NOTES | UAC | 12 November 2025 (8 UTC)

 

Action items



  1. Staff will post the 3 outcome documents from ICANN84 joint session between UAC and GAC UA-IDN WG on the UAC wiki
  2. Staff will share the additional document on the UAC mailing list, and seek comments from the UAC. Once finalised, the doc can be published and distributed more broadly
  3. Staff to reach out to Tech WG leadership team about the agreement to organise a joint session between Tech WG and UAC at ICANN85, on the topic of UA.
  4. Staff to schedule next meetings until ICANN85
  5. Staff to send reminder about UA Day proposal submissions to ccTLD community
  6. Seda to provide update on UA Day proposals vetting process at the next UAC meeting in 2 weeks time




  1. Welcome



2.            Admin matters



a.            SOI updates. 

 

None



b.    UA Day Announcement

 

https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/updated-icann-issues-call-for-ua-day-2026-proposals-07-11-2025-en 

 

This announcement is an update to an announcement issued on 9 October 2025, extending the proposal submission date from 9 November 2025 to 24 November 2025.



c.    UA Expert Group

 

Based on discussions yesterday, support system is being established. Way forward and expectations will become clearer

Abdalmomen: how to make the registry UA-ready. UASG tech group made a doc in the past. Front-end, back-end, mail applications and other applications

Sami: registrar tech capabilities. Bahrain is smaller in size. We need ICANN support. All bigger ones have IDNs and UA acceptability. We encourage icann to develop things to have ready for implementation

Abdalmomen: we need to prepare for new gTLD round.




3.            Review UAC session in Dublin

 

Bart: tech day at ICANN84, session by DASC and Tech WG. Focus on tools detecting DNS Abuse. Following discussion with Eberhard Lisse, the suggestion was to have a joint effort at ICANN85 between Tech WG and UAC on UA. Building on your discussion on technical, operational topics on UA. Nixi experience? Others that did work on technical adoption. Basic idea is to start having a discussion after this call. Eberhard to be involved after this. Presenters, followed by a light panel discussion at the end.

 

Abdalmomen: in 2013 IDN ccTLD Egypt created a hackathon to be UA ready. University project for computer engineers. UA for the health care environment. 

Bart: do you like the idea of organising the session?

Abdalmomen: yes.

Regina: yes. 

Bart: next step is to involve Tech WG, and to kick off session planning. Case studies could be an option. Think about the audience: doing an update on what happened in the past might not be useful. Keep it interesting, it is a great opportunity. Also for the UA Expert Group

 

Maria: I support the idea of the session. useful materials for the session:

 

We need success stories of those registries or RSP who have already implemented UA

We need success stories of those registries or RSPs who have already implemented UA

Systems with different modules. We need to go deeper. The audience is a tech audience. Maybe we could have group discussions on various models. Similar to a joint session with GAC. Decisions on how to make certain models. 

 

Bart: we will involve Tech WG and Eberhard. I will follow up via email. It would be great if the host country could be involved. That was his request, to involve NIXI.

 

Maria: Like Sami mentioned, we have different business models of registries. We could also consider approaches this way.

Bart: Let’s follow up at the next meeting. This deserves further discussion. 

 

Abdalmomen lists the UA sessions at ICANN84. He speaks to the joint UA session with GAC IDN WG. 

Bart: those who attended, what are your thoughts? How many GAC members attended? Abdalmomen himself, maybe the GAC Vice Chair Marco

Bart: why did they not attend?

Abdalmomen: capacity building session for broader audience would have been better. The GAC WG is not active. 

Bart: GAC WG is in process of being reestablished?

Abdalmomen: yes

Seda: There were up to 3-4 GAC people

Abdalmomen: I asked for a WG meeting at ICANN85. Staff said it was a good idea. Challenge to start at the early beginning. 

Bart: other feedback regarding the session?

