NOTES | UAC | 25 March 2026 at 14:00 UTC 1. Welcome Apologies by Abdalmonem Welcome by Regina 2. Admin matters a. SoI update Consult the ccNSO SOI Guideline<https://ccnso.icann.org/en/about/ccnso-internal-procedure-general-soi-coi-21...> Complete the SOI template<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRpehiCw2ty2PYRiaPG0K3lZSKk9LrLPQe...> Check the ccNSO Statements of Interest<https://community.icann.org/x/doAFEg> b. UA-Day 2026 Anna: issues with receiving e-mail from Regina. Regina to contact Anna via messenger. Bart: status of UA Day 2026 preparations? Any role for UAC? Seda: first UA Day event was yesterday. With ITU and EURid. General events will continue until 30 May. Different type of events. Lasting 6 hours. Adoption requirements. Some of them met, some of them pending. May not be able to complete the requirements in time. Deadline for live cons will be extended. Last week materials were published: presentations, awareness videos, academia presentations. Other videos from Tripti and Kurtis and UNESCO coming soon. Additional comms packages are shared with UA Day event organisers. Speakers are being introduced to the hosts.UNESCO will join many of the events. Strengthen the regional events. Executives or board members included in the regional events. Regina: regarding the event yesterday. Regional development forum ITU in Prague yesterday. Memorandum of understanding with ICANN to further UA. We held a cocktail. Janis from ICANN explained UA and what ICANN is doing with UNESCO, and spoke about activities, past and upcoming. I spoke on behalf of eurid. We showed visuals from icann and EURid. Janis was also in a panel. Also relevant to other stakeholders: e.g. postal scope. Good feedback from gvt people. They liked the idea. We gave them an understanding of what it means. Emails need to work in state applications and services Masha: please share a link about the event. Interesting! Our local initiative: one regional strategic event in Armenia. Colleagues will join, including Anna, Regina, Belarus colleagues. Multilingualism being discussed: content, and engagement with the gvt and academic community. We wait for participation from unesco, icann, ITU, with many people joining in person. The event will be hosted by the European university of Armenia. A chance to prepare them better and increase their UA skills. One adoption event in Moldova. Exercise was prepared and checked. They wait for further follow-up from Seda and ICANN colleagues. They need help with trainers. It is ongoing, end April. Time is running out. 31 of March, the event will be held in our region. Regina: https://www.itu.int/itu-d/meetings/rdf/wp-content/uploads/sites/31/2026/03/R... Seda: https://www.itu.int/itu-d/meetings/rdf/home/rdf-2026/europe/home/ Bart: secretariat could share the links to the members list. For awareness purposes Seda: event in Armenia. https://uaday.am/en/2026-eng/ Sharing the events with other hosts, we will do that Bart: should we send the link to the ccTLD managers? Seda: Registration to Armenia event: https://uaday.am/forma/ Andrew: Question: Are the resources available to those who got training in preparation for UA day in respective countries? Seda: yes. Resources available to all. Only the logos are only for the organisers. Seda: UA Day events and materials: https://www.icann.org/ua-day-2026-events-en that includes presentations, videos, and comms package. Logos are sent to contracted organizers. We are introducing the UNESCO and ICANN speakers to the event hosts so they are included in the agenda and event preparation. We will strengthen the regional events. Seda: See materials on https://universalacceptance.day/ = https://www.icann.org/ua-day-2026 c. Looking back at ICANN85 i. Work session (weekend) Bart: light attendance, due to travel issues etc. Any views on the working session over the weekend? Regina: smooth experience as a remote participant. Went as intended. ii. Joint Tech Day session (Monday) Vadim: experience from a presenter perspective was great. Sorry to miss Abdalmonem today. He was a good moderator. Sami also joined the discussions. The topic of the session was very innovative. Usage of AI regarding UA problems and technical issues around that. Really insightful. I underline NIXI’s presentation. I knew that there are a lot of IDN domains and lots of work happening there. But it was interesting news. Rajiv presented in the first part of Tech Day. They have in product prototype interesting results for detection. Sami: It was a good initiative to have this as part of Tech Day. The session timing needs to be readjusted, to ensure sufficient time to have everyone’s point of view. The topic was good. Let’s plan ahead for the next 2 icann meetings. Have people from different regions share their perspectives. Bart: panel with 5 people makes it hard to have a real dialogue. Quick sound bites, then you need a broader panel. Balancing act. Vadim: the presentation by Arnt. great overview of the most used technical and program spec. Great overview of the most popular program products. Status of support. Look at that presentation. Seda: good and informative. Some comments received. Work on UA through AI. thanks for planning and organising. Between monday and thursday, better slot to have this. Bart: this was on monday. The joint session with Tech Day Seda: For more UA and AI content, you may wish to join CODI’s UA Day Regional Event: https://www.codi.global/newsroom/ua-day-2026 on 28 May. Maria: UAC to organise webinar with ICANN on the UA Roadmap. For registries. I see webinars in euralo etc communities. Icann is preparing