Western Sahara
Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while ...
is a disputed territory, and as such it has no
country code
Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science ...
top-level domain
A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the ...
(
ccTLD). .eh is reserved for this purpose, and will be assigned if the
Western Sahara conflict results in an agreement between the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no ...
.
IANA has not designated a ccTLD manager for the .eh domain.
History
The letters .eh correspond to "Sáhara Español" (ESH, as Western Sahara was previously called Spanish Sahara) and also match
Saguia el-Hamra, one of two provinces in the earlier
Spanish Sahara.
On August 1, 2007, an international consortium made a bid to IANA to administer the .eh domain on behalf of the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Morocco, which controls most of Western Sahara, has made competing claims to the domain.
On October 16, 2007,
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespac ...
decided not to delegate ''.eh'' at all, with the explanation that:
there are currently two applicants for the delegation of the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .EH (Western Sahara). Both requests meet the technical criteria for managing a top-level domain. In cases like this, IANA has a long-standing policy of requesting that the two contesting applicants work together to find a mutual solution that will serve the needs of the local Internet community in the best possible fashion. ICANN does not see a way to approve the .EH ccTLD delegation to one of the applicants without violating its long-standing policy unless the contesting parties are able to reach an agreement.
The two applicants
remain armed belligerents; no such agreement has been reached and the domain remains inactive.
Publicity
On April 1, 2013 the
Canadian Internet Registration Authority announced it would be releasing .eh domain names to consumers as part of an
April Fools' Day joke, the TLD being a play on the stereotypical Canadian interjection "
eh".
References
Country code top-level domains
Communications in Western Sahara
sv:Toppdomän#E
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