DHC Project Directory

Code of Conduct

Digital Health Corner — Project Directory Version 1.0 · Effective: 2026-04-29 · Concept reference: §6.2

Scope. This Code of Conduct (CoC) applies to all members of the Digital Health Corner (DHC) Project Directory, and to every contribution published or communicated within the platform. By accepting an invitation and creating a member account, every member explicitly accepts this CoC.

Development note: When the text of this file is materially changed, the COC_VERSION constant in src/lib/coc.ts must be incremented so that existing members are required to re-acknowledge.

1. Purpose

The DHC Project Directory is an invitation-based, curated networking platform for actors from military medical services, NATO, EU institutions, the WHO, humanitarian organisations, academia, and exercise communities. It pursues a single, narrowly bounded goal: to make projects visible and people contactable — nothing more, nothing less.

This CoC establishes the trust foundation without which a mixed platform spanning military, humanitarian, EU, WHO, and academic actors cannot function. It binds every member equally.

2. Core principles

Respect across organisational and national boundaries. Members engage collegially, professionally, and without demeaning language — regardless of rank, organisation, nationality, mandate, or political position.
Subject-matter focus. The DHC is a professional forum, not a venue for political, ideological, or religious disputes.
Truthfulness. Profile information must be accurate. Self-descriptions are factual; statements about third parties are either avoided or clearly marked as personal assessment.
Confidentiality. Content that another member has released under Tier 2 (DOMAIN) or Tier 3 (REQUEST) is not shared outside the platform.
Personal responsibility. Each member is responsible for their own contributions and profile content, including any classification, data-protection, and confidentiality obligations imposed by their own organisation.

3. Expected conduct

Communicate clearly and factually. Profiles are short, precise, and free of marketing language.
Initiate contact respectfully. When reaching out, briefly describe purpose and context. Mass mailings or unsolicited promotional messages are not permitted (see Section 4).
Keep profiles up to date. Members maintain their profiles; profiles not updated for 12 months are automatically flagged as "stale" and may be removed by the curatorium after further inactivity.
Respect visibility tiers. Tier 2 and Tier 3 profiles are used exclusively within the visibility they have been released under. Attempts to circumvent visibility restrictions (scraping, multiple accounts, sharing of credentials) are a serious violation.
Make sources transparent. When DHC content is cited or reused, it is done with proper attribution and only where the visibility tier permits.
Responsibility as a profile editor. Members added by an Owner as profile editors carry the same content-related duty of care as the Owner: no misstatements, no disregard of the visibility tier, no sharing of Tier 2 or Tier 3 content outside the platform. Editor rights are a delegated trust decision by the Owner — misuse is a serious violation and leads to revocation of the editor role and the sanctions set out in Section 9. Owners are responsible for granting editor access only to people they consciously intend to give that level of insight and edit capability — particularly on Tier 2 and Tier 3 profiles.

4. Prohibited conduct

The following is expressly not permitted on the platform and may result in sanctions up to and including removal:

Classified content. No content may be posted that carries a protective marking under the originating organisation's classification policy (e.g. VS-NfD, NATO RESTRICTED, EU RESTRICTED or higher). Each member confirms this in writing during onboarding.
Advertising and sales. Industry pitches, product promotion, sales offers, sponsorship requests, affiliate links, or comparable commercial communication are not permitted.
Rating and ranking mechanisms. Members do not attempt to rate or rank other projects or persons on the platform; the DHC is explicitly not a rating forum.
Personal attacks, harassment, discrimination. Insults, derogatory comments based on nationality, religion, gender, origin, sexual orientation, political position, or disability are not permitted — nor is persistent unwelcome contact.
False identities. No member may impersonate another person; no pseudonyms, no proxy or shared accounts. Identity must match the profile entry and must be verifiable on request through the member's own organisation.
Multiple or shared accounts. Exactly one account is permitted per natural person. Accounts may not be transferred or shared.
Misuse of personal data. Personal data made accessible through DHC membership may not be used for other purposes — in particular not for advertising, acquisition, third-party analytics, or profiling.
Publishing third-party projects without consent. Profiles may only be created for one's own projects, not for initiatives that fall under the responsibility of third parties without their explicit consent.

