NOTES ICANN85 | UAC Saturday, 7 March 2026 https://sched.co/2GwYJ ________________________________ 1. Welcome and housekeeping Housekeeping intro by Claudia Welcome by Abdolmanem 2. UA Session during ICANN85 Tech Day: final preparations and heads up 3. Finalising the UAC Work plan<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o3tPVX9DeIRrEQOw0S--zN8tRT8kzNB_/edit> Bart: made following the Dublin discussions. Between now and the Seville meeting, items to be completed. Originally Mumbai, but prep for ICANN85 was intense. Purpose of this document is to inform people who are not familiar with UA. ccTLDs working with UA, to inform their stakeholders.
motivation toolkit
Successful journeys to assist ccTLDs in their interactions with gvt and other stakeholders to inform them about positive experiences and the need for UA. Assist gvt. Is there a role for UAC? Abdalmonem: if we have scope of work to share with GAC-UAIDN WG. how to cooperate in the future? What do you think? Bart; this is the outcome of the session in Dublin. There were not many representatives from GAC at the time. If UAC thinks it is a good idea, who am I to question this? This is the result of the discussions. Abdalmonem: attended the GAC UA-IDN WG earlier today. Human rights. Collaborate with UNESCO. ccTLD is the local community. Bart: add it as a separate working item. To date, there has been only one session. You invited them, but not well attended. What is the status? What does UAC want? Wait for the GAC group? Or already start work, and share outcomes for comments? This group is well established and has a good working pace Abdalmomen: our ccTLD in Egypt is part of the gvt. What about others? Bart: even though the ccTLD manager for Egypt is gvt -related, there are about 35 % of the ccTLDs in the same situation. The ccTLDs participate equally, independent of their governance model. As chair you can reach out and see if there is a willingness to cooperate Regina: ccTLDs to reach out to their neighbours or colleagues in the region. Bart: outreach to regional org will be included in the work plan. To all 4 of them? Sami: what do you want from the RO’s? I am on the APTLD Board. I can help. Abdalmonem: UA adoption. It should be from ccTLDs itself to go to the RO’s. focus on adoption, not awareness Sami: what we did with ICANN, like what we did in Bahrain. University program for UA. Push through APTLD. Spoke with Sarmad about training program. Reason for doing this engagement. APTLD is all ccTLDs. We can do an MoU. Use the ICANN MoU? We can use both directions Regina: i do not see emergency for more MoU or institutionalised approach. We have the ccNSO membership and this group at ccNSO. Each of us in the WG need to try to find one or 2 allies. Aim for a country event. E.g UA Day 2027. Small work, but concrete. Rather than a declaration. Bart: the ccNSO is not mandated to enter into arrangements. ccNSO is part of ICANN. Does not have the mandate to enter into a MoU. This is a platform for ccTLDs from various regions to share info What is the value of an MoU? Abdalmomen: ICANN, UASG, and RO in the past. Now, bottom up process. Format between UAC or ccNSO and other RO’s. different now. Now we have the UA Expert Group, that will have guidelines. Bart: you are a member of both. Why have the vehicle? You drive the agenda Abdalmomen: have the RO Reps at the table. Masha: i would suggest to look at the list of tasks. Prioritise them. What to do now, later? All these tasks are regarding how to make a ccTLD ready. I agree and support. One task regarding the procurement policies. I agree with Abdalmonem. Should be discussed again. The GAC WG might have its own plans and tasks. If this group gives guidance to the gvt, we do not need to repeat this work. Unsure what the plans are for this group. We can ask Abdalmonem. UAC can only make recommendations. We already have 2 docs in the workplan. Procurmeent policies. Second comment. Regarding RO’s. Agree with Bart. More clearly formulate what the task is about, regarding cooperation with ROs, What do we want to achieve? Now UAC works on recommendations for ccTLDs. This is a global community. Most ccTLDs are already part of the ROs. * Procurement policies Regarding the cases: UAC can be helpful and put together the well-know initiatives from the governments. See GAC session today, regarding Indian experience. Bart: