A significant opportunity to recalibrate the governance of digital technologies in light of today’s challenges has just taken place: the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+20 High-Level Event in Geneva, Switzerland, hosted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Swiss Confederation from 7 to 11 July (session videos are available here).
The WSIS Forum is an annual multistakeholder event within the WSIS process, bringing together governments, civil society, the private sector, academia, international organisations and the technical community. Following this year’s Internet Governance Forum, the high-level event was a key moment for civil society to advocate for the integration of a common social justice agenda and outline the necessary reinterpretation of the original WSIS vision of a “people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society”.
Through practical recommendations, joint actions with partners, campaigns and participation in various sessions, the APC network took this opportunity 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 brought "perspectives from our constituencies from the Global South towards reaffirming and strengthening the original WSIS vision and to ensuring a renewed commitment to human rights and development in the digital environment," summarised APC's Valeria Betancourt, who has been selected as a member of the WSIS+20 Informal Sounding Board.
Here are some highlights from APC's engagement at this high-level event and our recommendations looking forward.
Advancing an inclusive multistakeholder approach
One of the main discussions at WSIS+20 has been around not only keeping a multistakeholder approach, but make it more inclusive and democratic.
The session “Revamping Decision-Making in Digital Governance and the WSIS Framework”, organised by CGI.br (the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee), addressed the gaps and opportunities of the global digital governance ecosystem, especially when it comes to the governance architecture and cooperation, with a special focus on the WSIS framework. "The review is a great opportunity to make progress on the multistakeholder aspect and the NETmundial+10 Multistakeholder Statement is a great guideline. There are concrete suggestions, processes and steps there – we should use it very intentionally in the WSIS review," flagged Betancourt.
Connecting WSIS with other pieces of this ecosystem, she also commented on the gaps within the WSIS framework and between its different parts, such as the IGF and the WSIS Forum. "The WSIS Forum can and should focus on not just policy and governance, but actual implementation of the WSIS action lines. It brings together a different audience. The IGF, in turn, has a broader but specific digital governance and cooperation focus. So the IGF and the WSIS Forum have different audiences – more policy people at the IGF, and more practitioners at the WSIS Forum. That is a positive aspect in terms of complementarity," she explained. "But both forums have gaps in terms of the people, issues and communities represented in them. For example, neither has strong participation from climate change and environemental networks," added Betancourt, who also highlighted that the IGF needs a permanent mandate and a multi-year strategic plan accompanied by resource mobilisation and proper capacity.
Organised by Derechos Digitales and moderated by Kemly Camacho from APC, the session “Defending Our Voice: Global South Participation in Digital Governance” focused on identifying alternatives to overcome multiple existing challenges for effective and meaningful multistakeholder participation in global internet governance spaces within the current geopolitical landscape, especially the participation of civil society organisations and activists in global, regional and national arenas.
Paloma Lara Castro from Derechos Digitales highlighted the linkage between multistakeholder participation and human rights: "Participation, at the same time it is a political, civil and social human right, is key for inclusion, which is at the core of the WSIS vision, and when we think about the WSIS+20 review we really need to focus on how to contextualise the WSIS vision in the diverse experiences of local and marginalised communities that are most affected by the policies – or the lack of policies – regarding the internet."
Commenting on the high-level event as a whole, Kemly Camacho explained that this is a central issue because it defines who makes decisions and how multilateral agreements are reached for the construction of digital societies that benefit all populations. “At various points during this global conference, civil society has argued that, although very important, the multistakeholder approach has not guaranteed plurality or participation of all actors on an equal footing. Specific issues such as the availability of financial resources, visa restrictions and language barriers limit participation,” she pointed out. “There is a need for substantive approaches such as prioritising human rights, creating safe and respectful spaces for exchange, truly valuing the contributions of civil society, incorporating the geopolitical context into agreements, and addressing the power of big tech in defining the public agenda,” added Camacho.
Centring people and planet at the WSIS+20 review and beyond
In a continued effort to ensure more voices and representative discussions, APC joined IT for Change to co-host the session “Centring People and Planet at the WSIS+20 Review and Beyond” to bring to the fore, through video testimonials, the standpoints of grassroots communities, small farmers, platform workers, Indigenous communities, frontline public service workers, and climate activists about the challenges of the current digital paradigm and their vision of a just and sustainable transition. The session informed governments, WSIS Action Line holders and other critical stakeholders about the key demands of the Digital Justice, Now! campaign – endorsed by over 100+ civil society organisations and individuals from across the world.
Anita Gurumurthy from IT for Change emphasised that there is no right to public participation without the right to belong in the digital public sphere; no right to privacy in the absence of the right to consensual representation; no right to knowledge sans the epistemic right of communities to innovate from their shared data resources; and no right to equality without algorithmic transparency.
Among the many videos from the campaign, Jalal Abukhater, advocacy manager at 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, speaks out on the digital siege of Gaza and the urgent need to recognise internet access as a human right. As connectivity in Gaza remains devastated after nearly two years of war, he calls for international action to rebuild Palestine’s telecommunications infrastructure as a public good – resilient, independent and accessible to all, flagging that digital access must never be used as a weapon of war (watch Jalal's video).
