We congratulate Member States on the adoption by consensus of the Global Digital Compact (GDC). This marks a significant milestone in the collective global effort to build an inclusive, open, sustainable, fair, safe and secure digital future for all.
The Internet, a complex and robust ecosystem, is the core infrastructure that underpins the use of digital technology. For the Internet’s benefits to be fully realised by all, it must be open, global, interoperable, stable and secure. We welcome the GDC’s recognition of this.
We also welcome the GDC’s recognition that Internet governance must continue to be global and multistakeholder, with the full involvement of all stakeholder groups. It is critical that those responsible for the Internet’s operations are involved – on equal footing as governments and all other stakeholders – in discussions, deliberations and decisions about the Internet’s future and its governance. We express our thanks to Member States for explicitly acknowledging the technical community as a relevant stakeholder group that must be fully involved.
The GDC provides a foundation for future global cooperation on addressing the complex digital challenges of an increasingly interconnected world. These challenges cannot be addressed in silos or by any single stakeholder group. Finding solutions will depend on continued collaboration through inclusive multistakeholder processes. The GDC is a daily call for action.
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) provides a platform for multistakeholder collaboration and we are pleased that Member States have reaffirmed its importance as the primary multistakeholder platform for discussion of Internet governance issues. We commend the GDC’s commitment to supporting the IGF, including through continued efforts to increase stakeholder participation from developing countries and the provision of voluntary funding. We call on all Member States and other stakeholders to commit to finding a sustainable funding model to support the IGF into the future.
We extend our sincere gratitude to the co-facilitators of the GDC process for the opportunity to provide input into the GDC’s development. However, we believe that, in line with the GDC’s commitments, the process could have benefited from greater multistakeholder participation and we will continue to advocate for this for future processes relating to Internet governance and digital policy.
Cooperation and collaboration by governments, the private sector, civil society, academia and the technical community is the best way to ensure that the Internet remains open, free, global, secure, resilient, interoperable and available to all. As the GDC states, its implementation can only succeed with the active engagement of all these stakeholder groups. We therefore strongly support the GDC’s call to strengthen collaboration and leverage multistakeholder cooperation to achieve its objectives.
The adoption by consensus of the GDC reflects compromise on all sides and demonstrates that even in the face of significant global challenges, there is common ground to be found.
We commit to continued engagement with Member States and with the global community of Internet governance stakeholders in advance of WSIS+20 as we work together to strengthen and evolve multistakeholderism.
Signatories
Africa Top Level Domains Organization (AFTLD)
Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC)
.au Domain Administration (auDA)
Blacknight
Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA)
DENIC eG
DNS Africa Ltd
DotAsia Organisation
GoDaddy
IE Domain Registry CLG (trading as .ie)
InternetNZ (.nz)
Japan Network Information Center (JPNIC)
Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd. (JPRS)
Kenya Network Information Centre (KeNIC)
Network Information Center Costa Rica (NIC CR)
Nominet UK
Norid
Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland (SIDN)
Tucows
ZA Registry Consortium (ZARC)