Papers

By Maria Paz Canales and Sheetal Kumar.

In October, GPD was in New Delhi for the 2024 World Telecommunications Standardization Assembly (WTSA-24), the International Telecommunication Union Standardization Sector (ITU-T)’s quadrennial conference for the development of technical standards.

As we set out in our pre-event blog, this event sets the scope and priorities of the standardisation work to be conducted by ITU-T over the next four years, which can have significant impacts on the open, interoperable Internet which facilitates the exercise of human rights.

Going into WTSA-24, we had two principal concerns, all relating to the mandate of the ITU. First, a set of potentially expansive modifications proposed to the so-called “Internet Resolutions” (Res 47, 48, 50, 64 and 75), which could have provided the ITU-T with larger roles in relation to the management of the Internet’s critical resources. Second, a role for the ITU in ‘new technologies’ like the metaverse, digital identity systems and AI, which would risk not only duplicative standards but also decision making about such standards more confined to closed, multilateral processes.

Now that the dust has settled on WTSA-24, were these concerns realised or averted? Below, we offer some reflections and analysis on what took place, and some considerations for future civil society engagement in the ITU-T’s ongoing work.

Continue reading “Internet fragmentation risks averted (for now). Reflections on a mostly positive WTSA-24”

By Alexander Klimburg.

The reports of the death of multistakeholder Internet governance have been greatly exaggerated. But persistent misunderstanding of the phenomenon of multistakeholderism is indeed a potentially lethal threat to the future of the Internet.

“The king is dead, long live the king”. Famously associated with the English monarchy, similar expressions of simultaneous rupture and continuance are found throughout the history of political governance. The historian Ernst Kantorowicz showed in his brilliant and often-repurposed book The King’s Two Bodies that any type of political governance lives in two shells. The first body is the physical, corporal and even institutional shell that inevitable is shrugged off when its time has come. The second body, often lives on – that is the legitimizing principle from which the first body draws its sovereign authority and which forms its body politic that supports it. What exactly the legitimizing principle is obviously varies depending on setting. For an absolute monarchy it could be as simple as a divine right of kings, while a parliamentary monarchy might concentrate on securing property. For the young American democracy rejecting British rule end of the 18^th Century, the legitimizing principle was the consent of the governed.

Continue reading “The Internet’s Two Bodies: Understanding the multistakeholder reign”

By Byron Holland.

On September 22, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Global Digital Compact (GDC), marking one of the most significant intergovernmental agreements on digital issues in the past two decades. Appended to the Pact for the Future, the GDC is a non-binding agreement that outlines a global governance framework for a wide range of digital issues, including internet governance and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

From an internet governance perspective, the final text of the GDC represents a compromise between Member States advocating for multistakeholder internet governance and the sustainability of the IGF and those pushing for more government oversight over critical internet resources and a weakening of the Forum.

Continue reading “What the Global Digital Compact Taught Us About Future Internet Governance Debates”

By Dr. Irina Soeffky.

“We consider the multi-stakeholder approach essential for global digital networking,” states Germany’s first Strategy for International Digital Policy. Indeed, as digital transformation accelerates, the significance of the multi-stakeholder approach becomes even more pronounced.

We are all witnessing how digital technologies are increasingly transforming every aspect of our daily lives, from the way we communicate to how we conduct business. The Internet and digital technologies have connected us in ways we never thought possible. This interconnectedness stimulates innovation, promotes the free flow of information, drives economic growth, fosters collaboration across borders, and leads to a more integrated global community.

Continue reading “Navigating the Dynamic Landscape of International Digital Policy: A Multi-Stakeholder Approach”

By Pari Esfandiari.

The recent Global Digital Compact (GDC) discussions held in September 2024 have reignited the call for a more integrated approach to digital governance, highlighting the urgent need to merge the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Action Lines with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As we look ahead to the WSIS+20 in 2025, the time is ripe to address this separation and work towards a unified framework that streamlines efforts, maximizes resources, and accelerates progress toward sustainable digital development.

Since their inception, WSIS Action Lines and SDGs have operated in parallel, often duplicating efforts despite their common goal of leveraging digital technologies to advance sustainable development. The two frameworks, though aligned in purpose, remain largely disconnected, resulting in missed opportunities for synergy and coordinated action.

Continue reading “Digital Synergy: The Urgent Case for WSIS-SDG Alignment”