I suggest to alert the UA-IDN WG Based on successful cases, alert the WG. working on model procurement language might be helpful. Recommendation, not drafting language itself. Vadim: there are ccTLDs that are members of the RO, but not ccNSO. In that case we can involve them, if we interact with RO’s. Bart: hardly any, but in principle Vadim: .su for instance. They are a member of APTLD Bart: any other comments regarding the workplan? If not, we close the discussion on the workplan. Upcoming meeting, finalize the work plan. Then start implementing the work plan. 4. Review of work item 1: Create clear UA definition document (proposed draft<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ETwCdur23lTE9Oa5pxAuvcy8jx-PZjLMXYbK2aWW...>) Bart: the first strawman is available. Ready to be shared outside the group as well. Abdalmomen: this only refers left to right script Add another right-left example please Masha: does it include references to previous work? Roadmap for ccTLDs included? If not, please add it in the references. Bart: add one sentence, and then reference to the doc Sarmad: Here is the document Maria is referring to: https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/ua-roadmap-registry-registrar-sy... Masha: agree Regina: agree. Address ccTLDs who do not have IDNs at second or first level just yet. Show technical enabler of IDNs as a next step. This doc as starting point for ccTLDs at different levels of UA adoption Bart: we will update at next meeting, and revisit at the next UAC meeting. Any additional comments on the document? Does it capture what people had in mind? If so, please check your green boxes. Green ticks only. 5. Public comment on: draft Guidelines for Advancing UA Adoption<https://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/proceeding/draft-guidelines-for-adva...> a. What is the Guideline about?<https://itp.cdn.icann.org/en/files/ua-ewg/guidelines-for-advancing-universal...> b. Next steps for UAC Abdalmonem: UA Expert Group. Sami as ccNSO appointee. Draft guideline out for comments. Encourage ccTLDs, hosting providers, governments, open source communities. Software development, be compliant. Submissions close 13 April. Shared it with the chair of the UA Expert WG. validity or lifetime for ICANN? This document does not point to new technologies for AI. Sami: i will not be sharing a presentation. I can speak to it during UA Tech Day. standards. Coordination is needed. Platform, service providers etc Cctlds and gvts to be clear. Sami lists several points (notes missing, due to speed of speaking) Sami: agree that it would be nice that AI systems should be trained to work better with domain names. How? Usually when we talk about AI systems and how they should be ready for multilingualism. Not sure if it is within scope of UAC? People use AI to create websites. It is easy, and tools exist. Complicate question. It can reflect that UA should be considered as digital inclusion problem. Does it match the scope of the Expert Group? Task for ICANN org? Not sure if it is reflected in the report. UA issues discussed in IGF and WSIS. Should be reflected in the report. ICANN to continue its work in its agenda on IG. Work is ongoing. Important point. Sarmad: icann to expose more tools. Once we have concrete findings we will share with the community. More detailed session on UA Expert WG Guidelines tomorrow. Please join our session. Bart: does UAC wants to submit a comment? Abdalmonem: yes please Bart: UAC is not mandated. I will inform Council. Also, we need drafters. Who is willing to draft the comment? Masha to prepare bullet points, and staff can help to convert this into a submission? Abdalmomen: new UAC subgroup? Bart: volunteers from UAC, and they draft a proposal, UAC approves as a full group on the next meeting on the 25th. Then submit. Regina: council involvement? Bart: council does not need to approve. Council will need to mandate you. See mandate SOPC. We can ask Council to approve on Thursday a resolution that UAC is mandate to submit this comment. Regina: I volunteer. Perhaps Masha as well? Bart: staff will circulate the google doc tomorrow. 6. Next meetings: 25 March 2026: 14.00 UTC 8 April 2026: 08.00 UTC 22 April 2026: 14.00 UTC 7. AOB none 8. Adjourn Abdalmomen: thanks all. Meeting adjourned. Joke Braeken joke.braeken@icann.org<mailto:joke.braeken@icann.org>