ICANN|ARCHIVES

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

Introduction

One of the core values underlying ICANN's structure and operations is support for broad and informed participation reflecting the geographic diversity of the Internet at all levels of policy development and decision-making. This support is implemented by numerous requirements for geographic diversity reflected in ICANN's bylaws, in the operating procedures of ICANN entities, and in its culture. These requirements are framed in terms of Geographic Regions, as provided in Article VI, Section 5 of the bylaws:

Section 5. INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATION

. . . As used in these Bylaws, each of the following is considered to be a "Geographic Region": EURrope; Asia/Australia/Pacific; Latin America/Caribbean islands; Africa; and North America. The specific countries included in each Geographic Region shall be determined by the Board, and this Section shall be reviewed by the Board from time to time (but at least every three years) to determine whether any change is appropriate, taking account of the evolution of the Internet.

At its July 2000 meeting in Yokohama, the ICANN Board adopted resolution 00.64 instructing the ICANN staff to assign countries to geographic regions on the basis of two documents of the United Nations Statistics Division, as revised through 16 February 2000.

Nearly three years have passed since the July 2000 review was completed. At its Montréal meeting, therefore, the ICANN Board will review the definition of ICANN's Geographic Regions. It is proposed that the basic definition of the Geographic Regions remain in effect, based on reference to the current versions of the United Nations Statistics Division documents.

Current Allocation Methodology

In advance of the July 2000 Yokohama meeting, ICANN posted a topic paper on "Definition of ICANN's Geographic Regions" and specifically requested the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) to give its "views on the proper allocation of countries, territories, and distinct economies as recognized in international fora among the five geographic regions defined by the ICANN Bylaws."

The GAC recommended that ICANN make reference to existing international norms for regional distribution of countries. After this recommendation and comments made at the ICANN Public Forum on 15 July 2000, the Board discussed the appropriate means for allocating countries and territories to the ICANN Geographic Regions. In the discussion, the Board expressed concern about itself deciding how to allocate countries to Regions, but noted that it was necessary to do so and that it was best to refer to some independently prepared and authoritative list for this purpose. The ICANN staff proposed use of the February 2000 version of two lists prepared by the United Nations Statistics Division, and also recommended (based on GAC comment) that dependent territories be grouped together with the country of citizenship for the territory. Thus, a resident of New Caledonia (overseas territory of France located in the Pacific Ocean) would be grouped with EURrope rather than Asia/Australia/Pacific.

The Board adopted the following resolution:

Whereas, Article V, Sec. 6, of the ICANN Bylaws calls upon the Board to determine a specific allocation of countries among five general geographic regions (EURrope; Asia/Australia/Pacific; Latin America/Caribbean islands; Africa; North America); and

Whereas, this year's At Large membership elections will entail the selection of one Director from each of ICANN's five geographic regions; and

Whereas, the Governmental Advisory Committee, upon the ICANN staff's request for advice, recommended that "With regard to the definition of ICANN's Geographic Regions, ICANN should make reference to existing international norms for regional distribution of countries," it is

Resolved [00.64] that the staff is directed 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.

The above methodology – employing the lists prepared by the United Nations Statistics Division and recognizing the grouping of dependencies with their mother countries – was then implemented.

Proposal to Update Allocation

The allocation methodology adopted by the Board in July 2000 has worked without significant problems in the last three years. The 2002 ICANN reforms, which emphasized the importance of ensuring geographic and other types of diversity within ICANN, make the definition of the Geographic Regions relevant not only for the membership of the Board, but also for the GNSO Council and the ALAC. This important reliance on the Geographic Regions, without significant controversy, indicates that the basic methodology for allocating countries and territories to the five ICANN Geographic Regions is basically sound.

The United Nations Statistics Division last updated the relevant lists in March 2003. The most relevant list is "Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings", which assigns countries and territories to various regions that are easily identified with the five ICANN Regions (EURrope; Asia/Australia/Pacific; Latin America/Caribbean islands; Africa; and North America) established in Article VI, Section 5 of ICANN's bylaws.

Based on this list, and making adjustments to group territories with the countries of citizenship of their inhabitants, the following list of countries/territories, ISO 3166-1 codes, and ICANN regions would be as follows:

Key

AF = Africa
AP = Asia/Australia/Pacific
AQ = Antarctica
EUR = Europe
LAC = Latin America/Caribbean islands
NA = North America

