Image: Global Digital Justice Forum
Twenty years after the conclusion of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), we find ourselves in a now-or-never moment. The vision of a people-centered, inclusive, and development-oriented digital order has never seemed more elusive, yet so urgent, to claim. The new digital order dictated by corporate greed and state control is, unfortunately, a far cry from the ideals of the WSIS consensus. (See the Global Digital Justice Forum’s Johannesburg Communique for our analysis of what is wrong with the status quo.) The weaponization of data and AI has already seen widespread job precarity, misinformation, war crimes, the climate catastrophe, and more. Our autonomy, agency, shared humanity, and planetary well-being are under siege.
We need Digital Justice, Now!
Our call to action outlines the imperative for WSIS+20 review and other global digital cooperation processes to deliver on the following agendas:
- 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
The call to action has already been endorsed by 70+ organizations and individuals worldwide.
Read the call to action here.
This statement is also available in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Korean and Bulgarian.
The Global Digital Justice Forum (GDJF) is a dynamic coalition of civil society organisations, including APC, from across the Global South and their allies in the Global North who are committed to returning digital power to all peoples. Through multi-pronged action grounded in a structural justice perspective, the Forum seeks to bring to fruition the vision of an equitable, just, and development-oriented international digital order.