of all participants, and free of discrimination, harassment, bullying, or retaliation. We believe that an inclusive and respectful atmosphere is vital to free expression and the open exchange of ideas, serving the main purpose of the conference. FOCS 2020 will implement IEEE policies (in particular the IEEE Policy against Discrimination and Harassment) as well as the recommendations of the ad-hoc committee to combat harassment and discrimination. The latter include a mechanism for authors to declare at submission a conflict of interest arising from past harassment, without divulging explicitly the nature of the conflict.
If you experience or witness discrimination, harassment or other unethical behavior at the conference, we encourage you to seek advice and remedy through one or more of the following options:
A. (Our recommended option) Consult with Erin Chambers, email: erin.chambers@gmail.com and Martin Farach-Colton, Rutgers University, email: martin@farach-colton.com, the ToC anti-harassment advocates in residence at FOCS 2021.
B. Report to the TCMF chair and FOCS 2021 general chair, Yuval Rabani (HUJI, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), email: yrabani@cs.huji.ac.il. The general chair is entitled to remove registered participants from the conference, if they are deemed to pose a risk to other participants.
C. Report by email to eventconduct@ieee.org. Sanctions against violators, following an investigation by IEEE, may include expulsion from IEEE membership and exclusion from IEEE events.