2003-06-26 - ICANN's Geographic Regions

Whereas, Article VI, Section 5, of the ICANN Bylaws requires the Board to define a specific allocation of countries and territories among five geographic regions (Europe; Asia/Australia/Pacific; Latin America/Caribbean islands; Africa; North America), and to review that Section at least every three years to determine whether any change is appropriate;

Whereas, this allocation is different from, and independent of, the designated regions of the Regional Internet Registries;

Whereas, at its July 2000 meeting in Yokohama, the Board in resolution 00.64 directed the staff "to assign countries to geographic regions on the basis of the United Nations Statistics Division's current classifications of "Countries or areas, codes and abbreviations," as revised 16 February 2000, and "Composition of macro geographic (continental) regions and component geographical regions," as revised 16 February 2000," with the understanding that dependent territories be grouped together with the country of citizenship for the territory;

Whereas the staff proceeded to create an allocation table on that basis;

Whereas the existing definition of geographic regions and the associated allocation table have functioned well, without significant controversy, over the past three years;

Whereas the staff has prepared and posted an updated allocation table on the basis of the most recent (March 2003) version of the United Nations Statistics Division documents;

Resolved [03.100] that the ICANN Board reaffirms the existing definition of five geographic regions and reaffirms the existing methodology for allocating specific countries and territories to particular regions, pursuant to Article VI, Section 5, of the ICANN Bylaws, and

Further resolved [03.101] that the ICANN Board adopts the allocation table posted by the staff on 5 June 2003.