By Anriette Esterhuysen.
This article does not reflect the views of all global South civil society organisations. It reflects the views of the author but it also does draw extensively on inputs into the Global Digital Compact (GDC) process presented by the Association for Progressive Communications, a network of civil society organisations from around the world – mostly based in the global South – that has been working with UN processes dealing with technology and sustainable development since the Earth Summit in 1992.
On 12 December 2003, at the conclusion of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, United Nations member states declared their “common desire and commitment to build a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilise and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life, premised on the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and respecting fully and upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).”1
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