Internet Governance News Flash: DENIC’s contributions to the Global Digital Compact and Netmundial+10

Internet GovernancePolicy

Sabrina HeberApr 26, 2024 1 min read

The co-facilitators of the Global Digital Compact presented a zero draft in early April which has since then been widely discussed in the Internet governance community. The GDC is part of the Pact for the Future that shall be adopted during the UN Summit for the Future in September in New York. It is supposed to establish principles for an open, free, and secure digital future for all. At the same time, however, certain proposals question the multistakeholder principle in Internet governance.

There are several consultations with different stakeholder groups taking place right now regarding the zero draft. DENIC supports the position of the technical community on the GDC and therefore signed a joint statement read out by CIRA in the UN's stakeholder consultation on the 24^th of April:
Joint Statement at UN Stakeholder Consultation on the Global Digital Compact zero draft

Apart from DENIC, the statement was signed by APNIC, DNS.PT, auDA, Blacknight, CIRA, GoDaddy, NIC Costa Rica, Nominet, PIR, IE Domain Registry CLG, InternetNZ, Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd and Tucows Domains.

The technical community welcomes the recognition of the technical community as a stakeholder group as well as multistakeholderism. However, there are certain details in the wording of the zero draft that are concerning. The statement points out two examples in the zero draft where the wording seems similar to well-established terms in Internet governance but differs when looking at it in detail. This disparity might result in significantly different outcomes - especially concerning the multistakeholderism in Internet governance.

Another milestone for multistakeholderism will be NETmundial+10, where the different stakeholder groups come together in Sao Paulo on the 29^thand 30^th of April to discuss the current challenges in the governance of the digital world. The technical community will - again - play an important role.