Global Digital Rights Coalition for WSIS

The GDRC-WSIS is a collective of civil society organisations from the Global Majority and Global North, offering our shared expertise to advance human rights and multistakeholderism in the WSIS+20 review process. We believe that the WSIS+20 review process and its outcomes should be anchored in international human rights law, and require meaningful multistakeholder engagement and procedures.

As a collective, we are committed to working with UN member states and other stakeholders throughout the review to ensure that its outcomes respond to the full range of challenges faced by our societies to achieve a people-centric and rights-based digital future.

Our members are:

Access Now – Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
ARTICLE 19 – Data Privacy Brasil – Derechos Digitales
Digital Rights Foundation – the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL)
Global Partners Digital (GPD)
the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL)
Tech Global Institute – Paradigm Initiative.

The GDRC-WSIS is working to achieve the following priorities:

1. Promote a human rights-based, people-centric, sustainable and development-oriented approach to the WSIS+20 review:

Ensuring that the review and implementation of the WSIS action lines and outcomes are anchored in international human rights law. This includes strengthening the WSIS framework to safeguard against human rights abuses including surveillance, Internet shutdowns and censorship; promoting rights-respecting regulation; and formally recognising the role of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

2. Advance the multistakeholder approach to global Internet governance and digital policy processes:

Including through promoting the practical implementation of the Sao Paulo Multistakeholder Guidelines, which will create more open, transparent, accessible, equitable, and inclusive policymaking at all levels.

3. Strengthen the WSIS vision and its institutions like the Internet Governance Forum (IGF):

Preventing the WSIS institutions from being subsumed into or diluted by other digital governance processes and ensuring the continued existence and effectiveness of the IGF. New global digital frameworks, such as the Global Digital Compact, should be implemented through the WSIS architecture.

Members of the GDRC-WSIS will be present at the IGF 2025 and the WSIS+20 High Level Event 2025. We will update this page with details of our events and publications.

Joint publications from the coalition include:

• Five-Point Plan Follow-up: Eight Practical Recommendations [Cross-stakeholder]
• Five-Point Plan for an Inclusive WSIS+20 Review [Cross-stakeholder]
• Civil society joint input: ITU Council Working Group on WSIS & SDGs Call for Inputs on the WSIS+20

We are a dynamic, outcome-focused coalition, and welcome new members from civil society organisations who align with our priorities and share our values of collaboration and impact.

If your organization shares our vision, please submit a membership request. 

Other ways to engage in the WSIS+20 review:

1. Check if your government is holding national consultations to inform their approach to the review process.
2. Participate in consultations held as part of the intergovernmental preparatory process. Consultations are expected to take place virtually and during the sidelines of other events, including the UNESCO Conference on Capacity Building on AI and Digital Transformation in the Public Sector, the global Internet Governance Forum (IGF) (June 2025) and the WSIS High Level Event (July 2025). For more information, visit GPD’s Digital Governance Calendar.
3. Subscribe to GPD’s WSIS mailing list by emailing wsis20coordination-subscribe@lists.riseup.net or contact ellie@gp-digital.org to be added manually.
4. Subscribe to ICANN’s WSIS mailing list by clicking here.