From 10 to 13 June 2024, we will convene for the ICANN80 Policy Forum in Kigali. This is the first ever ICANN Public Meeting in Rwanda and the third Policy Forum in Africa.
The ICANN community has taken the lead in organizing the four-day program. Highlights from the schedule include:
- The ICANN community will continue its work preparing for the New Generic Top-Level Domain Program: Next Round, including discussions about enabling a multilingual Internet through Internationalized Domain Names.
- The ICANN community organized a plenary session about the ongoing United Nations Global Digital Compact process and the 20-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society among other topics.
- Several sessions will focus on Africa, from its Internet infrastructure to the engagement of its community in ICANN.
- There will be sessions to discuss experiences with the Registration Data Request Service and the mitigation of Domain Name System (DNS) abuse.
- Additionally, there will be training sessions during Tech Day and the DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) and Security Workshop.
- The ICANN Board will also lead a session to present the draft strategies for the next five-year strategic plan.
- Among the nightly networking receptions, on Tuesday, 11 June, we will recognize the contributions of chairs leading working groups dedicated to policy and advice development.
As we approach the start of this Policy Forum, we encourage you to visit the ICANN80 website. Here, you can register and find important information about travel, hotel, transportation, health, and safety. You can also review the materials from Prep Week, which featured nine webinars to help the ICANN community and public prepare for work sessions. We also recommend reading the ICANN80 Policy Outlook Report.
A global community of stakeholders and participants with different backgrounds and points of view help coordinate and support the unique identifiers of the Internet. The Internet functions for everyone because everyone is invited to help make it work. Consensus policies developed through the multistakeholder governance are highly effective and have the greatest legitimacy.
Thank you to all of you for making the considerable commitment of time and effort to attend this ICANN Public Meeting. No matter if you are an ICANN regular, an occasional participant, or a newcomer, we encourage you to actively engage in this Policy Forum.