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Public Comment Opportunities

Public Comment is an opportunity for all stakeholders to provide input and feedback on all facets of ICANN’s work. Find and participate in Open community discussions, review past work and browse upcoming topics.

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Open for Public Comment

Open Date
Close Date

Identifier Technology Health Indicators: Definition

29 Nov 2016 23:59 UTC
9 Jan 2017 23:59 UTC
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Proposed ICANN Community Anti-Harassment Policy

7 Nov 2016 23:59 UTC
12 Jan 2017 23:59 UTC
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Continuous Data-Driven Analysis of Root Server System Stability Draft Report

27 Oct 2016 23:59 UTC
15 Jan 2017 23:59 UTC
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Updated Supplementary Procedures for Independent Review Process (IRP)

28 Nov 2016 23:59 UTC
25 Jan 2017 23:59 UTC
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Proposal for Thai Script Root Zone‬ Label Generation Rules (LGR)

15 Dec 2016 23:59 UTC
29 Jan 2017 23:59 UTC
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Proposed Renewal of .MOBI Sponsored Registry Agreement

23 Dec 2016 23:59 UTC
1 Feb 2017 23:59 UTC
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Recently Closed for Public Comment

Close Date
Report of Public Comments

Proposed Implementation of GNSO Thick RDDS (Whois) Transition Policy for .COM, .NET and .JOBS

15 Dec 2016 23:59 UTC
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Revised Proposed Implementation of GNSO Thick Whois Consensus Policy Requiring Consistent Labeling and Display of RDDS (Whois) Output for All gTLDs

12 Dec 2016 23:59 UTC
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Proposal for Lao Script Root Zone‬ Label Generation Rules (LGR)

10 Dec 2016 23:59 UTC
Report
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Draft PTI FY18 Operating Plan and Budget

10 Dec 2016 23:59 UTC
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Phase II Assessment of the Competitive Effects Associated with the New gTLD Program

5 Dec 2016 23:59 UTC
Report
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Proposed Amendment to .XXX Registry Agreement to Transition to New Fee Structure and to Adopt Additional Safeguards

1 Dec 2016 23:59 UTC
Report
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Middle East and Adjoining Countries 2016-2019 Strategy

17 Nov 2016 23:59 UTC
Report
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Latin American and Caribbean DNS Marketplace Study

1 Nov 2016 23:59 UTC
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Proposal for Georgian Script Root Zone‬ Label Generation Rules (LGR)

28 Oct 2016 23:59 UTC
Report
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Upcoming Public Comments

Estimated Timeline

A vital element in ICANN's processes is the opportunity for public comment on each substantial piece of work before it is considered for approval. In order to keep the community informed about future public comments, this page provides summary data for topics that are being considered with links to relevant documents that can provide fuller descriptions and background information where applicable. The topics and dates presented are offered as informed predictions of when certain forums are expected to be initiated, but should not be relied on as specific date announcements.

Upcoming public comments may be found on this page.

How Public Comment Works

Public Comment is a vital element in ICANN's decision-making process whereby the community is given an opportunity to comment upon proposals initiated by a working group or staff department. Each proceeding is open for at least 40 days. This page contains information about topics that are currently OPEN or have RECENTLY CLOSED.

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Staff Summary Report Inquiry

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Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."