Will the United Nations Global Digital Compact (GDC) meets its aim of fostering an inclusive, open, safe, and secure digital future for all?

Its success or failure hangs on how it is put into practice, say WACC and its partners, in a new implementation roadmap rooted in communication for all.

The advocacy resource offers 32 recommendations for UN Member States and other stakeholders to go beyond the compromises that were necessary for the nonbinding international agreement to be adopted at the UN Summit for the Future in September 2024.

Developed jointly at the most recent WACC project partner forum, the recommendations show how the GDC can be made more relevant and move towards a more progressive and social justice-oriented view of digital technologies, says Lorenzo Vargas, WACC program manager for Communication for Social Change.

Though the Compact links to sustainable development and international human rights law, it does not make any explicit reference to communication rights, Vargas notes.

The recommendations, from partners working on communication rights in the global South, intend to bridge this gap and will be brought to the World Summit on the Information Society High-Level Event (WSIS+20) in July as a further WACC contribution to the outcomes and to future work.

Anchoring GDC implementation in communication rights

One criticism that the resource highlights is that the GDC does not acknowledge technology as a human product. Without this connection, there is little basis for accountability. “Even for negative impacts of new tech that may not be intended, there should still be accountability,” the document stresses.

To start with, “digital resources need to be democratized and governance decisions about digital technologies must prioritize the public interest over private profits,” the recommendations underline as two guiding concepts for implementation of the CDG.

This means taking steps to ensure the viability of public interest media and regulation of the tech sector in the public interest. And implementation needs to propose solutions to closing the digital divide that “place communities in control over their own communication rather than see people as mere users that can help telecom companies grow their profits.”

The ten general recommendations also urge a paradigm shift to see issues like affordable access to media and platforms, digital literacy, and freedom expression via digital channels as “rights, not simply as nice-to-haves.”

A strong gender equality lens for GDC implementation

To advance gender equality as the GDC is implemented, WACC partners propose adopting a new, intersectional approach that recognizes the diversity encompassed by the category of “women” so that actions can be tailored to the needs of different groups of women and girls.

The recommendations stress that more needs to be done to address bias in the digital landscape and to stop tech-facilitated gender-based violence in particular against gender justice activists. The digital rights of women and girls in conflict situations need additional attention.

Partners also highlight the need to promote women within the tech sector including through funding for women’s tech entrepreneurship.

GDC implementation that closes the climate gap

The advocacy resource outlines seven recommendations from a climate justice perspective to close the gap of the GDC giving scare mention to climate and environmental issues.

Tech’s environmental impact needs to be acknowledged, WACC partners state. “Any efforts to expand the reach of digital technologies … needs to pursue net-zero emissions and little to no environmental impact while also upholding human rights and respecting the locations where digital infrastructure is installed.”

The climate justice recommendations urge the use of digital tech as tools for communities hard-hit by climate impacts to be seen and heard and to access information. This means ensuring safeguards for activists and journalists and shutting down climate disinformation and misinformation.

Bringing a migrant rights’ perspective to GDC implementation

In the final section of the document, WACC partners recommend pathways towards a digital future that includes and is safe for migrants.

GDC implementation needs to take into account that the root causes of migration are rarely discussed, the resource notes. Supporting migrant-led digital content creators and their contact with media as well as helping media to report accurately and fairly about migration are three steps the partners propose to counter xenophobic, racist, and anti-migrant discourse and to promote rights-based narratives of migration.

Recommendations in this section also address the need to tackle barriers migrants face in accessing digital platforms and to ensure mechanisms that facilitate safe and secure financial transactions for migrants.

“WACC is proud of our partnerships with local and national civil society organizations who work every day to democratize their communication and media landscape. This document offers tangible recommendations to turn the GDC priorities into meaningful, people-centered action,” Vargas says.

Participants at the WACC project partner forum “Communication Rights: Building Blocks for Social Justice in a Digital World” in October 2024 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo: AMARC AP/WACC