Today, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) opened a call for nominations for members of a new Universal Acceptance (UA) Expert Working Group of up to 12 volunteers to provide guidance on promoting UA adoption.
ICANN is inviting the At-large Advisory Committee, Country Code Names Supporting Organization, Governmental Advisory Committee, Generic Names Supporting Organization, and Security and Stability Advisory Committee to each submit one nomination by 25 June 2025. In addition, the ICANN President and CEO will invite a chair and up to six experts to join.
Scope of Work
The expert working group will propose guidelines for ICANN's work on UA adoption based on input from targeted stakeholders, including:
- Big Tech and Open-Source Organizations: Update applications and services to support UA.
- Tech Developers and System Administrators: Ensure existing and new software applications support UA and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).
- Domain Name System (DNS) Industry and Related Businesses: Encourage generic top-level domain (gTLD) and country code top-level domain registries, registrars, registry service providers, resellers, hosting providers, Internet service providers, and others to become UA-ready.
- Internet Governance and Policy Professionals: Raise the visibility of UA and its importance to the multilingual Internet within international organizations, intergovernmental organizations, and governments.
Required Expertise of Nominees
The nominees must have demonstrated knowledge of UA and IDNs and expertise in one or more of the following areas:
- Technical challenges and solutions for UA.
- Technical training for promoting the use of IDNs and UA.
- IDNs and/or Email Address Internationalization.
- Internet governance or public policy work related to digital inclusion and a multilingual Internet.
UA Expert Working Group meetings will be recorded and publicly posted, along with supporting materials.
Work Plan
The UA Expert Working Group is anticipated to meet on a weekly basis to discuss issues and develop proposed deliverables on the agreed timeline. The tentative steps and timeline are as follows:
- 25 June 2025: Nominations due.
- July 2025: Working group members finalized and work commences.
- November 2025: Draft report based on the scope of work published for Public Comment.
- February 2026: Guidelines finalized and published.
Additional Background
Universal Acceptance ensures that all valid domain names and related email addresses, regardless of length, language, or script, work seamlessly on the Internet. Achieving UA-readiness is essential to enabling a more digitally inclusive and multilingual Internet. Universal Acceptance is included in ICANN's FY21–25 Strategic Plan and remains an area of focus in the FY26–30 Strategic Plan as a key driver for facilitating digital inclusion. UA and IDNs are also key components of the New gTLD Program: Next Round, which will expand competition, innovation, and consumer choice in the DNS.