The ALAC believes that the avoidance of user confusion in the use of domain names is of paramount importance;
The ALAC believes that the deployment of IDN TLDs should be expedited;
On 24 August 2016, the ALAC issued Statement AL-ALAC-ST-0816-01-00-EN supporting the recommendations of the ccNSO Extended Process Similarity Review Panel (EPSRP) Working Group (see https://community.icann.org/x/Ag6bAw);
On 31 August 2016, the SSAC released its Advisory SAC084 ( https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/sac-085-en.pdf) raising security and stability concerns based on potential user confusability with the proposed process;
During ICANN58 in Copenhagen, the ALAC met with both the SSAC and the ccNSO to discuss the issue;
The ALAC was made aware of a possible methodology to resolve the issue – specifically, accept that at two character IDN string may be confusingly similar in its own right, but that the impact on end-users could be mitigated by registry policy;
If such mitigation is committed to by the registry and is considered as part of the evaluation process, the issue of user confusion can be reduced;

Therefore:

The ALAC rescinds its statement AL-ALAC-ST-0816-01-00-EN.
The ALAC encourages all concerned bodies to find a path forward that will not compromise security and stability or the rigour of confusability evaluation processes while ensuring timely deployment of IDN TLDs.

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