Introductory brief: The Global Digital Compact

The Global Digital Compact (GDC) is an opportunity for civil society to contribute to establishing agreed principles for digital governance that support human rights, social justice and sustainable development and that can form the basis of a longer-term framework for accountable and inclusive internet governance – and broader digital governance.

The GDC is also an opportunity to reinterpret the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) vision to respond to the constantly changing digital society that we live in today. It could also play a key role in ensuring that the lessons learned from years of multistakeholder cooperation feed into future processes of internet policy, internet governance and global digital cooperation and in setting parameters for safeguarding multistakeholderism, transparency, inclusivity, dialogue and accountability.

This introductory brief produced by APC seeks to provide civil society organisations with an initial understanding of the strategic relevance of engaging in the UN-led Global Digital Compact process by developing inputs based on a long-term vision for what we want the internet to be. It covers:

1. What is the Global Digital Compact?

2. Why engage in the drafting process?

3. What will be the process for drafting the GDC?

4. How has APC been working on this?

5. What are APC's thematic priorities in this process?

6. What will the GDC cover and what type of document will it be?

Download the brief here.