*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:http://gtldresult.icann.org/application-result/applicationstatus/application... 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/application... --