https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/icann-introduces-members-of-the-new-ua-expert-working-group-26-08-2025-en

Congratulations to Abdalmonem, Nabil, and Sami for their nominations!

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is pleased to announce the members of the newly formed Universal Acceptance (UA) Expert Working Group (EWG), tasked with proposing guidelines for ICANN's work on UA adoption. Additional information regarding the group's purpose and scope of work can be found in the UA EWG charter.

UA EWG members include appointees from several ICANN Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees (SO/ACs), as well individuals invited by ICANN President and CEO Kurtis Lindqvist. The required qualifications for participants included demonstrated knowledge of UA and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), experience in multilingual Internet, and related expertise. ICANN welcomes the members of the UA EWG and appreciates their willingness to provide advice on this important topic.

SO/AC-nominated representatives:

• Abdalmonem Tharwat Galila, Governmental Advisory Committee
• Edmon Chung, At-large Advisory Committee
• Nabil Benamar, Security and Stability Advisory Committee
• Nitin Walia, Generic Names Supporting Organization
• Sami Mohamed Ali, Country Code Names Supporting Organization

ICANN President and CEO-appointed representatives:

• Cathy Wissink, Unicode Consortium
• Guilherme Canela, UNESCO
• Jiankang Yao, China Internet Network Information Center
• Richard Ishida, Worldwide Web Consortium
• Sean Bedford, Meta
• Thomas Mullaney, Stanford University

Edmon Chung of DotAsia and Sarmad Hussain, Senior Director of ICANN's IDN and UA programs, will serve as co-chairs, while James Galvin will be the ICANN Board Liaison to the UA EWG.