03 Jun 2024 WSIS+20 in 2025: A not-to-be-missed opportunity to guarantee a new democratic global digital governance framework
By Philip Lee, WACC general secretary
Winding up the WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event (Geneva, May 27–31), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin said, “This week has shown, with the AI for Good Global Summit happening in parallel, that we are well on our way towards an information society that works for everyone, especially as technology continues to evolve.”
With less than six years to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the High-Level Event addressed present and future digital realities, contrasting today’s digital ecosystem with information and communication technologies (ICTs) at the time of the World Summit on Information Society in Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005).
While there was broad agreement that existing frameworks like the WSIS Forum, Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and NETmundial, should be leveraged and built upon, many participants also underlined the marginalisation of people and communities from policymaking and tech-development debates.
Multistakeholder participation needs to be consistently inclusive at all levels and be accountable and transparent across the entire digital governance ecosystem.
WACC partner Association for Progressive Communications (APC) issued a statement saying that, “To be meaningful, multistakeholder participation needs to be consistently inclusive at all levels – from local to global and be accountable and transparent across the entire digital governance ecosystem. The unaddressed complexity of regulatory challenges that plague the tech landscape are multiple. These manifest in the alarming rise of technology-facilitated gender-based violence, continued lack of meaningful access and connectivity in the global South, heightened risk of AI-related bias and discrimination, undue harms from data extractivism, as well as deeply unequal integration into the digital economy.”
The statement also noted, “In addition, the environmental footprint of digital technologies and infrastructures has multiplied exponentially, and is likely to continue to grow manifold, raising very critical questions for sustainability.”
The Civil Society Statement from the Global Digital Justice Forum (GDJF) – of which WACC is a member – said, “The WSIS+20 review should embrace a grammar of global digital cooperation that is inclusive, development-oriented, and human rights-based. Our futures cannot be held under siege of mercantile greed nor of state repression and excess.”
It also called on WSIS action line facilitators and stakeholders to “identify and boldly address the challenges to implementation stemming from market power concentration and the gaping divides in data and digital infrastructure that prevent the majority from being full participants in the digital paradigm.”
The WSIS+20 review should embrace a grammar of global digital cooperation that is inclusive, development-oriented, and human rights-based.
Participants at the session on “Gender Equality and Inclusion in our Digital Future: A new gender deal for WSIS+20” – organised by WACC and the Global Alliance on Media and Gender (GAMAG) – called on the UN system, governments, media and digital communication companies, and civil society movements to support the inclusion of a new gender deal in the digital ecosystem.
Key actions would include interrogating existing norms and reinforcing mechanisms to strengthen gender equality within the technology sector, and implementing actions designed to respond to urgent identified needs.
Thematic aspects that might be included in the WSIS Forum 2025 should cover: Building an Information Society founded on feminist principles of equity, equality, inclusion, fairness and justice; tackling online misogyny and tech-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV); and transforming gender norms in the online space to enable respect for women’s digital rights, including the right to participate in all aspects of tech ecosystems.
This year’s WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event was the scene of intensive talking, but with a limited exchange of diverse opinions. Many plenary sessions were panel discussions based around three-minute interventions with little or no time for questions and responses. While everyone agreed that digital technologies could be used for the greater social good, there was less consensus around how they should be deployed.
“Leaving no one behind” remains the mantra, but huge disparities remain between the 5.4 billion people now digitally connected, let alone the 2.6 billion people still living without the internet.
The ITU is serious about tackling the digital divide. As such, and in contrast to this year’s hierarchical UN-leaders and government ministers’ approach, WSIS+20 (Geneva, 7–13 June 2025) should place civil society organisations at the top of the agenda.
Such an open and inclusive agenda will guarantee that opinions and perspectives on digital communication justice – especially those from the global South – will not only be heard but listened to.
The ITU should invite civil society organisations such as APC, GDJF, GAMAG, and IT for Change to lead the discussions from the start.
Such an open and inclusive agenda will guarantee that opinions and perspectives on digital communication justice – especially those from the global South – will not only be heard but listened to.
ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin speaks during the closing ceremony of the WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event on 31 May 2024 in Geneva.
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