Global Partners Digital

The past four weeks have been non-stop so I am taking an opportunity to reflect on the highlights: 📒 Edited and launched the Road to WSIS+20, written by a stellar team of partners around the world. 🗣️ Spoke on four panels at #ICANN83, #IGF25, and gave an intervention during the final #OEWG on ICTs at the UN. 🕸️ Supported civil society in travelling to global engagements and took part in network-weaving and coalition building. ✈️ Travelled to Paris, Oslo, and New York. It's coming up to the end of my ninth month working for Global Partners Digital and it's fair to say working in digital rights has been rough over the past few months as far-reaching cuts impact teams around the world and authoritarianism presents a rising threat. But amongst the madness I've done work that I'm very proud as part of a team of people who are as lovely as they are brilliant. Ellie McDonald Ian Andrew Barber Maria Paz Canales Lea Kaspar Rebecca Zausmer Kara D. Nick Powell Nusa Tomic and Zora and Donja (who aren't on LinkedIn).

GPD and Global Network Initiative are co-hosting this session today at the #WSIS+20 High-Level Event, exploring how multistakeholder approaches can be reinforced and evolve in national, regional, international, multilateral and multistakeholder Internet and digital policy processes. ⏰ 15:00–15:45 CEST 🌐 “From Principles to Practice: Operationalizing Multistakeholder Governance” 🎤 Moderated by Ellie McDonald (GPD) and Elonnai Hickok (GNI) with: 🔸 Ian S. | Director of the Internet Governance Section | Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts 🔸 Thobekile Matimbe | Senior Manager, Partnerships and Engagements | Paradigm Initiative 🔸 Carl Gahnberg, PhD | Director of Policy Development & Research | Internet Society 🔸 Jhalak Kakkar | Executive Director | Centre for Communication Governance

This week, GPD is at the 11th and Final Substantive Session of the Open Ended Working Group (#OEWG) on security of and in the use of ICT with negotiations on the final Annual Progress Report well underway. This document will be instrumental in creating a permanent mechanism on cybersecurity at the United Nations. The current draft doesn’t include clear enough references to the human impacts of cyber incidents, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. Together with our partners at @R3D: Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales and Fundación Karisma, GPD's Rose Payne took the floor today to highlight the need to better reflect the wealth of discussions on these topics over the past few years and to highlight the need for conversations to reflect local realities. Here is our statement.

I'm late to post, but I was in Oslo at the Internet Governance Forum, #IGF25, the main venue for discussions on digital technology policy at the United Nations. It's always hectic, it's always exhausting, and it's always incredibly fun (please see photo below for evidence). This year, things felt particularly intense as the 20-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society is fast progressing. This process will set the foundations for how the UN deals with #internetgovernance and #digitalpolicy. Together with project partners Global Network Initiative, Centre for Communication Governance at the National Law University, New Delhi, Data Privacy Brasil, Derechos Digitales, Digitally Right Ltd, Fundación Karisma, Media Foundation for West Africa(MFWA), Paradigm Initiative, and Research ICT Africa we met with the co-facilitators for the WSIS+20 and met to discuss insights and strategies. I had a chance to speak on a Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) panel hosted by Laura O'Brien, with Divine Selase Agbeti, Stephanie Borg Psaila, Natalie Tercova, and Alex Walden about things I geek out over–subsea cables and technical standards setting. I would love to write an article about the topic at some point but for lack of time–when it comes to cables, standards can help detect threats, standards can help to improve the speed of repair, but you need better international cooperation and updated law (as well as more repair ships, coordinated navy response etc. etc.) to actually prevent malicious damage. I also spoke on a panel hosted by Klara Marland from the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE), together with Francesca Bosco, David Fairchild, and Senator Kenneth Pugh on the role of stakeholders in digital cooperation. That was great prep for this week, as I'm in NY for the final session of the #OEWG –the Open-Ended Working Group on (the security of) ICTs. More on that later!

GPD is at the #WSIS+20 High-Level Event this week alongside civil society partners including Association for Progressive Communications, Derechos Digitales, Data Privacy Brasil, Paradigm Initiative and Global Network Initiative. 👇 Here are some of the sessions GPD is hosting and participating in (Ellie McDonald, Maria Paz Canales, Lea Kaspar): Tuesday, 8 July - 9:00-9:45 CEST: "Towards a Resilient Information Ecosystem: Balancing Platform Governance and Technology" | GPD's Maria Paz Canales joins UNESCO, Google, Arcom, and others to explore strategies for promoting an enabling environment for freedom of expression and access to information on digital platforms. - 16:00-18:00 CEST: "Private sector leadership in human rights-aligned standard-setting: Advancing multi-stakeholder engagement and human rights commitments in standard setting processes". GPD joins @UN OHCHR and Global Network Initiative for this cross-stakeholder side event to discuss the standards setting processes that already or could foster a human rights-based approach and promote the uptake of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (#UNGPs). https://lnkd.in/eA_GZmdK Wednesday, 9, July: - 12:00-14:00 CEST: "From the outside looking in? An informal dialogue on standard-setting, stakeholder inclusion, and power dynamics. Fostering inter-coalitions strategy coordination and alignment". GPD will engage in a roundtable discussion organised by European Center for Not-for-Profit Law Stichting & DiploFoundation. Thursday 10 July: - 15:00–15:45 CEST: "From Principles to Practice: Operationalizing Multistakeholder Governance". GPD and Global Network Initiative will co-host this session session exploring how multistakeholderism is being operationalized in practice. Find out more and register here: https://lnkd.in/g9uyCw_W

This week, the final session of the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group of the Open-Ended Working Group on ICT's is meeting in New York. This session will determine the future of discussions on state behaviour in cyberspace–there may be a new permanent mechanism created, or conversations might stall, creating a vacuum which could take discussions in unexpected directions. Rose Payne will be speaking at a side-event today hosted by the EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), looking at how civil society can respond to this moment.

Have a listen to GPD's Maria Paz Canales in this new Mozilla IRL podcast "Our Heads in the Cloud" which explores AI and how misinformation spreads.

Join Maria Paz Canales who is sharing her insights today during a Global Dialogue with Civil Society on the UNDP Human Development Report 2025. This year's report focuses on the impact of AI on human development. #HDR2025

Join GPD here on the last day of #IGF2025! 👇 09:00–10:00 CEST, Workshop Room 5, Hall C | Developing a Secure, Rights-Respecting Digital Future | Maria Paz Canales joins this Open Forum hosted by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: https://lnkd.in/eB6Cab_C 09:00 - 10:00 CEST, Workshop Room 2 | How Do Technical Standards Shape Connectivity and Inclusion? | Rose Payne is speaking in this Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) organised session: https://lnkd.in/eHd7CSKM 09:00 - 10:15 CEST, Conference Hall | Policy Network on Internet Fragrmantation | As a co-facilitator of the PNIF: https://lnkd.in/e9uFMudU

Day 3 at # IGF2025 - Here's where we are today: 12:00–16:00 CEST | Reinvigorating Efforts for Rights-Respecting Platform Governance in Practice | An invite-only session co-hosted with UNESCO and OHCHR B-Tech Project, bringing together civil society from the Global Majority. 13:30–14:30 CEST, Workshop Room 3 | Multistakeholder Perspectives: WSIS+20 & the Technical Layer | Ellie McDonald joins as a speaker in this public session organised by the Technical Community Coalition for Multistakeholderism, Public Internet Registry and APNIC. https://lnkd.in/ejHR8tg4 15:00–17:30 CEST | The Future of Digital Rights | A private strategy session co-hosted with Global Network Initiative, European Center for Not-for-Profit Law Stichting and others.