Alpha-2 Code	Country or Territory	Physical Region	ICANN Region
ac	Ascension Island	AF*	EUR
ad	Andorra	EUR	EUR
ae	United Arab Emirates	AP	AP
af	Afghanistan	AP	AP
ag	Antigua and Barbuda	LAC	LAC
ai	Anguilla	LAC	EUR
al	Albania	EUR	EUR
am	Armenia	AP	AP
an	Netherlands Antilles	LAC	EUR
ao	Angola	AF	AF
aq	Antarctica	AQ*	AP
ar	Argentina	LAC	LAC
as	American Samoa	AP	NA
at	Austria	EUR	EUR
au	Australia	AP	AP
aw	Aruba	LAC	EUR
az	Azerbaijan	AP	AP
ba	Bosnia and Herzegovina	EUR	EUR
bb	Barbados	LAC	LAC
bd	Bangladesh	AP	AP
be	Belgium	EUR	EUR
bf	Burkina Faso	AF	AF
bg	Bulgaria	EUR	EUR
bh	Bahrain	AP	AP
bi	Burundi	AF	AF
bj	Benin	AF	AF
bm	Bermuda	NA	EUR
bn	Brunei Darussalam	AP	AP
bo	Bolivia	LAC	LAC
br	Brazil	LAC	LAC
bs	Bahamas	LAC	LAC
bt	Bhutan	AP	AP
bv	Bouvet Island	AF*	EUR
bw	Botswana	AF	AF
by	Belarus	EUR	EUR
bz	Belize	LAC	LAC
ca	Canada	NA	NA
cc	Cocos (Keeling) Islands	AP*	AP
cd	Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	AF	AF
cf	Central African Republic	AF	AF
cg	Congo	AF	AF
ch	Switzerland	EUR	EUR
ci	Cote d'Ivoire	AF	AF
ck	Cook Islands	AP	AP
cl	Chile	LAC	LAC
cm	Cameroon	AF	AF
cn	China	AP	AP
co	Colombia	LAC	LAC
cr	Costa Rica	LAC	LAC
cu	Cuba	LAC	LAC
cv	Cape Verde	AF	AF
cx	Christmas Island	AP*	AP
cy	Cyprus	AP	AP
cz	Czech Republic	EUR	EUR
de	Germany	EUR	EUR
dj	Djibouti	AF	AF
dk	Denmark	EUR	EUR
dm	Dominica	LAC	LAC
do	Dominican Republic	LAC	LAC
dz	Algeria	AF	AF
ec	Ecuador	LAC	LAC
ee	Estonia	EUR	EUR
eg	Egypt	AF	AF
eh	Western Sahara	AF	AF
er	Eritrea	AF	AF
es	Spain	EUR	EUR
et	Ethiopia	AF	AF
fi	Finland	EUR	EUR
fj	Fiji	AP	AP
fk	Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	LAC	EUR
fm	Micronesia, Federated States of	AP	AP
fo	Faroe Islands	EUR	EUR
fr	France	EUR	EUR
ga	Gabon	AF	AF
gd	Grenada	LAC	LAC
ge	Georgia	AP	AP
gf	French Guiana	LAC	EUR
gg	Guernsey	EUR*	EUR
gh	Ghana	AF	AF
gi	Gibraltar	EUR	EUR
gl	Greenland	NA	EUR
gm	Gambia	AF	AF
gn	Guinea	AF	AF
gp	Guadeloupe	LAC	EUR
gq	Equatorial Guinea	AF	AF
gr	Greece	EUR	EUR
gs	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	LAC	EUR
gt	Guatemala	LAC	LAC
gu	Guam	AP	NA
gw	Guinea-Bissau	AF	AF
gy	Guyana	LAC	LAC
hk	Hong Kong	AP	AP
hm	Heard Island and McDonald Islands	AP*	AP
hn	Honduras	LAC	LAC
hr	Croatia	EUR	EUR
ht	Haiti	LAC	LAC
hu	Hungary	EUR	EUR
id	Indonesia	AP	AP
ie	Ireland	EUR	EUR
il	Israel	AP	AP
im	Isle of Man	EUR	EUR
in	India	AP	AP
io	British Indian Ocean Territory	AP*	EUR
iq	Iraq	AP	AP
ir	Iran, Islamic Republic of	AP	AP
is	Iceland	EUR	EUR
it	Italy	EUR	EUR
je	Jersey	EUR*	EUR
jm	Jamaica	LAC	LAC
jo	Jordan	AP	AP
jp	Japan	AP	AP
ke	Kenya	AF	AF
kg	Kyrgyzstan	AP	AP
kh	Cambodia	AP	AP
ki	Kiribati	AP	AP
km	Comoros	AF	AF
kn	Saint Kitts and Nevis	LAC	LAC
kp	Korea, Democratic People's Republic of	AP	AP
kr	Korea, Republic of	AP	AP
kw	Kuwait	AP	AP
ky	Cayman Islands	LAC	EUR
kz	Kazakhstan	AP	AP
la	Lao People's Democratic Republic	AP	AP
lb	Lebanon	AP	AP
lc	Saint Lucia	LAC	LAC
li	Liechtenstein	EUR	EUR
lk	Sri Lanka	AP	AP
lr	Liberia	AF	AF
ls	Lesotho	AF	AF
lt	Lithuania	EUR	EUR
lu	Luxembourg	EUR	EUR
lv	Latvia	EUR	EUR
ly	Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	AF	AF
ma	Morocco	AF	AF
mc	Monaco	EUR	EUR
