Facts
Regarding the African Union Commission (.Africa) application
1.
The African Union
Commission’s (AUC)
involvement in the dotAfrica (.Africa) Top Level Domain (TLD)
process has been
mandated by African Heads of State (OR Tambo Declaration) and
African Minister’s
in charge of ICT (Abuja Declaration).
2.
In fulfilling its
mandate the AUC has, in
accordance with an open and transparent Request for Proposal
(RFP) process,
officially endorsed UniForum SA t/a the ZA Central Registry
(ZACR) to apply for
and launch the dotAfrica (.Africa) TLD.
3.
The AUC/ZACR, in
accordance with the procedures
and standards prescribed by the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN), has officially lodged an application with ICANN
for the
delegation of the (.Africa), under reference number:
1-1243-89583. This
application constitutes the official AUC endorsed application
for the dotAfrica
(.Africa) Top Level Domain. Further
details
of this official application is available at:
4.
There is a
competing private application,
for a confusingly similar string, lodged by DotConnectAfrica
Trust. The
application for the dotdotAfrica (.dotAfrica) TLD string, under
reference
number 1-1165-42560.
5.
The AUC/ZACR’s
application meets and exceeds,
the minimum evaluation criteria set by ICANN for application of
Geographic strings.
6.
The AUC/ZACR’s
application, is correctly
designated as a geographic application in accordance with the
criteria and
processes outlined in ICANN’s Applicant Guidebook.
In particular: Africa
(and therefore
.Africa) is a clearly designated geographic area as defined in
the UNESCO “Composition
of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical
sub-regions, and
selected economic and other groupings” list
(http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm).Therefore
the
designation of the official dotAfrica (.Africa) TLD string
application, as
a geographic name, is technically and procedurally correct. The
"geographic
evaluation process" that this application is subject to provides
sufficient checks and balances for the protection of interests
and rights of
African governments and the pan-African community.
7.
The AUC endorsed
dotAfrica (.Africa)
application has been, and continues to be, a collaborative
African initiative
involving African governments, ICT stakeholders and the broader
African
community.
In this regard the stated
mission and objective of
the AUC’s officially endorsed application is enshrined in its
answers to
question 18 of the Application, which is publicly available on
the ICANN New
gTLD website http://gtldresult.icann.org/application-result/applicationstatus/applicationdetails/1184
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