some documents with overview of how AI technologies can be used for UA adoption. Please share with ccnso members once available and publish in the library. Important to share. Bart: during the working session over the weekend we briefly discussed the publication from the UA Expert Group. You discussed the submission of a public comment. Stressing the importance of AI Sami: using the latest technology. But technology will evolve. Make it adoptive in the culture of the organisations, academia, gvt, small governments. Bart: is the public comment still open? Seda: Public comment deadline 13 April 2026 | 23:59 https://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/proceeding/draft-guidelines-for-adva... Bart: if UAC wants to make a submission to the public comment, we need a drafting team Sami: yes, comment would be good. Bart: any volunteers to draft the comment by UAC? Maria volunteers Regina: Abdalmomen, myself and Maria volunteered. Please set up the google doc. What is missing from the ccTLD point of view? Let’s focus on that. Bart: yes, will be in your inbox by tomorrow afternoon. Maria: abdalmonenm’s suggestion. Contribution for the global dialogue in the field of IG. WSIS, IGF … keep the topic on their agenda. That is important. I checked the report. Some mentioning is already there. No huge problem for the report. But perhaps suggest better wording? Bart: Sami to be included in the drafting team Maria: you were going to check with Council if UAC is empowered to do so? Bart: we did check. You are empowered to do so. 3. Two pager introducing UA a. Discussion/ finalizing two pager introducing UA: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ivoxHF42kYpT4F1uL0Q0g4BLFtjJww5XV5fpQO74... Bart: thanks to Regina and Maria for reviewing. Please highlight fundamental issues Maria: What is the audience? The title says “for ccTLDs and local communities”. We should probably be focus on language local communities? Or technical local communities. Bart: let’s delete the “for ccTLDs and local communities” from the title. Based on Dublin discussions. Keep it high level. Maria: consistently? Equally? Bart: no hick-up Regina: difficult to come up with the definition Let’s use the definition that UASG came up with. Do not confuse people. Universal Acceptance (UA) is a fundamental principle for building an inclusive, multilingual digital environment. It ensures that all domain names and email addresses – regardless of script, language, or character set – are fully recognized and function seamlessly across digital platforms and services. By enabling people to use the internet in their own languages and writing systems, UA supports cultural and linguistic diversity and strengthens equal participation in the digital sphere. IDNs’ are not mentioned Maria: new gTLDs neither. If we cover UA, we should not only focus on IDNs. We should mention it probably at one place. Regina: depends on the focus. Bart: KISS. keep it as simple as possible. The more you want to include, the more you need to explain. Maria: hence my question about the audience Regina: field of operation of ccTLDs. In the sense of “countries”. Maria: for the ccTLDs and their local communities Bart: what is your concern? Maria; local communities is too general. What does it mean? Regina: Why UA matters for ccTLDs? Maria: for some ccTLDs, the new gTLD aspect is also relevant Regina: understand. It will be good to publish this. We can always add chapters for the new round, for backend providers etc… in a later phase. Explain what it is, why it matters, what standards to follow, and what to do to get ready. Keep it simple. Expand in future. Bart: let’s not reinvent the wheel. This is to summarise the UASG documentation. You have the broader references included. It is a high level intro. Regina: let’s add this in the intro. Most relevant highlights for ccTLDs, based on 10 years of UASG work Maria: links missing Bart: noted. See chapter 5. I am working on that. Maria: if we mention unicode, we should also refer to UT#58 Seda: whitepaper. Old document. By icann and aptld. Was replaced by the Roadmap. Avoid referencing to UASG. is no longer active. We can refer to the sunsetting. Let’s not raise any expectations. Bart: the documents are all overtaken? Seda: no. no harm to refer to them. About UASG, how they work …. Do not raise expectations Regina: not describe what UASG is. But to say at the start of the doc that this is based on decommissioned UASG. Maria: not mention the number of the doc. Only the names of the docs. Regina: if we have direct links, we can ignore the numbers Bart: will clean up and let you know next week where we are at. Maria: clearly mention that the UASG has completed its work. The charter referred to a 10-year mandate. It was closed after exactly 10 years. Bart: ok Remaining agenda items deferred to a next meeting b. What to do with doc? Circulation to ccNSO members/ccTLD managers, include in repository? Circulate to others? 4. Workplan: Update UAC workplan.docx<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o3tPVX9DeIRrEQOw0S--zN8tRT8kzNB_/edit> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/docs.google.com/document/d/1o3tPVX9DeIRrE...> a. Final reading b. Next work item Regina: please all have a look at the draft workplan by 8 April. Bart: rather; 22 April 5. Next meetings 8 April 2026: 8 am UTC · Draft public comment · Finalise the 2-pager · UA Day Event updates 22 April 2026: 13.00 UTC · workplan 6 May 2026: 8 am UTC 6. AOB none 7. Adjourn Meeting ended with 10 min overtime Thank you all! Joke Braeken joke.braeken@icann.org<mailto:joke.braeken@icann.org>