md	Moldova, Republic of	EUR	EUR
mg	Madagascar	AF	AF
mh	Marshall Islands	AP	AP
mk	Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of	EUR	EUR
ml	Mali	AF	AF
mm	Myanmar	AP	AP
mn	Mongolia	AP	AP
mo	Macao	AP	AP
mp	Northern Mariana Islands	AP	NA
mq	Martinique	LAC	EUR
mr	Mauritania	AF	AF
ms	Montserrat	LAC	EUR
mt	Malta	EUR	EUR
mu	Mauritius	AF	AF
mv	Maldives	AP	AP
mw	Malawi	AF	AF
mx	Mexico	LAC	LAC
my	Malaysia	AP	AP
mz	Mozambique	AF	AF
na	Namibia	AF	AF
nc	New Caledonia	AP	EUR
ne	Niger	AF	AF
nf	Norfolk Island	AP	AP
ng	Nigeria	AF	AF
ni	Nicaragua	LAC	LAC
nl	Netherlands	EUR	EUR
no	Norway	EUR	EUR
np	Nepal	AP	AP
nr	Nauru	AP	AP
nu	Niue	AP	AP
nz	New Zealand	AP	AP
om	Oman	AP	AP
pa	Panama	LAC	LAC
pe	Peru	LAC	LAC
pf	French Polynesia	AP	EUR
pg	Papua New Guinea	AP	AP
ph	Philippines	AP	AP
pk	Pakistan	AP	AP
pl	Poland	EUR	EUR
pm	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	NA	EUR
pn	Pitcairn	AP	EUR
pr	Puerto Rico	LAC	NA
ps	Palestinian Territories	AP	AP
pt	Portugal	EUR	EUR
pw	Palau	AP	AP
py	Paraguay	LAC	LAC
qa	Qatar	AP	AP
re	REURnion	AF	EUR
ro	Romania	EUR	EUR
ru	Russian Federation	EUR	EUR
rw	Rwanda	AF	AF
sa	Saudi Arabia	AP	AP
sb	Solomon Islands	AP	AP
sc	Seychelles	AF	AF
sd	Sudan	AF	AF
se	Sweden	EUR	EUR
sg	Singapore	AP	AP
sh	Saint Helena	AF	EUR
si	Slovenia	EUR	EUR
sj	Svalbard and Jan Mayen	EUR	EUR
sk	Slovakia	EUR	EUR
sl	Sierra Leone	AF	AF
sm	San Marino	EUR	EUR
sn	Senegal	AF	AF
so	Somalia	AF	AF
sr	Suriname	LAC	LAC
st	Sao Tome and Principe	AF	AF
sv	El Salvador	LAC	LAC
sy	Syrian Arab Republic	AP	AP
sz	Swaziland	AF	AF
tc	Turks and Caicos Islands	LAC	EUR
td	Chad	AF	AF
tf	French Southern Territories	AP*	EUR
tg	Togo	AF	AF
th	Thailand	AP	AP
tj	Tajikistan	AP	AP
tk	Tokelau	AP	AP
tl	Timor-Leste	AP	AP
tm	Turkmenistan	AP	AP
tn	Tunisia	AF	AF
to	Tonga	AP	AP
tr	Turkey	AP	AP
tt	Trinidad and Tobago	LAC	LAC
tv	Tuvalu	AP	AP
tw	Taiwan	AP*	AP
tz	Tanzania, United Republic of	AF	AF
ua	Ukraine	EUR	EUR
ug	Uganda	AF	AF
uk (gb)	United Kingdom	EUR	EUR
um	United States Minor Outlying Islands	AP*	NA
us	United States	NA	NA
uy	Uruguay	LAC	LAC
uz	Uzbekistan	AP	AP
va	Holy See (Vatican City State)	EUR	EUR
vc	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	LAC	LAC
ve	Venezuela	LAC	LAC
vg	Virgin Islands, British	LAC	EUR
vi	Virgin Islands, U.S.	LAC	NA
vn	Viet Nam	AP	AP
vu	Vanuatu	AP	AP
wf	Wallis And Futuna	AP	EUR
ws	Samoa	AP	AP
ye	Yemen	AP	AP
yt	Mayotte	AF	EUR
yu	Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)	EUR	EUR
za	South Africa	AF	AF
zm	Zambia	AF	AF
zw	Zimbabwe	AF	AF

Note:

* Not on UNSD list; assigned to Physical Region based on other reasons.

Totals within ICANN Region:

Africa - 54
Asia/Australia/Pacific - 73
EURrope - 75
Latin America/Caribbean islands - 33
North America - 8
Total - 243

Public Comments Invited

Comments areinvited on the above proposal to update the allocation of countries and territories to the ICANN Geographic Regions. Comments may be submitted by e-mail to <geo-regions-comments@icann.org> (Forum closed 18 August 2003) on or before 20 June 2003. In-person comments may be made at the ICANN Public Forum on 25 June 2003 in Montréal.