ITU participated actively in the second Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Meeting held in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during November 2007. ITU cooperates with relevant bodies in various Internet-related matters,
in accordance with its mandate from the Plenipotentiary Conference. During the second IGF Meeting, ITU, ICANN and UNESCO
organized a workshop on efforts to forge universal standards in building a multilingual cyberspace. Domain names are
currently mainly limited to characters from the Latin or Roman scripts.
There is growing concern that many local languages may be sidestepped, albeit unintentionally, in the rapid expansion of
the Internet. However, multilingualism is vital for ensuring cultural diversity and participation by all linguistic
groups in cyberspace. Internationalized domain names (IDN) are a key element promoting the multilingualization of the
Internet to reflect the diverse language needs of all users. This workshop considered the key challenges to a truly
multilingual Internet and explored new opportunities of collaboration to improve communication for the benefit of all
the world's inhabitants.
