In 2005, ESCWA published its first study on “Development of an Arabic Domain Name System” which addressed technical, linguistic and operational aspects of this task. The implementation of an Arabic domain names system (ADNS) will make the Internet accessible to all Arabs, irrespective of their ability to understand English. Until recently, English or “Latin” characters, were the only set that could be used in Internet addresses or domain names. However, through the implementation of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), people, especially young people and women with limited or no access to foreign language education, can benefit from using the Internet in their own language. This will help to bridge the digital divide and increase the Internet penetration rate, both in the ESCWA region and globally.