Dear CPWG Members,

As mentioned in today’s CWPG call, please see the forwarded email below for an update regarding Latin Diacritics from GNSO Support Staff to the GNSO Council. Please note that the GNSO Council will meet at 21:00 UTC on Thursday, 18 April 2024 to discuss this under Agenda Item 5: Council Discussion - Diacritics in Latin Script.

Dear Councilors,

As you may have seen, the April Council meeting is scheduled to have an update on the research and analysis ICANN org has performed to understand the mechanism(s) that might be available to progress the work related to Latin diacritics. While we will provide a more comprehensive update during the Council meeting, we wanted to share an early preview of the update, as it may have implications on the Council’s vote on a subset of the SubPro Supplemental Recommendations. In brief, our recommended approach is for the Council to consider modifying/amending the non-adopted recommendations related to string similarity (i.e., Recommendations 24.3 and 24.5) if it wants to take up the issue of Latin diacritics. Under the ICANN Bylaws and GNSO Operating Procedures, there are two avenues to pursue this path, which are either Section 16 of the PDP Manual [gnso.icann.org] (see page 10) or the Supplemental Recommendation process, as employed by the Small Team Plus.

With the Council’s consideration and potential adoption of Supplemental Recommendations 24.3A, 24.3B, and 24.3C during its April meeting, there may be challenges to using either Section 16 or the Supplemental Recommendation process to progress the Latin diacritics issues:

1. Section 16: The PDP Manual states that, “approved GNSO Council policies may be modified or amended by the GNSO Council at any time prior to the final approval by the ICANN Board…”. If the Council approves Supplemental Recommendations 24.3A, 24.3B, and 24.3C AND they are adopted by the ICANN Board, this option would no longer be available (i.e., “final approval” will have occurred).
2. Supplemental Recommendations: If the Council approves Supplemental Recommendations 24.3A, 24.3B, and 24.3C, the Council would not be able to develop further Supplemental Recommendations related to Latin diacritics.

We understand the Council has committed to taking action on the Supplemental Recommendations during its April meeting, so we believe it is important to provide you with this information in advance of your meeting for effective planning and decision-making. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Best,

Steve

Transcripts and recordings of GNSO Working Group and Council events are located on the GNSO Master Calendar