1. Country and Territory Identifiers in New gTLDs
Capacity Building Workshop for Africa GAC Representatives
23 January | Nairobi, Kenya

2. Background
The use of Country and Territory Identifiers in New gTLDs has been considered by the ICANN Community from various angles:
2-letter Country codes as second-level domain names, may now be released provided registries implement a set of measures to avoid confusion
Country and Territory Names as second-level domain names are reserved, unless certain conditions are met
3-letter Country codes as top-level domain names were not allowed in the current round of New gTLDs

3. 3-letter Country codes as top-level domain names
3-letter country codes are not available in current rounds of New gTLDs
They are part of “country or territory names” defined as
ISO Alpha-3 codes
ISO Alpha-3 short and long-form names, translated in any language
Other names with special status, on specific lists, or recognized by an IGO or treaty organization
The Applicant Guidebook (Section ) does not allow such name as New gTLDs
Future use has been the subject of ICANN Community processes, in particular:
The Cross Community Working Group on the Use of Country and Territory Names (CCWG-UCTN), which recently concluded its work inconclusively
The GNSO New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process will consider potential changes to the Policy applicable to New gTLDs
Several GAC Members have expressed interest in discussing the future use of 3-letter codes as TLDs

4. Country and Territory Names as 2nd-level domains
Defined by the New gTLD Registry Agreement (Specification 5, section 4) as:
The short form in English of all country and territory names on the ISO list
Names listed in the manual of the UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names
The list of UN member states in the 6 official UN languages
These names are reserved at the second level (and below) in all New gTLDs, unless:
Registry Operator reaches agreement with the relevant government
Registry Operator proposes their release subject to GAC review and approval by ICANN
The GAC has established a list of country requirements for notification of request for use of their respective country and territory names (88 represented)
80% require notification, 10% require notification for all but Brand TLDs
10% do not require notification at all
While some individual country or territory names have been released, requests for release of all such names by registries are still pending further processing by ICANN.

5. 2-letter Country codes as second-level domains
The New gTLD Registry Agreement (Specification 5, section 2) provides all 2-character labels should be reserved at the second level, unless agreement is reached with the related government, or release is approved by ICANN
Since 2014 the GAC has advised the ICANN Board to ensure that processing of Registries requests by ICANN GDD takes into account governments’ concerns
Governments participated in ICANN’s Authorization processes to a varying degree:
Some were opposed to the use of their country code(s) in all New gTLDs
Some in only certain TLDs
Some had no concern regarding such use in all gTLDs
Since 13 Dec. 2016, ICANN authorizes all 2-charcter country codes to be released in all New gTLD provided Registry Operators implement a set of measures to avoid confusion:
Appropriate representations by Registrant in their Registration Policy
Post-Registration complaint investigation
Exclusive pre-registration period (optional)
Engagement with the relevant GAC Members when a risk of confusion is identified (recommended)