[apologies for cross-posting]

Hi everyone,

Following up on Jordan’s message (thank you, Jordan, for sharing this initiative with the community), I want to extend my gratitude to all who have provided valuable feedback and to those who have already endorsed the document.

A few of us have worked to consolidate the input received, and you can find the revised version [here]. Below my signature, you’ll find an overview of the key changes.

Next steps:

  • The letter is now open for endorsement until Monday, 24 March.
  • Publication is planned for Wednesday, 26 March, at noon UTC.
  • At this stage, we are seeking endorsements rather than further edits. Any support in gathering endorsements by 24 March would be greatly appreciated.
  • After the endorsement period closes, we will circulate the final version with the full list of endorsers, which can then be shared publicly.

The goal of this document remains to provide concise, principles-based, and practical recommendations to support an inclusive WSIS+20 review process. It is intended for key stakeholders responsible for operationalizing the modalities resolution, including the co-facilitators, the President of the General Assembly, and staff at UN DESA, who serve as the acting Secretariat. A tailored cover note will accompany the document to ensure clarity for different audiences.

Thank you once again for your contributions—your insights have been invaluable. I believe we now have a strong and practical document that will be useful for the co-facilitators, DESA, and the PGA at this critical stage of WSIS+20.

Best wishes,
Lea

---

Summary of Key Changes Based on Community Input Received March 12-15

Level of Detail
  • To keep the document concise and practical for the intended audience we did not include some detailed suggestions including explaining the importance of principles of multistakeholderism, proposing pre-review workshops on WSIS, and a list of different  forums that stakeholders should be included from.
  • We did not include the suggestion for stakeholders to be given speaking opportunities at the High-Level Meeting (HLM) as this is already covered in the draft WSIS+20 modalities resolution (expected to be adopted on 25th March).
  • We opted not to include a suggestion to set up a MS oversight mechanism to implement these modalities (this was suggested both in the doc and separately on a few channels) as it was not feasible to ascertain community support for this proposal in such a short timeframe - we encourage this is explored further, potentially via this list or the IGF MAG 
Transparency & Accountability
  • We renamed the section from “Transparency and Accessibility” to “Transparency and Accountability” to better separate comments about improving accessibility and comments on improving accountability and to allow for more detailed discussion of accessibility in 3 incorporating some of the suggestions made.
  • Comments including a request to ‘listen’ to intergovernmental negotiations, have reports on discussions, to improve accountability are already reflected in 2.
  • We reinforced the request for live-streaming intergovernmental negotiations by citing a precedent: the UN Convention on Cybercrime (UNCC), which has done this before.
Consultation Processes
  • The aim is to suggest that consultations must happen throughout the process in a manner which supports equal participation virtually and in-person at different forums - there were several suggested edits we tried to address or felt were already reflected.
  • We clarified that timelines for consultations should be updated in good time to allow for meaningful stakeholder input.
  • 3a was updated to explicitly state that governments and other stakeholder groups should have equal participation rules, including for submission procedures, to clarify language.
  • The document now states that co-facilitators and DESA should encourage national-level consultations and leverage existing events for consultations to respond to a couple of comments.
Inclusion & Accessibility
  • We moved all accessibility-related recommendations into one section (Section 4) to consolidate points about:
    • Time zones – ensuring scheduling accounts for non-working days in different regions.
    • Digital formats – allowing low-bandwidth options for participation.
    • Languages – making key documents available in UN languages.
    • We did not include some very specific suggestions on improving accessibility (such as holding pre-review educational workshops) to keep the document practical and focused on the current timeframe.
    • We aimed to make it clear that this is not a comprehensive list of ways to improve accessibility.
Accreditation
  • Instead of listing multiple past forums, we chose to say that the WSIS+20 should build on the WSIS+10 accreditation process, which took into account ECOSOC accredited organisations and participation in previous WSIS events as part of its eligibility criteria.
  • To further broaden the group of eligible stakeholders, we’ve recommended including participation in the IGF as part of the accreditation criteria, as the most inclusive reference point for accreditation.
---

On Thu, Mar 13, 2025 at 5:29 PM Jordan Carter via wsis20 <wsis20@icann.org> wrote:

Dear all


As the WSIS+20 process advances, an informal group of WSIS stakeholders from civil society, technical community, and the private sector, has developed a 5-point document outlining key recommendations to operationalize WSIS modalities. The aim is to use this in our advocacy to strengthen multistakeholder engagement and ensure that the process is inclusive and impactful.

To maximize its reach and influence, we are seeking your review and feedback and inviting you to consider signing on as a supporter. While we welcome input, we intend to retain the current structure and length of the letter to ensure clarity and focus.

You can review the draft letter here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MSxPHLqC18M5-u7H_1vNHMU_ls0fKFZ0_upZ1oRHago/edit

We kindly ask for your comments and expressions of support by COB Friday, 14 March 2025.

 

After this deadline, we will seek to finalize the letter and share it with relevant audiences, including key decision-makers involved in the WSIS+20 process.

 

Please also feel free to circulate this to other stakeholders who may be interested in endorsing it.

A broad and diverse list of signatories will be crucial in reinforcing this message. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Best regards,

 

Jordan

 

_______________________________________________


Learn more about the WSIS+20 Outreach Network and review relevant resources: https://go.icann.org/wsis20

Read the public archives for this mailing list: https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/wsis20/

_______________________________________________
By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.