Promouvoir l’Acceptation universelle de tous les noms de domaine et adresses de courrier électronique en vue d’un internet multilingue was launched at the second Francophone Forum on Digital and AI Governance (FFGNIA2), held at the Graduate Institute in Geneva.
This policy brief is a concrete outcome of the renewed UNESCO-ICANN Cooperation Agreement. It offers actionable recommendations to governments, technical and language communities, private sector and civil society to advance Universal Acceptance (UA), the principle stating that all valid domain names and email addresses must function correctly, regardless of the language or script.
Xianhong Hu, UNESCO Programme Specialist, announced the launch at the Forum’s closing plenary, presenting the French version as a mark of support for Francophone countries and their leading role in digital governance.
There can be no inclusive AI policy without linguistic inclusion. If our digital infrastructures are not compatible with the diversity of languages, AI will inherit these gaps and amplify them at scale.
Xianhong Hu
Janis Karklins, Head of Government Engagement of ICANN, welcomed the fruitful collaboration between the two organizations and invited participants to join the sessions on Universal Acceptance at the upcoming WSIS Forum 2026.
The launch builds on the 2003 Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace, UNESCO’s normative framework for a multilingual Internet, and contributes to the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032), as well as the Global Roadmap for Multilingualism in the Digital Age.
The French version will be followed by translations into all official UN languages and Portuguese, as well as some Indigenous languages.
READ MORE: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-and-icann-launch-french-version-policy-brief-universal-acceptance?hub=701
