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Specific Reviews Organizational Reviews Review of Reviews Pilot Continuous Improvement Program

The ICANN Reviews Program encompasses the management of Specific Reviews and Organizational Reviews, including the implementation of the recommendations they generate and the ongoing work to improve the reviews process.

On 19 May 2025, the Board directed ICANN org to initiate work to design a review program that is fit for the intended purposes of enhancing ICANN’s accountability, transparency, and effectiveness. The Board identified a community dialogue to develop a shared understanding of the areas and issues for which reviews will enhance ICANN’s accountability, transparency and effectiveness as a first step. This resulted in some work plan adjustments, as documented on the Specific Reviews and Organizational Reviews pages.

The ICANN community is evaluating ICANN’s system of reviews, conducting a fundamental assessment of whether it is meeting the intended purpose of enhancing ICANN's accountability, transparency, and effectiveness. This effort is being led by the Review of Reviews Cross Community Group (Reviews CCG). For more information, see the Reviews CCG work space.

Specific Reviews

Specific Reviews are anchored in Article 4.6 of the ICANN Bylaws. They are conducted by community-led review teams which assess ICANN’s performance in reaching its commitments.

Specific Reviews adhere to the standards and criteria documented in Operating Standards for Specific Reviews. The Operating Standards ensure that Reviews are conducted in a transparent, consistent, efficient, and predictable manner, while supporting the community’s work to derive the expected benefit and value from review processes. A set of proposed improvements to Operating Standards for Specific Reviews were submitted for Public Comment on 23 December 2024. The set of updates, or refinements thereof, will not be presented to the Board for adoption at this time.

Status of Accountability and Transparency Review (ATRT)

Status of Competition, Consumer Trust, and Consumer Choice (CCT) Review

  • Per ATRT3 Recommendation 3.2, one more occurrence of the CCT Review is to take place, to be started “within the two years after the first introduction of the (possible) next round of new gTLDs to the root”.
  • Implementation of the First CCT recommendations the Board approved is in progress.
  • For more information refer to the CCT Review Community Wiki space and ICANN org page.

Status of Registration Directory Service Review (RDS)

Status of the Security, Stability, and Resiliency of the Domain Name System  Review (SSR)

  • The Third SSR Review (SSR3) was deferred on 10 March 2022 On 19 May 2025, the Board resolved to continue deferring SSR3 pending a community dialogue on ICANN Reviews.
  • Implementation of the Second SSR (SSR2) recommendations the Board approved is in progress.
  • For more information, refer to the SSR Review Community Wiki space and ICANN org page.

Status of Pilot Holistic Review

  • The ATRT3 recommended the establishment of a new Specific Review, the Holistic Review, to examine the continuous improvement, effectiveness, and accountability of the ICANN community structures as well as the collaboration among them.
  • On 29 April 2024, the Board initiated a Pilot Holistic Review (PHR), after multiple rounds of community input on scoping to develop the guidelines and methodologies for the future Holistic Review, recommended by the ATRT3.
  • On 19 May 2025, the Board resolved to conclude the PHR to allow for further ongoing work in the SOs and ACs on continuous improvement activities and broad participation in a community dialogue on reviews.

Organizational Reviews

Organizational Reviews (ICANN Bylaws Section 4.4) are a "periodic review of the performance and operation of each Supporting Organization, each Supporting Organization Council, each Advisory Committee (other than the Governmental Advisory Committee), and the Nominating Committee". They are conducted by independent examiners to assess: (i) whether that organization, council or committee has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure; (ii) if so, whether any change in structure or operations is desirable to improve its effectiveness; (iii) whether that organization, council or committee is accountable to its constituencies, stakeholder groups, organizations and other stakeholders.” They are conducted no less frequently than every five years, based on feasibility as determined by the Board.

Refer to the Handbook and Flowchart for more information on process documentation of organizational reviews.

The ATRT3 made a recommendation to evolve organizational reviews into continuous improvement programs (CIP). In November 2020, the Board directed that a pilot continuous improvement program be conducted.

Recognizing the impact of the ATRT3 recommendation, the Board deferred organizational reviews in June 2021 and June 2022, and directed ICANN org to report on the status of the deferral and continued need within three years of the June 2022 resolution. Refer to the community wiki page for more information on the pilot Continuous Improvement Program.

On 19 May 2025, the Board confirmed that the CIP should progress as planned, and that Organizational Reviews are deferred until the first CIP cycle is complete.

Status of the Address Supporting Organization (ASO) Organizational Review

  • The Board called for a proposed set of Bylaws changes as anticipated to implement the recommendations from the organizational review on 7 November 2019.
  • The third Address Supporting Organization Review (ASO3) was deferred on 12 June 2022. On 19 May 2025, the Board confirmed that Organizational Reviews, including ASO3, are deferred until the first CIP cycle is complete.

Status of the At-Large (At-Large) Organizational Review

  • The ICANN Board accepted the final implementation report of the second At-Large Review (At-Large2) implementation was considered complete by the ICANN Board in September 2020 on 10 September 2020
  • The third ALAC/At-Large Review (ALAC3) was deferred on 12 June 2022. On 19 May 2025, the Board confirmed that Organizational Reviews, including ALAC3, are deferred until the first CIP cycle is complete.

Status of the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) Organizational Review

  • The Board accepted the status of implementation of recommendations from the second Country Code Names Supporting Organization Review (ccNSO2) on 28 October 2021.
  • The third Country Code Names Supporting Organization Review (ccNSO3) was deferred on 12 June 2022. On 19 May 2025, the Board confirmed that Organizational Reviews, including ccNSO3, are deferred until the first CIP cycle is complete.

Status of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Organizational Review

  • The ICANN Board accepted the final implementation report of the second Generic Names Supporting Organization Review (GNSO2) implementation on 27 January 2019.
  • The third Generic Names Supporting Organization Review (GNSO3) was deferred on 21 June 2021. On 19 May 2025, the Board confirmed that Organizational Reviews, including GNSO3, are deferred until the first CIP cycle is complete.

Status of the Nominating Committee (NomCom) Organizational Review

  • The Board accepted the status of implementation of recommendations from NomCom2 Review on 16 March 2023.
  • The third Nominating Committee Review (NomCom3) was deferred on 12 June 2022. On 19 May 2025, the Board confirmed that Organizational Reviews, including NomCom3, are deferred until the first CIP cycle is complete.

Status of the Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) Organizational Review

  • The Board accepted the final implementation report of the second Root Server System Advisory Committee Review (RSSAC2) on 22 September 2022.
  • The third Root Server System Advisory Committee Review (RSSAC3) was deferred on 12 June 2022. On 19 May 2025, the Board confirmed that Organizational Reviews, including RSSAC3, are deferred until the first CIP cycle is complete.

Status of the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) Organizational Review

Please visit the Accountability Wiki Workspace for more details.

Archived: Specific Reviews Flowchart and Handbook

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."