Mariana López from REDES A.C. highlights how Indigenous and rural community networks in Latin America are not just about internet access, but about life, culture and autonomy (watch Mariana's video). Julián Casasbuenas G. from Colnodo shares how community networks in rural Colombia are reclaiming the internet as a commons – not a commodity (watch Julián's video). Gomer Padong from the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA) focuses on how community-centred connectivity initiatives work alongside existing infrastructure and services, providing complementary solutions that enhance access and create a multifaceted approach to connectivity (watch Gomer's video).
Communities’ routes to meaningful digital inclusion
The need for a more enabling environment for community-centred connectivity initiatives was a major concern raised through APC’s network involvement in the event. The session “Community-Centred Connectivity: Empowering Local Champions to Expand Internet Access for All”, organised by the Internet Society, brought together APC's Mike Jensen, Carlos Baca from Rhizomatica, Abner Manzar from Digital Empowerment Foundation and APC associate Sol Luca de Tena in representation of UNICEF-ITU Giga.
According to Luca de Tena, if policies are only focused on higher-income urban realities, we are missing a large part of the population. "It costs a lot of money for a company to send a technician to the communities. When the communities have enough technical expertise in the community, they can deal with it. It is a quicker response technically, but also a much cheaper response from the financial point of view," she explained.
During the session “Indigenous Digital Infrastructures and Emerging Technologies: Challenges, Capacities and Commons”, organised by Rhizomatica, REDES A.C. and APC, participants explored how Indigenous communities are building and governing their own digital infrastructures. "Overall, it was a session that reaffirmed that we're not just seeking internet access or a specific technology: we're seeking digital sovereignty, technological justice and the freedom to tell our stories in our own voices,” summarised Mariana López from REDES A.C.
“Beyond International Aid: Investing in Community Connectivity and Making it Self-Sustainable” was another session organised by APC focusing on community connectivity initiatives. This session shed light on how these initiatives, as contributors to the social and solidarity economy, could be recipients of blended and impact finance, and other innovative financial mechanisms that multilateral funds, national development banks and regulators could make available to close the digital divide. Some key recommendations looking forward were to strengthen funding mechanisms, and to promote stakeholder engagement, capacity building and policy integration as critical for improving scalability of community-centred connectivity initiatives. “Sometime, there is so much pressure on these initiatives to generate revenue and become financially self‑sustainable, when in fact they are creating social value on many other levels and generating economic opportunities at the local level,” said Anriette Esterhuyssen from APC.
A gender perspective
APC also advocates for placing gender justice at the core of the WSIS process.
The session “Driving Meaningful Participation of Women in Cyber through Policy and Practical Action”, organised by the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance and APC, explored strategies to achieve meaningful participation, ensuring women are not just present but can thrive in cybersecurity careers and also hold decision-making roles where they can influence policies and drive implementation for a more inclusive sector.
Kemly Camacho remarked that "at APC, we advocate for a human rights and gender-based approach to the development of cybersecurity policies. [...] A gender-responsive approach to cybersecurity policy means that at every step, the goal is to positively impact the greatest number of people in all their diversity and complexity."
Responding to conflict and crises
Organised by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), the session “Communication is Humanitarian Aid” explored how communication/information integrity is crucial in the context of civil strife and vital to policy making about rebuilding infrastructure and shaping post-conflict dialogue. How can WSIS+20 meet the needs of people living in disaster-affected communities? How can WSIS+20 Action Lines address the communication deficits in conflict situations? How can the Global Digital Compact be utilised to improve affordability, accessibility and accountability in conflict situations?
Anriette Esterhuyssen from APC said: "We believe that access is a fundamental right, and people need it even more in times of crisis and conflict. They need to know their families are safe, and they need to be able to call for help."
“We find a normative desert – really inconsistent responses, driven by geopolitical trends and biases,” added Esterhuysen, referring to different contexts such as Syria, Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine. "There is a gap in how humanitarian law is interpreted and applied in these contexts," she remarked, and continued: "When there is a crisis, and people are deprived of access to core internet resources, we need a multistakeholder mechanism that comes into place and starts asking, 'What can we do?' [...] It is not acceptable for this community to remain passive."
Recommendations looking forward
Overall, APC highlighted that digital inequality is not just persisting, it is growing, often amplifying existing inequalities shaped by gender, race, geographical location, income and education. Digitalisation is worsening the climate crisis, pollution and biodiversity loss to an extent not anticipated at the WSIS summits. And, while market-led digital inclusion has failed billions, mere connectivity is no longer enough; meaningful access is essential in our increasingly digital world.
APC's Valeria Betancourt was also a High-Level Track Facilitator for the panel addressing WSIS Action Line 2, focusing on information and communication infrastructure, which discussed the need for "an international order where internet access enables the right of all peoples and nations to a flourishing digital future where the planetary boundaries are respected and connectivity and meaningful access are enablers of human dignity" for WSIS beyond 2025.
It is time to take action and we shared concrete steps to change the course of the digital society. APC brought a set of concrete recommendations moving forward (see them below).
With the conclusion of this High-Level Event, the next opportunity to influence the WSIS+20 review is through the public consultation on the Elements Paper, open until 15 July. APC believes the Elements Paper should highlight digital inequality as the top priority, reasserting the public interest in digital and data governance. It also needs to commit to environmental justice and sustainability, apply the UN’s human rights-based approach to digital governance, and promote gender justice.
Our input will be provided by APC both independently and jointly with partners through the Global Digital Justice Forum and the Global Digital Rights Coalition for WSIS, hoping to build stronger alliances within civil society and facilitate the identification of joint priorities for WSIS+20.
