WSIS+20: The Road to New York – Digital Governance Discussion Group (DGDG)

23 July 2025 | updated 31 December 2025

On March 27, 2025, the UN General Assembly decided in UN-Resolution 79/277 about the modalities for the review of the outcomes of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (Geneva/Tunis 2002 – 2005). It decided “that the overall review will be concluded by a two-day high-level meeting of the General Assembly, to be preceded by an intergovernmental preparatory process that also takes into account inputs from all relevant stakeholders.” The high-level meeting is schedule for December, 16 and 17, in New York, as part of the 80th UN General Assembly. The meeting will adopt an “Intergovernmentally agreed Outcome Document”. This document will be prepared by the intergovernmental negotiation process, complemented by multistakeholder consultations.

On April 23, 2025, the president of the 79th UN General Assembly, Philemon Yang, nominated H.E. Mr. Ekitela Lokaale from Kenya and H.E. Ms. Suela Janina from Albania, both UN ambassadors of their countries in New York, as Co-Facilitators for the WSIS+20 Review Process.

With the first round of intergovernmental and multistakeholder consultations on May 30, 2025 and June 9&10, 2025, the publication of the “Elements Paper” on June 20, 2025, the multistakeholder discussions during the IGF in Lillestroem (June 23 – 27, 2025) and the High Level WSIS+20 event in Geneva (July, 7 – 10, 2025) as well as the establishment of an “WSIS+20 Informal Multistakeholder Sounding Board (IMSB)”, the preparatory process for the WSIS+20 review have reached its practical and concrete phase. The comment period for the “Elements Paper” was open until July 25, 2025. A second round of virtual consultations took place in July 29, 2025.

A Zero Draft was published on August 30, 2025. Public comments were invited per October 3, 2025. The Zero Draft was discussed during stakeholder consultations on October 13 & 14, 2025 followed by a first round of (closed) intergovernmental negotiations. On October 25, 2025 an additional open consultations with stakeholders took place in Dublin during the ICANN Meeting.

A first reviewed Draft will be published on November 7, 2025. Stakeholder consultations are arranged for November 13 & 14, 2025, followed by another round of intergovernmental negotiations.

A second revised Draft is expected for early December, followed by a final round of stakeholder consultations and intergovernmental negotiations.

The final “WSIS+20 Output Document” will be adopted during the High Level WSIS+20 meeting, scheduled for December 16 & 17, 2025 in New York City in the UN HQ.

Below you can find the links to all the drafts, comments and other related documents.

The DGDG project wants to contribute in a constructive way to this process. We will publish all official drafts and all comments made by various stakeholders. We also invite special contributions by individual expert to comment on specific sections of the various drafts of the proposed Outcome Document.