Latin Script Diacritics PDP advances policy work with public interest and human rights assessments

The Latin Script Diacritics PDP Working Group met on 3 December 2025 to consolidate its preliminary recommendations and review their implications for the global public interest and human rights. The meeting marked the conclusion of substantive policy deliberations before the drafting of the Initial Report and the opening of a public comment period.

A central outcome of the meeting was confirmation of earlier agreement on how Latin script diacritic gTLD sets should interact with variant sets. By a clear majority, the working group supported an approach that prevents the mixing of Latin diacritic gTLD sets with variant sets, both by disallowing the addition of diacritic strings to variant contracts and by preventing variants from being added to diacritic sets. The group agreed that this restriction is unlikely to have practical negative effects, given the limited number of allocatable Latin script variants, while improving clarity and predictability in the next gTLD round.

The meeting also focused on two newer procedural requirements for ICANN policy work: assessing impacts on the global public interest and on human rights. ICANN staff and working group leadership presented a preliminary GPI assessment using a checklist aligned with ICANN’s mission and bylaws. The analysis identified potential positive effects across all relevant categories, particularly in supporting linguistic diversity, fairness, transparency, and stability in the DNS, and found no negative impacts arising directly from the group’s recommendations.

In parallel, the working group reviewed a Human Rights Impact Assessment developed using a tailored template informed by ICANN’s bylaws and prior PDP practice. The assessment concluded that the recommendations are expected to have an overall positive impact on human rights, especially in relation to access, participation, and non-discrimination. Some low-level risks were noted, including potential cost and complexity barriers for smaller or under-resourced applicants, but these were characterised as limited and largely mitigated by the design of the recommendations.

Participants discussed whether certain edge cases, such as languages using special Latin characters that are not classified as diacritics under Unicode, could experience indirect disadvantages. While acknowledging these concerns, the group agreed that they stem from existing technical definitions and are largely outside the scope of the current PDP, though they may warrant attention in future policy work.

With the completion of policy deliberations, the working group outlined next steps. ICANN staff will finalise the Initial Report by mid-December 2025, followed by internal review and a public comment period expected to open in January 2026. The group is scheduled to reconvene around ICANN 85 to review community input and continue work toward final recommendations