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 24th 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.
Furthermore, the European University Institute, the European External Action Service and the European Commission's DG CNECT organised a stakeholder consultation on the zero draft on 9 April. Subsequently, they invited the submission of further written statements, which were then published on the website of the European University Institute. DENIC also submitted a written statement.
Another milestone for multistakeholderism will be NETmundial+10, where the different stakeholder groups come together in Sao Paulo on the 29thand 30th of April to discuss the current challenges in the governance of the digital world. The technical community will – again – play an important role.
