Cross-Constituency IDNC Working Group Finalized Its Proposal on Fast Track ccTLDs to the Board (26 June 2008)


On 26 June 2008, IDNC Working Group finalized its proposal on fast track implementation of IDN ccTLDs and submitted the same to the Board for review and approval. The Board passed the resolution on 26 June 2008 and acknowledged the pressing need for its implementation by identifying a timeline for the staff to submit the implementation report, i.e. before Cairo Meeing in November 2008. This is an important achievement for the user community.
The proposal is supported by both ccNSO and GAC. The final report is hereby attached.
On 25 June 2008, ccNSO Council made the following resolution on the draft Final Report of the IDNC WG:
I. To thank the IDNC WG for its hard work in producing the Final Report.
II. Welcomes the report and endorses the recommendations contained there in.
III. To ask the IDNC WG to submit the report to the ICANN Board, with the endorsement of the recommendations by the ccNSO.
IV. To request the Board to instruct the ICANN staff to prepare an implementation based on the recommendations contained in the report.
The council believes that the model of the IDNC WG has demonstrated the ability of the ICANN supporting organisations, advisory committees and technical community to work together in an efficient and effective manner.
On 25 June 2008, GAC published the following Paris Communiqué relating to IDN ccTLDs.
The GAC welcomes the results of the IDNC Working Group towards the development of the “fast track” methodology to allow on an exceptional basis the introduction of a limited number of country code IDN top level domains. The GAC believes the IDNC WG report and the recommendations contained therein provide the basis for the development of an implementation plan, and encourages the Board to initiate that process. The GAC looks forward to contributing to these implementation proposals.
The GAC would like to stress its support for a continuation of the multi-stakeholder approach for the consideration of these matters to date, which has been useful in identifying many of the key issues in the IDNC Working Group report, issues which now need to be addressed in order to achieve the early implementation of IDN ccTLDs.
The GAC also recalls its agreement in New Delhi that the substantive public policy provisions set out by the GAC in the "Principles and Guidelines for the delegation and administration of country-code Top Level Domains" (adopted by the GAC in 2005) are equally relevant to the introduction of IDN ccTLDs, in particular the principle of delegation and re-delegation. In this respect, the GAC emphasised that it is primarily for the local Internet community, including the relevant government or public authority, to determine the manner in which a string should be selected, the manner in which a registry operator should be selected and the registry policy that should apply for the selected IDN ccTLD.
The GAC also feels that it would be inappropriate for new IDN ccTLDs to be obliged to enter into contractual agreements with ICANN, not least because this could introduce further significant delay to the implementation process.
The GAC believes that, where it is appropriate for an applicant to provide authentication of the meaning of the selected string from an internationally recognised organisation, UNESCO could be one such organisation.
The GAC is willing to contribute further to the process of developing the IDN ccTLD general policy, which will replace the fast track in due course.
The GAC welcomed presentations by UNESCO and ITU representatives regarding proposed collaboration between their organizations and ICANN to advance multilingualism and its contribution to promoting inclusion, the development of local content and increased global access to the Internet. The GAC also notes the value of such cooperation among all relevant entities toward this goal (eg. ICANN, ISO, national and regional linguistic bodies).