As usual, ICANN’s annual general meeting in Dublin last week saw plenty of resolutions approved including the reappointment of Tripti Sinha as chair and appointment of Sajid Rahman was, somewhat controversially, appointed as Vice Chair; continue operations of the Whois successor the Registration Data Request Service for another two years; approved the New gTLD Program: 2026 Round Applicant Guidebook, three future meetings in Muscat, Seville and Vancouver and more.
Chair Reappointment, New Vice-Chair
The reappointment of Tripti Sinha as Chair of the ICANN Board of Directors was expected while Sajid Rahman’s as Vice Chair less so, and was somewhat controversial, with Sinha expressing her disappointment at Chris Chapman’s removal, according to Domain Incite. Sinha joined the Board in 2018, was reappointed as Chair of the ICANN Board of Directors for a fourth term. Rahman joined the ICANN Board in 2022 and currently serves as Chair of the Board Finance Committee.
Starting in Dublin there were also three new Board members: Constance Bommelaer de Leusse and Raúl Echeberría, selected by the ICANN Nominating Committee, and Greg DiBiase, selected by the Generic Names Supporting Organization.
Adopts 2026 New gTLD Guidebook
The ICANN Board finally adopted a final version of the New gTLD Program: 2026 Round Applicant Guidebook and directed it be published, with the addition of the dispute resolution service providers’ rules, no later than 30 December 2025.
Registration Data Request Service, Whois Successor, Continues
The Board also decided to continue operations of the Registration Data Request Service, the successor to Whois, for up to two years, until December 2027, while the community continues its deliberations regarding the future of the service and related policy recommendations.
The Board and the GNSO Standing Committee have expressed a desire to see the RDRS continue operating until policy recommendations for a long-term solution for requests for non-public gTLD registration data are adopted and implemented, and aligned with other open policy issues, including the disclosure of underlying data for domains registered under privacy/proxy service providers, as well as a timeline for responses to urgent requests from law enforcement authorities.
There have been some concerns expressed of the RDRS in its current form and suggestions for going forward include it should proceed only if a fee would be charged, while others opposed continuation.
Seville, Muscat and Vancouver Meeting Locations Approved
Three upcoming ICANN meeting locations were also approved. These were:
- Seville, Spain been selected as the location in the Europe region to host the ICANN86 Policy Forum. ICANN86 will be held from 8–11 June 2026.
- Muscat, Oman has been selected as the location in the Asia Pacific region to host the ICANN87 Annual General Meeting. The event will take place from 17–22 October 2026. Muscat was originally scheduled to be the location for ICANN84 that was transferred to Dublin and was postponed.
- Vancouver, Canada was selected as the location in the North America region to host the ICANN89 Policy Forum. ICANN89 will be held from 14–17 June 2027. It will be the first time in over 20 years an ICANN Public Meeting was last held in Vancouver, the last one being in 2005 for ICANN24.
- The ICANN88 Community Forum had previously been approved to be held from 13-18 March 2027 in Lisbon, Portugal.
SFICR Project Funding
Another Board approval was the transfer of US$12,000,000 from the Operating Fund to the Supplemental Fund for Implementation of Community Recommendations (SFICR)/Project Fund is meant to be used for projects that are multi-year and focus on community recommendations that are approved by the Board, but do not fit within the annual budget.
ICANN Ombuds Performance goals
Performance goals for the ICANN Ombuds for the second half of FY26 from 1 January 2026 through 30 June 2026 were also approved. The Board saw it as an important aspect of their oversight role to evaluate her performance and an agreed set of performance goals were viewed as part of this. The Ombuds has drafted, and the Board has agreed, a set of performance goals for the second half of FY26 from 1 January 2026 through 30 June 2026.
The Board believes such goals not only provide an incentive for the Ombuds to perform above and beyond her regular duties, but also lead to regular touch points between the Ombuds and Board during the relevant time period to help ensure that the Ombuds is achieving her goals and serving the needs of the ICANN community.
.LY Transfer Approved
The transfer of the .LY (Libya) top-level domain was also approved and the role of manager was assigned to the General Authority for Communications and Informatics.
GNSO Policy Recommendations Concerning Second-Level Protections for IGO Acronyms Not Approved
One issue considered and not approved was the remaining GNSO policy recommendations concerning second-level protections for IGO acronyms on the basis that they have been superseded by subsequent development as well as lifting the moratorium on second-level registrations for the IGO acronyms currently reserved. This includes implementing the IGO curative rights policy recommendations and the permanent notification system that will notify an affected IGO if and when a third party registers a domain name matching that IGO’s acronym.
The Board did decide to adopt the Scorecard: “IDN EPDP Phase 1 Recommendations 7.4 and 7.5” and directed ICANN to incorporate the remaining two recommendations into the existing implementation work. This includes coordination with the ongoing work related to the Next Round Base Registry Agreement and the Subsequent Procedures (SubPro) IRT, as soon as practicable.
Board Thankyous
The ICANN Board finally issues a series of thankyous including thanking outgoing Board members Chris Chapman, Maarten Botterman and Becky Burr for their service to the Board.
For more information on these resolutions, go to: icann.org/en/board-activities-and-meetings/materials/approved-resolutions-regular-meeting-of-the-icann-board-30-10-2025-en