UNESCO and ICANN to Celebrate Universal Acceptance Day 2026 with 30 Global Events / A Major Step Towards an Internet That Recognizes All Languages
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), continuing their cooperation to strengthen digital inclusion and linguistic diversity, will celebrate Universal Acceptance Day in 2026 through 30 events worldwide. This global initiative aims to ensure that domain names and email addresses function properly across all languages and writing systems. |
These events will take place from 25 March to 30 May 2026, underscoring the principle that all valid domain names and email addresses—regardless of language, script, or length—must function properly across all digital platforms and services.
As part of the call for event hosts, 30 programs were selected from 71 proposals received from across the world, including Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East, ensuring geographical and linguistic diversity.
The selected programs will be implemented in collaboration with governments, technical organizations, universities, civil society, and local communities, focusing on four key areas: technical capacity-building; policy dialogue and awareness-raising; community engagement; and the promotion of Indigenous and local languages in the digital space.
UNESCO emphasizes that Universal Acceptance is a prerequisite for equal access to a multilingual Internet. However, the incompatibility of many digital systems with non-Latin scripts remains a major challenge, particularly for Indigenous and low-resource languages.
This marks the fourth consecutive year of collaboration between UNESCO and ICANN on this global initiative. The two organizing institutions have invited governments and stakeholders to participate actively in this year’s events and help build a digital environment that “leaves no language behind.”
