Access Now submits rights-focused input to the WSIS+20 Elements Paper

Access Now has provided a comprehensive submission to the WSIS+20 Stakeholder Consultations as input to the WSIS+20 Elements Paper, positioning human rights, meaningful connectivity and multistakeholder governance as essential pillars for the Zero Draft. As an ECOSOC-accredited organisation and a member of the Global Digital Rights Coalition for WSIS, Access Now frames its intervention as part of a broader civil-society effort to ensure that the twenty-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society results in a rights-based, inclusive and development-oriented information society.

The submission identifies three major achievements of WSIS that should anchor the Zero Draft: establishing and legitimising the multistakeholder model for internet governance; creating the Internet Governance Forum as the primary global platform for inclusive digital policy dialogue; and reaffirming that access to information, freedom of expression and the wider enjoyment of human rights are foundational to digital development. According to Access Now, the WSIS vision remains vital, but its implementation has been uneven, especially in embedding human rights protections into digital governance frameworks. The organisation highlights unlawful surveillance, spyware abuse, internet shutdowns, disinformation and discriminatory digital policies as persistent barriers that undermine trust, inclusion and the safe exercise of rights online.

Looking ahead, Access Now outlines two priority actions for the Zero Draft. First, the document should explicitly root the WSIS framework in international human rights law, including the International Bill of Human Rights, thematic human-rights treaties and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. A formal role for OHCHR as co-facilitator of Action Line 10 would strengthen rights-based implementation. Second, the Zero Draft should reaffirm the multistakeholder model in line with the Tunis Agenda and the NETmundial+10 São Paulo Guidelines, ensuring the full participation of civil society, the technical community, academia, the private sector and the Global Majority.

The submission calls for several additional themes to be included in the Elements Paper:

• guarantees against arbitrary or unlawful restrictions on internet access, including shutdowns, censorship and surveillance
• clear recognition of intersectional inequalities affecting women, girls, LGBTQI+ people, Indigenous communities, and others facing barriers to meaningful connectivity
• support for community networks, alternative infrastructure models and human-rights-respecting regulatory environments
• strengthened attention to platform power, accountability, mandatory transparency and human-rights due diligence
• integration of generative AI-related risks into the broader digital-rights context
• recognition that enhanced cooperation must complement, not replace, the multistakeholder model

On strengthening the WSIS institutional ecosystem, Access Now urges renewal of the IGF mandate, adequate and stable funding, explicit recognition of national and regional IGFs, and deeper participation from underrepresented countries and communities. It also supports Switzerland’s proposal for a joint implementation roadmap to integrate the Global Digital Compact with WSIS through an advisory mechanism under UNGIS.

The organisation concludes by stressing that the WSIS+20 review must continue to advance inclusive, transparent and globally representative processes, drawing on existing civil-society recommendations such as the Five-Point Plan for an Inclusive WSIS+20 Review and the Freedom Online Coalition’s guidance on the future of multistakeholderism. Access Now frames its submission as part of a sustained effort to ensure that the next phase of WSIS implementation protects human rights and supports a genuinely people-centred digital future.