Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Skip to main content

Procedures for the Self-Selection of ccNSO Regions Under the Provisions of Clause 4 of Section 4 of the ICANN Bylaws

Last Updated:
  1. Introduction

    At its meeting on 2 October 2007 the ccNSO Council adopted the Final Report of the Geographic Regions Working Group, including its recommendation that for purposes of the ccNSO a member of the ccNSO may opt to be re-assigned to an ICANN Geographic Region with which the ccTLD Manager and the Government believe the country or territory has the closest geographic, language, cultural and economic ties. It was recommended that only territories i.e. ccTLD managers are eligible who are assigned by ICANN to a Geographic Region on the basis of “citizenship”. This document sets out guidelines for self-selection.

  2. Eligibility

    The ICANN Bylaws define five Geographic Regions. They are:

  1. Africa,
  2. North America,
  3. Latin America/Caribbean,
  4. Asia/Australia/Pacific and
  5. Europe.

Countries, sub-divisions or relevant geopolitical entities (Territories) are assigned to one of these regions:

  1. On the basis of the United Nations Statistics Division's current classifications of "Countries or areas, codes and abbreviations," as revised 16 February 2000, and "Composition of macro geographic (continental) regions and component geographical regions," as revised 16 February 2000; and
  2. On the basis of a secondary criterion; persons from an area that is not a country are grouped together with the country of citizenship for that area.

The complete assignment of countries and territories to ICANN’s Geographic Regions can be viewed at http://www.icann.org/montreal/geo-regions-topic.htm.

Only those ccTLD managers are eligible for a re-assignment to another ICANN Geographic Region who, at the time of the request, are:

  1. Assigned to an ICANN Geographical Region on the basis of the citizenship criterion (see nr 2 above), and
  2. Member of the ccNSO.
  1. Procedure
  • The ccTLD manager represented for this purpose by the admin contact as registered in the IANA database, submits a request for re-assignment (See Annex A). This request must be accompanied by a letter of support from the relevant public authority for the territory associated with the country code, for consideration by the ccNSO Council. Both documents shall be sent by fax to the ccNSO Secretariat on fax nr +32 2 234 7848.
  • The IANA checks if requestor is admin contact ccTLD manager
  • The ccNSO secretariat checks whether ccTLD manger is assigned to Geographic Region based on citizenship criterion and members of ccNSO.
  • The ccNSO secretariat to ask Regional Liaisons whether accompanying letter is from relevant public authority;
  • The ccNSO secretariat to report on findings to ccNSO Council
  • The ccNSO Council votes on request at its next meeting.
  1. Limitations

    From the date that an application under these provisions has been approved by the Council, no further applications from that ccTLD will be considered for a minimum period of 5 years, expect for extraordinary circumstances. In the event the application has been approved by the Council the assignment to the ICANN Geographic Region only has affect with regard to matters relating to the ccNSO.

  2. Omission in or unreasonable impact of Guidelines

In the event that these guidelines do not provide guidance and/or the impact is unreasonable in conducting the meeting or work undertaken by the Council the chair will decide.

  1. Review of Guidelines

These guidelines will be reviewed annually, or adjusted when considered necessary. In order to become effective the updated guidelines need to adopted by the Council, and published on the ccNSO website. Before publishing the updated guidelines, the ccNSO secretariat will adjust the version number and insert the date the updated guidelines were adopted by the ccNSO Council.

Application [DOC, 57K]