Dear all,

ICANN announced the successful completion of String Evaluation of the proposed Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) country coded top-level domain (ccTLD) string for Mauritania. Details of the evaluation are provided here: http://www.icann.org/en/resources/idn/fast-track/string-evaluation-completion[icann.org].

The IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) ccTLD Fast Track Process was approved by the ICANN Board at its annual meeting in Seoul, South Korea on 30 October 2009. First requests were received starting 16 November 2009. The process enables countries and territories to submit requests to ICANN for IDN ccTLDs, representing their respective country or territory names in scripts other than Latin. IDN ccTLD requesters must fulfill a number of requirements:

the script used to represent the IDN ccTLDs must be non-Latin;
the languages used to express the IDN ccTLDs must be official in the corresponding country or territory; and
a specific set of technical requirements must be met (as evaluated by an external DNS Stability Panel comprised of DNS and IDN experts).

The request and evaluation processes entail three steps:

Preparation (by the requester in the country / territory): Community consensus is built for which IDN ccTLD to apply for, how it is run, and which organization will be running it, along with preparing and gathering all the required supporting documentation. Requests are submitted through an online system together with additional material supporting the process athttp://forms.icann.org/idn/apply.php[forms.icann.org]
String Evaluation: Requests are evaluated in accordance with the technical and linguistic requirements for the IDN ccTLD string(s) criteria described above.
String Delegation: Requests successfully meeting string evaluation criteria are eligible to apply for delegation following the same ICANN IANA process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs. Requesters submit string delegation requests to IANA root zone management: root-mgmt@iana.org.

With this announcement, 58 string requests for a total of 40 countries/territories have successfully passed through the String Evaluation. Of these, 56 IDN ccTLDs representing 38 countries/territories are delegated in the DNS root zone, with the remainder either readying to apply, or actively applying for delegation of the string. Up-to-date information about the IDN Fast Track Program will continue to be provided on the Fast Track Process web page at https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/fast-track-2012-02-25-en[icann.org].

ICANN looks forward to enabling the availability of non-Latin country-code domains for countries that meet the Fast Track Process requirements. ICANN will continue to accept new string evaluation requests in the Fast Track Process. Staff support is available to help all countries and territories interested in participating in the Fast Track Process. Please email IDNProgram@icann.org for any inquiries for participation.

Best regards,

Joke Braeken

ccNSO Policy Advisor

joke.braeken@icann.org

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