[NCSG-PC] [Time Sensitive] Update on Mechanism(s) to Address Latin Diacritics and Question

Mon Apr 15 01:04:40 EEST 2024

Hi NCSG,

Below is an important matter that needs your input and guidance. This is
related to diacritics, which I believe @Tapani Tarvainen
<ncsg at tapani.tarvainen.info> and @Stephanie Perrin
<stephanie.perrin at mail.utoronto.ca> have opinions about. But there is an
additional procedural issue surrounding how the diacritics issue is
potentially resolved that needs our attention.

For a brief background for those who've not followed the diacritics issue,
an applied-for IDN gTLD string in the Latin script containing diacritics
(e.g .Québec versus .Quebec), which is NOT an allocatable variant label of
the base ASCII string (existing or applied-for) according to RZ-LGR, are
sometimes seen as equivalents. In some instances however, the base ASCII
string is seen as a workaround and not necessarily “correct”. The base
ASCII string and the Latin diacritic string  may be determined to be
confusingly similar (i.e., in which case, the strings would be placed in a
contention set or if an existing gTLD is involved, the applied-for label
would not pass the String Similarity Review and therefore be rejected - the
case of .Quebec).

As you may also be aware, the Council Small Team Plus has been working to
address some SubPro recommendations not adopted by the Board and one of
them is Recommendation 24 - which relates to string similarity singular and
plurals and this is up for council vote on April 18.

ICANN staff is suggesting that the Council delays that vote and modify that
recommendation to allow the same entity to apply for (and obtain) a
visually similar string if the similarity is diacritic base (case of Québec
and .Quebe).  What this means is that if the council accepts this approach,
it may need to task the current Small Team + on SubPro to study this
diacritic issue and propose a recommendation on diacritics as part of
Recommendation 24.

My question to you is:

   1. Should our councillors vote to allow SubPro Rec 24 to be used to
   address the diacritics issue?
   2. Should the Small team Plus be tasked with this additional work of
   developing a proposed supplemental recommendation that addresses the
   diacritics issue?

Warmly,
Tomslin

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Steve Chan via council <council at gnso.icann.org>
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2024 at 07:15
Subject: [council] Interim Update on Mechanism(s) to Address Latin
Diacritics
To: council at gnso.icann.org <council at gnso.icann.org>

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
<https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/file/field-file-attach/annex-2-pdp-manual-15mar23-en_0.pdf#page=10>
 (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

*Steven Chan*

VP, Policy Development Support & GNSO Relations

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

12025 Waterfront Drive, Suite 300

Los Angeles, CA 90094-2536

Email: steve.chan at icann.org

Skype: steve.chan55

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