Statements and submissions
The contributors to this joint submission envision a Global Digital Compact that responds to the socio-environmental impacts of digital technologies, and adopts an intersectional and rights-based approach to the future of digital technologies.
This joint submission is a response to the Global Digital Compact (GDC) consultation process and its expected outcome to outline shared principles for an open, free and secure digital future for all.
Given that digital technologies and the laws and norms that govern them have the potential to perpetuate and worsen pre-existing structural inequalities, APC and Derechos Digitales believe that a central element of this future convention should be the integration of a gender perspective.
APC believes that a feminist approach to data and datafication examines the nature of data and constantly resists disembodiment of data. It is centred on the understanding that the consequences of data and datafication are embodied, with individuals and communities facing those consequences.
The Global Digital Compact provides an opportunity to agree on common principles that can make the internet and its governance more inclusive, human rights-based and supportive of sustainable development. APC believes that we need less of some things and more of others to achieve this goal.
In its statement, APC highlighted inclusive participation of communities in policy making, consideration of alternative solutions to connectivity that prioritise local and community-led responses, and a multistakeholder approach with differentiated roles and responsibilities.
Speaking on behalf of the Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication and Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum, APC associate AHM Bazlur Rahman emphasised the need to create strong global governance of digital transformation through the Global Digital Compact.
In its statement, APC member Derechos Digitales stresses that the Compact being drafted should provide for proactive actions towards building effective multistakeholder processes and increasing broader participation in all digital cooperation and internet governance discussions.
In its statement to the Thematic Deep-Dive session organised to gather input for the Global Digital Compact, APC member organisation Derechos Digitales outlines a series of factors that must be taken into account in any attempts to increase digital inclusion and connectivity.
In its statement to this Deep-Dive session, APC member organisation DEF, based in India, poses the question: Is internet governance relevant only to those who use and access the internet, or also to those who do not have the ability or privilege to have internet access?
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2022
Unless otherwise stated, content on the APC website is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)