The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a global multistakeholder non-profit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, have launched a joint policy brief calling for coordinated global action to ensure that Internet users can fully access online services in their native languages and scripts.
Titled “Advancing Universal Acceptance of All Domain Names and Email Addresses for a Multilingual Internet,” the publication underscores the importance of Universal Acceptance as a foundational requirement for a truly inclusive and multilingual Internet, where all valid domain names and email addresses, regardless of script, language, or character length, are accepted, validated, stored, processed, and displayed correctly by digital systems.
According to UNESCO and ICANN, the inability of many websites, applications, and online platforms to recognize non-Latin scripts continues to create barriers for billions of people, limiting digital inclusion and excluding users from fully participating in the digital economy and online public life.
The policy brief argues that achieving Universal Acceptance is critical to preserving linguistic diversity and ensuring equitable access to information and communication technologies.
It also notes that while the introduction of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) has enabled domain names in scripts such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, and others, many digital systems remain incompatible with these identifiers, preventing users from registering or effectively using them.
The document calls on governments, policymakers, technology companies, software developers, academic institutions, standards bodies, and civil society organizations to adopt measures that promote Universal Acceptance across digital ecosystems.
Such measures include integrating Universal Acceptance requirements into public procurement policies, updating software and applications to support multilingual identifiers, strengthening technical capacity, and raising awareness among developers and Internet stakeholders.
The publication also highlights the role of Universal Acceptance in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those relating to quality education, reduced inequalities, innovation, and inclusive institutions.
By enabling users to interact online in their own languages, the policy brief argues, Universal Acceptance can help expand digital participation, promote cultural diversity, and reduce linguistic barriers that contribute to digital exclusion.
UNESCO emphasized that linguistic diversity is a core component of cultural diversity and that the Internet should reflect the world’s rich variety of languages rather than privilege a limited number of dominant scripts.
It noted that ensuring equal treatment for all domain names and email addresses is essential to building an Internet that is open, accessible, and inclusive for everyone.
Mr. Guilherme Canela, Director of the Division for Digital Inclusion and Policies and Digital Transformation at UNESCO, said: “UNESCO contributes its normative leadership on cultural and linguistic diversity, human rights, especially freedom of expression and universal access to information, and inclusive digital transformation. The UNESCO-ICANN partnership bridges communities that too often work in silos – policymakers, technical actors and development stakeholders – and creates the conditions for more coherent and effective action.”
ICANN described Universal Acceptance as a technical necessity for the continued evolution of the global Internet, particularly as the number of generic top-level domains and internationalized domain names continues to grow.
It stressed that without widespread adoption of Universal Acceptance-ready systems, many Internet users will remain unable to benefit fully from multilingual digital services.
According to Ms Theresa Swinehart, ICANN’s Senior Vice-President of Global Domains and Strategy, “Universal Acceptance is essential for a fully enabled knowledge-based society and for bridging the digital divide. Having multilingual content online is not enough, as people also need to be able to navigate to that content, to reach a website and to have the domain name in their own language. This requires effort from all the different stakeholders, including public sector, technical organizations, academia and civil society.”
Mr. Sarmad Hussain, a Senior Director of ICANN, underlined the challenge of Universal Acceptance, namely that only 29 percent of the world’s 31.3 million email servers currently support internationalised email addresses, meaning billions of people still cannot use the Internet in their own language.
He pointed out 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.
Stressing that it 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-dimensional approach spanning awareness, policy support, implementation and capacity building, giving governments and stakeholders a practical tool for measuring Universal Acceptance.
Ms Xianhong Hu, a Programme Specialist at UNESCO, also highlighted the central message of the Policy Brief that 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 Universal Acceptance to UNESCO’s mandate to promote the free flow of ideas by word and image, Ms Hu emphasized its importance for meaningful connectivity.
She 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).
The policy brief encourages educational institutions to incorporate Universal Acceptance into information technology and software engineering curriculums, thereby equipping future developers with the knowledge needed to design applications that support diverse languages and scripts from the outset.
It also urges the private sector to test and update digital products to ensure compatibility with all valid domain names and email addresses, while calling on governments to lead by example by adopting Universal Acceptance-compliant systems across public services.
The launch of the joint policy brief reflects the growing recognition that technical interoperability and linguistic diversity are mutually reinforcing objectives.
UNESCO and ICANN argue that as Internet access expands to new communities around the world, embracing Universal Acceptance will be essential to creating a multilingual Internet that respects cultural identities, supports digital inclusion, and enables all users to communicate and participate online without linguistic or technical barriers.
The organizations expressed the hope that the publication will serve as a practical guide for policymakers and stakeholders seeking to advance a more inclusive digital future, where every language has an equal opportunity to thrive in cyberspace.
They invited 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.
UNESCO and ICANN said the policy brief will be made available in all UN official languages, as well as in Portuguese, Kiswahili and Quechua.
