"In March 2001, the ICANN Board created an Internal Working Group to investigate facts and identify issues that may arise concerning IDNs. The Internal Working Group issued its final report on 28 August 2001. Based on that report the ICANN Board created the IDN Committee." (Source)

"The committee is a multi-disciplinary ‘temporary' committee formed under Article VII, Section 1(c), of the ICANN bylaws to serve as a general coordination body for the work on policy issues identified in the IDN Working Group's final report and other policy issues that the IDN Committee identifies. It was created by resolutions 01.94 through 01.100, which provided:

"Resolved [01.94] that IDN Committee is hereby established under Article VII, Section 1(c), of the ICANN bylaws to serve as a general coordination body for the work on policy issues identified in the IDN Working Group Report and such other policy issues that the IDN Committee shall identify;

"Further resolved [01.95] that the IDN Committee shall be responsible for promoting the coordination of the work of the ICANN supporting organizations, committees, and other groups on the policy issues arising from IDNs, as documented in the final report, and to promote timely development of policy recommendations on those issues for consideration by the community and the ICANN Board;

"Further resolved [01.96] that in its policy-coordination activities, the IDN Committee should seek to ensure that any recommendations are achieved through a bottom-up process, and that those recommendations reflect a wide range of expertise on the different aspects relevant to the issues;

. . .

"Further resolved [01.99] that the IDN Committee is encouraged to commission panels of volunteer experts from different countries with practical experience in the policy issues identified in the Final Report, and linguistic experts (including experts in non-ASCII character sets and languages not spoken by persons active in current discussions); and

"Further resolved [01.100] that the IDN Committee is requested to present its initial work plan, schedule, and proposed budget for approval by the ICANN Board at the third ICANN annual meeting, to be held in Marina del Rey in November 2001."

(Source)