The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) participated in the 65th meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN65 | Policy Forum), which was held from 24-27 June 2019 in Marrakech, Morocco with the participation of Internet experts from around the world.
The meeting discussed policy work and community outreach in addition to a range of important issues affecting the Internet community, including top-level domains, public safety and the importance of cybersecurity for the protection of Internet domain names. Participants also discussed how to apply the adopted standards to protect all the weaknesses of the ecosystems (Internet protocols, personal, and commercial transactions and Internet domain registrations).
The discussion also covered data privacy, data protection regulations, and the importance of using Internet domain names and email addresses that are represented in various languages and not only in English. This feature has recently been activated for all languages, to encourage people in all countries of the world to use the Internet in their native language instead of English.
“CRA ensures to be up to date with the latest developments in the field of Internet security and top-level Internet domain, and to adopt the best practices in this field. This contributes to the growth of the Internet, ensures that consumers in Qatar have the best services in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), enhances the digital skills and digital literacy across all segments of society and enables them to contribute to the economy and culture through the effective and secure use of ICT, therefore support the provision of the qualified manpower in the Qatari market which is in line with Qatar National Vision 2030,” said Eng. Abdulla Jassmi, Technical Affairs Department Manager, CRA.
On the sidelines of the meeting, the ICANN65 Multistakeholder Ethos Award Ceremony was held to honor members of the ICANN community who have made outstanding contributions to ICANN's multistakeholder model of Internet governance.
ICANN Public Meetings are held three times a year in different regions, enabling community members from around the globe to participate in person. The next ICANN meeting will be held in Montreal, Canada, from 2-7 November 2019.
ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world. ICANN’s mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet, it distributes Internet Protocol address fields, allocates protocol identifiers and manages the records system of top-level domain like .edu, .gov, and .qa.
CRA is the communications regulator in the State of Qatar. Under its mandate, CRA ensures the efficient management and allocation of national resources, including Qatari Internet domain names, which are the 10 domain names. CRA regulates and manages the registration of five domains through 17 accredited registrars; i.e. .qa, .قطر, .com.qa, .net.qa, and .name.qa.
The other domains are registered directly through CRA; .org.qa, .sch.qa, .edu.qa, .gov.qa, and .mil.qa. Qatar is among the first countries in the world to offer domain names in Arabic (قطر.). The Qatari domain names allow individuals, local entities and businesses to secure a reliable and reachable name on the Internet and to ensure that they reflect their Qatari identity when they provide their services to their local and international customers.
