Dear Councilors, On behalf of the GNSO Council leadership, staff is circulating the proposed GNSO Council response, developed by the leadership team, to the ICANN Board regarding the request for continued deferral of IDN Implementation Guidelines v4.0. Taking into account the presentation by RySG Councilors on 16 December 2021, this letter provides a direct response to the Board questions and suggested approach to move forward with the IDN Implementation Guidelines v4.0. Highlight of the letter: * The IDN implementation guidelines that overlap with IDNs EPDP charter questions and should continue being deferred are: 6a, 11, 12, 13, and 18 * While the RySG did not identify 6a as an overlapping item, upon further review by the GNSO Council leadership, it in fact overlaps with IDNs EPDP charter question c6. See annex of the letter for details. * Based on the understanding that non-overlapping guidelines are part of the currently applicable IDN Guidelines 3.0 and/or additional non-mandatory guidelines not covered in IDNs EPDP’s charter, the letter provides support for Board’s suggestion that those non-overlapping guidelines should move forward for Board adoption. In the absence of objections by Thursday, 20 January 2022, this letter will be sent to the ICANN Board as the GNSO Council response. Thank you for your review. Best Regards, Ariel Ariel Xinyue Liang Policy Sr. Specialist Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)