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In Nepal, users typing domain names or email addresses in Devanagari script may still encounter technical barriers, despite validity of the address. Several websites, applications, and online forms are yet to recognize scripts in local languages. As a result, people face difficulties. For e.g. accessing services, registering online or communicating digitally, etc. in the language they are native to use.
Internet that works in Nepali would make digital spaces more accessible for students and young users. Being able to search for information, register for services and communicate online in the language they use every day, noted a participant at UA Adaptation and Hackathon organized by UNESCO, ICAAN and CAN Federation in Kathmandu on 16 May 2026. “This could support learning, employment opportunities and participation in the digital economy,” he further added
Why multilingualism matters online
100+ languages are spoken in Nepal, and many of which are declining in regard to it user/speakers in the present time. This reflects Nepal’s rich linguistic diversity and emphasizes the cruciality of this issue.
Beyond communicating, people use languages to learn, access services, and take part in community life. As education, public services and economic opportunities increasingly move online, digital systems must adapt, reflect, and evolve to support this diversity.
This is closely aligned with UNESCO’s 2003 Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace, which calls for greater linguistic diversity online and equitable access to information and knowledge. For UNESCO, multilingualism in cyberspace is not only about language preservation; it is also about inclusion, participation, and access.
Universal Acceptance supports this vision by helping ensure that all valid domain names and email addresses work across digital systems, regardless of language, script or character length. In practice, this means that web and email addresses written in Devanagari and other scripts should function as smoothly as those written in Latin characters, or most commonly known as English characters.
UNESCO’s work on multilingualism in cyberspace is anchored in the 2003 Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace and advanced through its partnership with ICANN under the February 2025 agreement to promote linguistic diversity online and the Universal Acceptance of all domain names and email addresses.
Promoting Universal Acceptance in Nepal
Spearheading works in the field, the Computer Association Nepal Federation, in collaboration with ICANN and UNESCO, organized the UA Adaptation and Hackathon Nepal 2026 in Kathmandu. Held on the occasion of Universal Acceptance Day and National Information and Communication Technology Day, the event brought together software developers, students, researchers, technical experts and Internet governance stakeholders.
The event fostered a space to openly discuss how Nepal’s digital systems can better support Nepali-script domain names and email addresses, while also raising awareness of Universal Acceptance among young people and the technical community.
Opening the programme, CAN Federation President Sunaina Ghimire Pandey described the hackathon as more than a competition, emphasizing that it represented an important step toward making Nepal’s digital infrastructure more multilingual and inclusive.
Universal Acceptance is not only a technical requirement, but also a practical condition for a multilingual Internet where people can access, create and communicate online in their own languages.
Jaco du ToitUNESCO Representative to Nepal
Speaking at the hackathon, ICANN Vice President Samiran Gupta highlighted the strategic importance of Universal Acceptance in the global Internet ecosystem, noting that people should be able to fully use the Internet in their own language and script.
From principle to practice in Nepal
The hackathon demonstrated how local technical solutions can contribute to wider digital inclusion. Participants explored both technical and policy approaches to making digital platforms more responsive and inclusive to Nepal’s linguistic diversity.
This work builds on ongoing efforts by CAN Federation, including the launch of its Nepali-script Internationalized Domain Name portal, https://क्यान.संगठन. The portal demonstrates how local-language domain names is practical, and how Universal Acceptance can move from principle to implementation in Nepal’s digital ecosystem.
READ MORE: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/what-will-it-take-build-multilingual-internet-nepal?hub=701
