UNESCO and ICANN launch joint Policy Brief on Universal Acceptance

Sarmad Hussain, the Senior Director of ICANN, underlined the challenge of Universal Acceptance: only 29% of the world's 31.3 million email servers currently support internationalized email addresses, meaning billions of people still cannot use the Internet in their own language. He informed that ICANN's New Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Program: 2026 Round allows for application of additional multilingual gTLDs, with an Applicant Support Program aimed at reducing cost barriers for communities around the world.

It thus requires a multistakeholder approach to achieve Universal Acceptance. Mr Hussain flagged the roles that different stakeholders may play, and a concrete framework through which progress on Universal Acceptance can be tracked and measured. The Policy Brief proposes a four-dimension approach spanning awareness, policy support, implementation and capacity building, giving governments and stakeholders a practical tool for measuring Universal Acceptance.

Xianhong Hu, Programme Specialist at UNESCO, while presenting the Policy Brief, highlighted the central message: achieving a multilingual and inclusive Internet faces interconnected challenges, and can only be fully achieved and implemented through a multistakeholder approach and broad participation .

She stressed that Universal Acceptance is not only a technical issue, but also reflects gaps in awareness, policy and capacity. Linking UA to UNESCO's mandate to promote the free flow of ideas by word and image, she highlighted its importance for meaningful connectivity. Ms Hu also noted that Universal Acceptance is included as a monitoring metric in UNESCO's 2003 Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace , and underscored its role in supporting Indigenous languages within the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032).

Universal Acceptance Day, an annual global awareness event co-supported by UNESCO and ICANN, has reached more than 23,000 people across 82 countries between 2023 and 2025, in 39 languages. ICANN's UA Curriculum Integration Program is now offering universities worldwide a framework for integrating internationalization concepts into technical degrees.

The policy brief will be made available in all UN official languages, as well as in Portuguese, Kiswahili and Quechua. UNESCO and ICANN invite relevant stakeholders, including domain name registries and registrars, technical communities, academia, civil society organizations and language communities, to use the Brief as a reference and advocacy tool to advance Universal Acceptance in digital inclusion, multilingualism, access to information and Internet governance.