The coalition wants WSIS+20 to move from broad aspirations to funded, rights-based, and locally grounded delivery—so that access becomes affordable, safe, multilingual, and genuinely useful for everyone.
The Forum’s submission includes recommendations for governance reform within the WSIS framework. It supports calls for making the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) a permanent UN body with sustainable funding and inclusive participation metrics. It also recommends stronger linkages between WSIS processes, the UN Group on the Information Society (UNGIS), and the Global Digital Compact to ensure coherence and accountability across UN digital initiatives.
The WSIS Youth Caucus has welcomed the WSIS+20 Zero Draft but warned that youth voices risk being sidelined unless they are consistently recognised as a distinct stakeholder group throughout the text.
The group urges formal recognition of Youth IGFs within WSIS processes, alongside concrete measures to ensure inclusive policymaking that reflects young people’s diverse realities. It also highlights the need for intergenerational digital literacy initiatives and rights-based approaches to tackling misinformation, stressing that safeguarding freedom of expression must remain central to the future of the information society.
In its detailed submission to the WSIS+20 Zero Draft, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) supports the overall direction of the document but calls for clearer commitments on human rights, digital equality, and environmental sustainability. The organisation urges states to move beyond market-driven solutions and adopt community-led, rights-based approaches to digital governance.
Their submission encourages the UN to promote community-led networks, indigenous-language content, and bottom-up participation in governance processes. This, they argue, would make global digital policies more relevant and responsive to people in remote regions.
ISOC’s message is pragmatic. Lock in what works (an inclusive IGF and an open, interoperable internet), fix what’s missing (predictable funding and continuous stakeholder access to the drafting table), and avoid reopening old arguments by re-using previously agreed UN language wherever possible.
Through its recommendations, the Digital Empowerment Foundation calls for a digital future that is inclusive, rights-based, and fair. It emphasises that connectivity alone is not enough - people also need affordable devices, local content, accessible technology, and opportunities to participate in shaping digital policies.
In its official submission to the WSIS+20 zero draft, ARTICLE 19 calls for clearer human rights obligations, stronger accountability for both states and companies, and greater inclusion of civil society in shaping the future of global digital governance.
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Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment (CADE) is a project co-funded by the European Union.
