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From 7 to 11 July, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Swiss Confederation will host the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+20 High-Level Event in Geneva, Switzerland. It will bring together diverse stakeholders to facilitate dialogue and drive action by assessing achievements, key trends and challenges since the 2003 Geneva Plan of Action, to build on the outcomes of the Summit of the Future and strengthen global digital cooperation for a renewed, forward-looking vision for WSIS.
The event is a key moment for civil society to advocate for the integration of a common social justice agenda and outline the necessary reinterpretation of the WSIS vision in order to address the rapid shifts and changes in today’s digital society.
APC has been participating in the WSIS review process since it inception, contributing to the visibilisation of civil society concerns and advocating for the inclusion of Global South perspectives. As technology evolves at an ever-increasing pace, we believe it is essential to reaffirm and strengthen the original WSIS vision of a “people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society” and to ensure a renewed commitment to human rights in the digital environment.
APC will be using the occasion of the July event to consolidate our input ahead of the overall review being convened in December 2025 by the UN General Assembly, which oversees the WSIS+20 review process. We see this review as a vital opportunity to challenge the status quo, reduce inequality, protect human rights online and offline, and mitigate environmental harms by prioritising people's well-being and the planet's future.
An agenda to centre people and the planet
Central to APC’s priorities is the need to reassert principles of participation for diverse stakeholders in the WSIS process, ensuring that civil society is equitably represented and able to participate meaningfully while acknowledging the disruptive effects of big tech on the multistakeholder process. The NETmundial+10 Multistakeholder Statement is a key reference to strengthen governance of digital policy processes and based on this, APC will be part of the session “Revamping Decision-Making in Digital Governance and the WSIS Framework”, where the application of the São Paulo Multistakeholder Guidelines adopted at last year’s NETmundial+10 conference will be discussed.
Twenty years after the initial WSIS summit, the dream of a people-centric, inclusive and development-oriented digital economy and society has never seemed more elusive yet so urgent to claim. Though more people than ever have access to the internet today, the majority lack meaningful access. What this means is that digital conditions are not leading to socio-economic empowerment and flourishing lives for all. The new digital order dictated by corporate greed and authoritarianism has seen widespread job precarity, misinformation, war crimes, climate catastrophe and more. Our autonomy, agency, shared humanity and planetary well-being are under siege.
Against this backdrop, APC and IT for Change, as part of the Global Digital Justice Forum, are launching a campaign, “Centring People and Planet at the WSIS+20 Review and Beyond”, to advocate for a digital justice agenda that puts people and the planet back into the WSIS+20 process.
We will host a session at the WSIS+20 High-Level Event where we will share video testimonies collected for the campaign bringing together the voices of civil society organisations and people’s movements working on food sovereignty, Indigenous people’s rights, trade justice, knowledge commons, workers’ rights, public health, peace and development, ecological sustainability and other critical development domains. The campaign statements will speak to the challenges of the current digital paradigm and the vision of a just and sustainable transition as well as how the WSIS+20 processes can respond effectively to the needs of the most marginalised communities. Overall, this session seeks to inform governments, WSIS Action Line holders and other critical stakeholders about the key demands of the campaign – endorsed by over 100+ civil society organisations and individuals from across the world.
APC will also have a session to present new research on how community-centred connectivity initiatives (CCCIs) could be recipients of innovative financial mechanisms. As contributors to the social and solidarity economy, CCCIs are integral for closing the digital divide, and we are substantively contributing to propose viable and sustainable financing models to support universal, meaningful connectivity, and to build public-private collaboration for long-term financial sustainability. As part of this work, we are contributing to bringing a perspective on how to mainstream gender across local connectivity strategies and initiatives.
APC’s Local Networks initiative will highlight the importance of Indigenous digital infrastructures and digital commons in promoting inclusive, community-led and sustainable progress in a session organised by APC with members Rhizomatica and Redes A.C.
The upcoming event is also an opportunity to strengthen coordination efforts among civil society groups, coalitions and movements and advance a common social justice agenda. As a space to engage in meaningful dialogues and raise awareness, APC and Rhizomatica will also host a booth from 8 to 11 July.
APC’s priorities in the WSIS+20 Review
Throughout the WSIS+20 Review process, APC is pushing for key priorities: the integration of human rights, gender equality, sustainable development, socioeconomic and digital justice in both the review and the vision for WSIS moving forward, which should connect with the implementation of the Global Digital Compact.
Linked to the “Centring People and Planet at the WSIS+20 and Beyond” campaign, our priorities outlined by the Global Digital Justice Forum include a 4-point call to action as a concerted vision for Digital Justice, Now!:
- Agenda 1. Human rights adequate to the digital paradigm
- Agenda 2. The internet as a global communications commons
- Agenda 3. A just international economic order based on the principle of digital non-alignment
- Agenda 4. A sustainable digital transition that safeguards the human rights of future generations
In addition, as part of cross-community efforts facilitated by the Global Digital Rights Coalition for WSIS, we are offering recommendations and agendas including the Five-Point Plan for an Inclusive WSIS+20 Review and the WSIS+20 Five-Point Plan Follow-up: Eight Practical Recommendations.
APC further stresses the importance of promoting democratic and inclusive governance at all levels of these processes, including civil society representatives in new governance mechanisms, and we are calling for the expansion of the IGF mandate and for making it permanent. As one of the only spaces for enabling public participation, shared learning, monitoring of progress in achieving inclusive, human-rights based, people-centred internet and digital governance, and discussing the positive and negative impacts of the internet and internet policies in a multidisciplinary and multistakeholder setting, we see the IGF as the heart of the internet governance ecosystem.
Video: APC's executive director Chat Garcia Ramilo speaking at IGF 2025 session, “The impact of the IGF in the information society”