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Implementing Policy at ICANN

ICANN coordinates the Internet's unique identifiers – domain names and IP addresses – across the world and defines policies for how these identifiers should run (learn more). Policies for generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are developed within the Generic Names Supporting Organization's (GNSO) Policy Development Processes (PDPs). Once the policy recommendations emerging from these PDPs are approved by the ICANN Board, ICANN's Global Domains Division (GDD) implements them according to guidelines established in the Consensus Policy Implementation Framework (v2018) (CPIF).

How is Policy Implemented?

The CPIF is a five-stage process designed to make implementations predictable and transparent. During each implementation project, GDD staff consults with the wider community by:

  1. Assembling a team of volunteer experts—an Implementation Review Team, or IRT—in the relevant subject matter to provide advice and support.
  2. Conducting public comment periods on proposed plans and methods.

Graphic of How are gTLD Policies Implemented?

Learn more. View the CPIF infographic:
English | العربية | Español | Français | Português | Pусский | 中文

Policy Effective Dates

Policies developed within the GNSO and implemented by GDD affect many companies and organizations in the domain name industry. ICANN has committed to simplifying implementation via the Policy Change Calendar Initiative [PDF, 166 KB], which aims to provide contracted parties with a consistent, predictable timetable for updating their operations to meet new policy requirements.

Since May 2015, GDD has worked to bundle the announcement and effective dates for related policies. Policies within a bundle are announced together, which triggers a window of at least six months for contracted parties to update their operations to ensure compliance with the new policies. Effective dates are the same for all policies in a bundle, which are noted in the announcement.

Learn more about the policy change calendar initiative [PDF, 166 KB].

Implementation Projects In Progress

Registration Data Policy for All gTLDs (EPDP Phase 1 Implementation)

Rights Protection Mechanisms Implementation

Subsequent Procedures Implementation

Implementation Projects On Hold

Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation

Translation and Transliteration of Contact Information

Protection of IGO and INGO Identifiers in All gTLDs

Policy Development Processes

The following are GNSO PDPs nearing completion that may result in consensus policy recommendations. If the ICANN Board approves these recommendations, they will become implementation projects to be carried out by GDD staff:

Transfer Policy Review Policy Development Process

Expedited Policy Development Process for Internationalized Domain Names

High Level Timeline showing ongoing Policy Development Processes and Implementation Projects from 2022-2024.

Updated 15 December 2023

Click here to download the PDF version of the Implementation Projects Timeline with clickable links.

Policy Reviews

Per the mandate of the "Support and Review" phase of the CPIF, ICANN org and the GNSO Council periodically produce and review Policy Status Reports in order to assess the effectiveness and impact of an implemented Consensus Policy.

Policy Status Report: Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy

Resources

ccNSO Implementation Materials

Implementation Guidelines

Next Round Status Updates

Policy Research and Stakeholder Programs Briefings

Relevant ICANN org webpages

Archives

The CPIF provides that ICANN org periodically revisit the Framework to encapsulate additional best practices or to adjust the steps as a result of lessons learned with previous Consensus Policy projects. Previous versions and tracking of changes between versions are archived in this section for reference.

Consensus Policy Implementation Framework (v2015) [PDF, 594 KB]

Completed Implementation Projects

Year

Activity/Working Group

2016

PDP- Thick WHOIS

2016

PDP - Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy Part D

2015

PDP - Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy Part C

2015

PDP - Locking of a Domain Name (UDRP Lock)

2015

PDP - Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy Part B

2013

PDP - Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Policy

2009

PDP - Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy Part A

2008

AGP (Add Grace Period) Limits Policy (Domain Tasting)

2008

Whois Conflicts with Privacy Law

2007

Policies for Contractual Conditions for Existing gTLDs

2007

PDP – Introduction of New Generic Top-Level Domains

2005

PDP - Registry Services Evaluation Process

2004

Expired Domain Deletion Policy

2004

Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy

2004

Restored Names Accuracy Policy

2004

Whois Marketing Restriction Policy

2003

Whois Data Reminder Policy

Contact Information

For questions or comments please contact: gdd-implementation@icann.org

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."