Seda: very efficient. Important event. GAC and ccNSO members to interact and brainstorm. Time was not enough. Maybe in the long-term, we could do sth similar? Despite low number of GAC reps, it was a good session. Positive vibe. Maybe next time the joint session to be hosted by the GAC people, to increase the number of GAC representatives?

Sami: useful session. All keen to explore further, but time was limited. Mix about the GAC UA-IDN WG reestablishing. At each ccTLD level, people with GAC involvement (myself, Abdalmomen, Yuri, Thuy)

Bart: hard with the 2 groups. UAC is really in working mode, the other group moves at a different pace. Maybe to have this session was too early? We may need to support Abdalmomen in the process. Clearly  a GAC thing, not a ccNSO thing

Jiankang: discussion. Some suggestions were good. Leading to actions. In GAC. maybe we can propose some suggested actions to GAC? 

 

9k=

 

Bart: i prepared a doc with some proposed action items

Maria: GAC people could be better motivated by reps from international organisations. They like to listen to them. Might be a good idea to invite unesco, to show their great interest in the topic. Or maybe ITU, or Sarmad/Seda can show the international resolutions that support the requirements for multilingual domain names. That is the ordinary approach for GAC. they might not be aware that this is an international trend. 

Sami: good idea.

Bart: Good idea indeed. But, for the leadership to in GAC WG to think about how to involve GAC members. Not a task for the ccNSO

Abdalmomen: have a UA session in the GAC room at ICANN85. Sarmad finalised a doc. GAC WG sent input. Late, but taken into account.



4.            What is next?

 

Bart: we took the notes and the flipcharts, and used a tool to distill the emerging themes



 

Regina: Distill themes from this, for discussion at icann85

Bart: does it reflect the discussions?

Regina: FYI, we are submitting a proposal with eco for a tech masterclass organised by European Internet Forum in the European parliament on UA and IDN. One of the "selling points" is the connection to the UN agenda WSIS, SDG, UN decade on indigenous languages. All this is relevant for GAC and policy makers in general

Sami: this is very much what GAC is always discussing about WSIS and SDG.  So inclusivity will be very important player in encouraging the GAC members

QingCai: I missed the tech day discussions on UA. the materials are helpful in our UA process. Can ICANN separate the technical materials? The small steps are a good idea. That might help us to use the materials in the international companies. UASG had some materials in the past. Hard to read the whole materials. Too long, too detailed. Take small steps first. That might help.

Maria: agree with Qing Cai. materials are too elaborate. These outcomes from the session, the doc prepared by staff, are good. Shall we share them as official output of the session with the GAC WG? We could share them even broader, with GAC members? Not sure about the procedures. 

Bart: first make sure the docs are fully supported by those that joined the discussions

Sami: language is too complicated. Make an executive summary, and send it to GAC leadership, to show the fruitfulness of the discussion.

Bart: shows additional doc. Not previously shared with the group. Will be sent later. Based on the 3 docs, it includes the action items you asked for. Also includes monitoring progress.

 

Bart: 2 suggestions

 

Abdalmomen: I could share the 3 docs with the next meeting of the GAC UA-IDN WG. 



5.            Next meetings

 

26 November | 13:00 UTC

10 December | 08:00 UTC

14 January | 08:00 UTC

28 January | 13:00 UTC

11 February | 08:00 UTC

25 February | 13:00 UTC

ICANN85




6.            AOB

 

Seda: Reminder about the UA proposal deadline. No ccTLD proposals yet, apart from the ones we are already working on.

Regina: question regarding funding. Useless to submit a draft, if no funding is requested?

Seda: please submit nonetheless. Promotion via icann.

Regina: how will the evaluations happen? Do you need help from UAC?

Seda: for discussion. Any suggestions?

Regina: just wondering about the plans. If needed, I could make myself available

Bart: can you give update at the next meeting about the vetting process?

Qing Cai: will there be a global UA Day?

Seda: no. executives are busy with new gTLD round. No need for global event. But regional events with more focus.



7.            Closure

 

Bye all

 

 

 

 

Joke Braeken

joke.braeken@icann.org