5. Personal data and privacy

The DHC processes personal data in accordance with the principles of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Members commit to respecting this framework in their own conduct on the platform:

Other members' contact data is used solely for the communication envisaged within the platform.
Content from Tier 2 or Tier 3 profiles, once released by a member, is not shared outside the platform without renewed consent.
Members who leave the DHC have a right to erasure of their data (GDPR Art. 17). Residual traces in audit logs are retained in pseudonymised form only where necessary for accountability purposes.

6. Visibility tiers — binding

The DHC defines three visibility tiers per profile:

Tier 1 — Open. Visible to every authenticated member.
Tier 2 — Domain. Visible only to members of the same organisational domain (e.g. military members only, NGOs only).
Tier 3 — Request. Only the project name, tags, and topic area are visible up front; full details are released only after individual approval by the profile owner.

Any attempt to circumvent these tiers technically or socially — including via multiple accounts in different domains, sharing of credentials, or automated scraping — is a serious violation and generally results in immediate removal.

7. Membership and identity

Access to the DHC is granted exclusively by invitation from an existing Trusted Member or from the DHC curatorium.
Members verify their identity through the official email address of their organisation. Where this is not feasible, the curatorium may request alternative confirmation.
Memberships are personal, not tied to an organisation. When members change organisation, they must update their profile data and, where applicable, their domain assignment.

8. Reporting concerns

Anyone who observes a violation of this CoC, or who is themselves affected, reports it directly to the DHC curatorium:

by email to the contact address listed in the imprint;
via the in-platform reporting feature (where already available).

Reports are treated confidentially. Retaliation against a reporting member is itself a violation of this CoC and is sanctioned accordingly.

9. Enforcement

The curatorium may respond to violations of this CoC in graduated steps:

Step	Measure
1	Notice to the member with a request for correction, with a deadline if appropriate.
2	Formal warning with file note; repetition leads to suspension.
3	Suspension of the account for a defined period; profiles are hidden during this time.
4	Permanent removal with deletion of the account and profile.
5	Notification of the inviting member and, where appropriate, of the affiliated organisation, to the extent necessary for clarification or to prevent further harm.

The choice of measure depends on the severity, recurrence, and where applicable intent of the violation. For particularly serious violations (e.g. publication of classified content, data misuse, targeted harassment), immediate removal without graduated steps is possible.

The curatorium decides by simple majority; a curatorium member who is conflicted recuses themselves. The affected member is given opportunity to respond, where this does not impair the procedure.

10. Governance and amendments

This CoC is administered by the DHC curatorium. Amendments take effect:

by curatorium decision adopted by qualified majority (at least two thirds of its members);
after notice to all members with reasonable lead time (at least 14 days);
on the effective date stated in the notice.

Members who do not accept an amendment may terminate their membership at any time — this does not constitute a violation.

11. Acknowledgement at onboarding

By registering with the DHC, every member confirms:

that they have read and understood this CoC;
that they accept it in full;
that they will publish unclassified content only;
that they will not engage in advertising, acquisition, or profiling;
that the personal and organisational details in their profile are accurate.

The acknowledgement is recorded technically (date, CoC version) and is a precondition for activation of the account. When the CoC is later amended, renewed acknowledgement is required before the member may continue to publish content.

12. Language and binding force

The German and English versions of this CoC are equally binding. In matters of interpretation, the meaning of the rule in the context of the DHC concept specification (in particular §3.3 Non-Goals, §4.3 visibility model, §6.2 Code of Conduct, §7 data protection and classification) is the primary reference.

Note: The German master version (CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md) and this English translation are maintained in parallel. Substantive changes to one require synchronised updates to the other before publication.

13. Contact

DHC Curatorium Digital Health Corner Project Directory [contact email — to be supplied before go-live] Web: https://digitalhealthcorner.eu

This Code of Conduct is a living document and is updated on the basis of experience with the platform. Suggestions and criticism are welcomed by the curatorium.