26 Jun 2026 WACC to highlight community voices at key UN meetings on AI governance, information society
A WACC delegation will advocate for a common digital future rooted in communication justice at an upcoming trio of major international events set to shape global digital governance in the years ahead.
The Global Dialogue on AI Governance, the WSIS Forum 2026, and the AI for Good Summit 2026 are convening representatives of UN Member States, the private sector, and civil society to Geneva between 6 and 10 July.
During the week our 4-member WACC delegation will press for outcomes that prioritize equity, participation, and accountability – and that reflect the lived realities of communities in the Global South.
WACC General Secretary Philip Lee and Deputy General Secretary Sara Speicher are taking part together with two of our community partners: Carlos Baca of Redes A.C. and Rhizomatica (Mexico) and Maroua Ghith of the Local Democracy Association (Tunisia).
They will bring WACC’s communication rights perspective and grassroots experience of what digital transformation should look like and build bridges across sectors with digital justice allies.
Three meetings, one – urgent – digital justice message
The three events converging in Geneva represent a key moment for global digital governance.
The Global Dialogue on AI Governance, established by the UN General Assembly and mandated by the Global Digital Compact, is the first forum in which all governments and multisector stakeholders can together discuss the development of artificial intelligence.
The WSIS Forum, which follows last year’s 20-year, high-level review of the World Summit on the Information Society, carries renewed authority to shape how Member States implement their digital commitments.
AI for Good, meanwhile, brings together technologists, policymakers and civil society in dialogue about AI’s role in advancing human development.
Across all three events, WACC’s message is consistent: the outcomes shaping our common future must be grounded in three non-negotiable priorities:
- Equity – Who benefits?
- Participation – Who controls?
- Accountability – Who knows?
These questions – drawn from WACC’s April symposium on digital rights and AI accountability and aligned with the shared platform of the Global Digital Rights Coalition – cut through the technological optimism that often dominates these forums to ask which people are genuinely served by the digital futures being negotiated.
“The danger at gatherings like these is that the language of inclusion becomes decoration while the decisions – and benefits – remain in the hands of the few,” says Lee.
“WACC seeks to make sure the communities most affected by digital expansion – whose cultures, languages, data, and rights are on the line – are not just mentioned in preambles but present and heard in the room and helping to shape the tangible outcomes.”
Access, Agency, Voice.
How Communities in the Global South Are Shaping Another Technological World
Date: 7 July
Time: 16:00–16:45 CET/UTC+02:00 (Paris)
Geneva Venue: Room G3, ITU Varembé Building
Virtual: Select “Session 205”
Spotlighting alternative paths to digital access, agency, voice
A WACC-organized session on Tuesday, 7 July, during the WSIS Forum will challenge the idea that there is only one technological future.
Titled “Access, Agency, Voice. How Communities in the Global South Are Shaping Another Technological World,” the hybrid session features WACC partners and invites all of us to think about what “cultural integrity” must mean in practice if it is to be more than rhetorical flourish.
Baca will speak from his work with Indigenous and rural communities in Mexico navigating the promises and pitfalls of digital connectivity. Ghith will bring perspectives from North Africa on how communities are asserting democratic participation in the face of top-down digital agendas.
The session will also feature Roxana Widmer Iliescu, head of the Digital Inclusion Service at the Development Bureau of the International Telecommunications Union and a passionate advocate for human-centred information and communication technologies (ICTs) and equitable digital opportunities for all.
With moderation from Lee, the panellists will explore what is lost when connectivity, platforms, and AI systems arrive without regard for local culture, language, or self-determination – and what concrete commitments are missing from the WSIS process to address this.
“Access, Agency, Voice” takes place at 16:00–16:45 (UTC+02:00) on 7 July. Virtual participants are asked to register in advance.
Building a common digital future
“As an organisation rooted in the ecumenical movement and long-established in media development, WACC occupies a rare position at the intersection of diverse networks: community-based advocates and international policy bodies, media development practitioners and faith communities, civil society coalitions in the Global South and institutional partners in multilateral processes,” notes Lee
The week’s events bring further opportunities for WACC to link advocates with a common rights-based approach to digital transformation to strengthen our collective impact, he says.
Delegation members intend to connect with alliance partners including the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), IT for Change, Rhizomatica, and the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), as well as representatives from the World Council of Churches (WCC).
WACC will also actively support efforts to ensure the Global Digital Compact and WSIS processes remain meaningfully linked – resisting the fragmentation of digital governance into parallel silos.
“There is intense concern from many different groups that the current dominant trajectory of a single, inevitable technological future carries real costs that people, particularly marginalized communities, are already experiencing and will only become more acute,” says Lee.
“To address the cultural erasure, concentration of power, lack of information integrity, online abuse, and corporate data capture, all of us need to speak and work towards a comprehensive equitable, participatory and accountably digital ecosystem.”
Top image: A Bootcamp 2026 participant gets hands-on communication experience as part of a training program run by WACC partner REDES A.C. for ICT network managers from rural, remote, and Indigenous communities in Latin America. Credit: Redes A.C.
Media
For interview requests, please contact WACC Deputy General Secretary Ms. Sara Speicher ss@waccglobal.org.
This article was initially drafted with AI assistance and subsequently reviewed and revised by staff.
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