Page History

Purpose: The cross-community Geographic Regions Review Working Group has produced its Final Report in which it proposes a series of recommendations regarding the ongoing application of the organization’s geographic regions framework. The ICANN Board is interested in further community reaction to those recommendations and has instructed the Staff to open and manage a public comment period of at least 120 days to give the community an opportunity to thoroughly review the proposals and provide any additional comments on the working group recommendations.

Current Status: Community feedback is requested concerning the Working Group recommendations.

Next Steps: Upon completion of the public comment period, staff will summarize and forward any community input to the ICANN Board of Directors.

The cross-community Geographic Regions Review Working Group has produced its Final Report in which it proposes a series of recommendations regarding the ongoing application of the organization’s geographic regions framework. The ICANN Board is interested in further community reaction to those recommendations and has instructed the Staff to open and manage a public comment period of at least 120 days to give the community an opportunity to thoroughly review the proposals and provide any additional comments on the working group recommendations.

The Working Group’s Final Report provides an extensive series of conclusions, proposals and recommendations including:

1. The Working Group concludes that the general principle of geographic diversity is valuable and should be preserved.
2. Application of the geographic diversity principles must be more rigorous, clear and consistent.
3. Adjusting the number of ICANN geographic regions is not currently practical.
4. No other International Regional Structures offer useful options for ICANN.
5. ICANN must formally adopt and maintain its own unique Geographic Regions Framework.
6. The Community wants to minimize any changes to the current structure.
7. ICANN must acknowledge the sovereignty and right of self-determination of states to let them choose their region of allocation.
8. ICANN communities have flexibly applied geographic diversity principles over the years. While the Board should remain strictly subject to the current framework, flexibility should be preserved for other structures.
9. “Special Interest Groups” or “Cross-Regional Sub-Groups” offer new diversity opportunities.
10. Implementation mechanisms and processes must be developed by Staff; and
11. The Board must preserve its oversight and future review opportunities.

The comment period will give individuals and community groups an opportunity to thoroughly review the proposals and provide any additional comments on the working group recommendations.

The ICANN Board chartered a cross-community working group to (1) identify the different purposes for which ICANN’s Geographic Regions are used; (2) determine whether the uses ofICANN’s Geographic Regions (as currently defined, or at all) continue to meet the requirements of the relevant stakeholders; and (3) submit proposals for community and Board consideration relating to the current and future uses and definition of the ICANN Geographic Regions.

Over the course of its deliberations, the Working Group (1) reviewed the underlying history, objectives and general principles of ICANN’s Geographic Regions Framework, (2) identified the various applications and functions to which the regions framework has been applied by existing structures and the ICANN staff; and (3) engaged the ICANN community in an extensive collaborative dialogue about issues and potential solutions to maintain and potentially expand the value of the geographic regions framework for the entire community.

The Working Group concluded its work and presented its Final Report recommendations to the Chair of the ICANN Board on 4 November 2015. The Working Group recommended that the Board direct staff to manage a public comment forum period to give the community an opportunity to review and evaluate the recommendations and share comments with the Board before it begins its assessment of and deliberations on the recommendations. The Board agreed.

Final Report by the Geographic Regions Review Working Group [EN] [PDF, 409 KB]

[AR] [PDF, 283 KB]

[ES] [PDF, 377 KB]

[FR] [PDF, 331 KB]

[PT] [PDF, 313 KB]

[RU] [PDF, 323 KB]

[ZH] [PDF, 763 KB]