{"id":242654,"date":"2025-12-19T18:22:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T18:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/?p=242654"},"modified":"2025-12-19T18:22:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T18:22:39","slug":"wsis20-reaffirms-multistakeholder-governance-and-a-lasting-igf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/wsis20-reaffirms-multistakeholder-governance-and-a-lasting-igf\/","title":{"rendered":"WSIS+20 Reaffirms Multistakeholder Governance and a Lasting IGF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This past Wednesday, 17 December, the governments gathered at the United Nations agreed on their vision for the future of the digital ecosystem, including the Internet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By adopting the outcome document of the\u00a0World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+20 review, they reaffirmed their commitment to the conditions that have enabled the Internet to thrive: a model that allows for the inclusion of diverse expertise\u2014the multistakeholderism approach\u2014paired with a permanent mandate for the Internet Governance Forum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This decision is a significant victory and a recognition of the conditions that have made the Internet such a successful, collective project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The WSIS+20 Review\u00a0in Retrospective<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The timing of this process was set\u00a010\u00a0years ago, during\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/resources\/doc\/2015\/understanding-the-wsis10-review-process\/\">the WSIS+10 review<\/a>. In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly requested an intergovernmental process, involving all stakeholders, to assess the implementation of the WSIS outcomes by 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A lot has happened since then: the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/issues\/internet-governance\/netmundial\/\">NETmundial+10<\/a>\u00a0meeting outlined some guidelines to increase multistakeholder participation in intergovernmental processes, and the United Nations adopted the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/issues\/internet-governance\/global-digital-compact\/\">Global Digital Compact<\/a>. Most importantly, the Internet continued to evolve, demonstrating its potential to transform people\u2019s lives.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/why-the-uns-next-decision-on-internet-governance-matters-for-everyone\/\">A lot was at stake<\/a> during the WSIS+20 review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WSIS+20: What It Means for the Internet<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>While the outcome\u00a0document\u00a0is a lengthy resource, there are some immediate takeaways that are worth noting.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It\u00a0<strong>makes the Internet Governance Forum\u00a0(IGF)\u00a0a permanent forum of the United Nations<\/strong>. By securing a lasting mandate, the IGF community is now ready to plan for the long term, including sustainable financing and a clear program path. The Internet Society and its community stand ready to help shape that next chapter.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It\u00a0<strong>reaffirms the importance of the WSIS\u00a0framework<\/strong>, including the Tunis Agenda\u2019s working definition\u00a0of Internet\u00a0governance\u2014which underpins the multistakeholder model\u2014and the WSIS Action Lines\u2014which turn that vision into a practical implementation program.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It\u00a0<strong>establishes a &#8220;joint implementation roadmap&#8221; to align\u00a0the\u00a0WSIS+20\u00a0follow-up with the Global Digital Compact (GDC)<\/strong>, ensuring that future governance efforts remain unified rather than fragmented.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It\u00a0<strong>recognizes the importance of the global network of national,\u00a0regional, and youth\u00a0IGF initiatives (NRIs),<\/strong>validating the grassroots work of our community.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In practice, this means a continuation of a stable, global Internet governance ecosystem. One made up of people and organizations from across governments, academia, civil society, industry, and the technical community. It means a permanent mandate for the single most open and inclusive forum in the history of the United Nations, the IGF. And it means\u00a0that our efforts over the past year to defend an Internet for everyone have been successful.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it\u2019s just the end of a process. Not the end of the road. 2.2 billion people worldwide are waiting for us to help bring them online. In the coming weeks,\u00a0together with our community,\u00a0we will continue to analyze the outcome document and share\u00a0key insights on our social media channels and on our blog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading has-accent-purple-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ca3a264931903dbfdaaf8129c35b6e82\">In the meantime, we are proud to share the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/webtv.un.org\/en\/asset\/k1l\/k1lirud9z8?kalturaStartTime=1618\">remarks delivered\u00a0by\u00a0my colleague\u00a0Olaf\u00a0Kolkman<\/a> at the United Nations General Assembly only minutes ahead of the outcome document\u2019s adoption.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The outcome document of the\u00a0World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+20 review reaffirms a commitment to the conditions that have enabled the Internet to thrive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1359,"featured_media":242672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[201],"tags":[],"region_news_regions":[5931],"content_category":[6085],"ppma_author":[4636],"class_list":["post-242654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet-governance","region_news_regions-global","content_category-blog-type"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UN-WSIS.jpg",1200,550,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UN-WSIS-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UN-WSIS-450x206.jpg",450,206,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UN-WSIS-768x352.jpg",768,352,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UN-WSIS-1024x469.jpg",1024,469,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UN-WSIS.jpg",1200,550,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UN-WSIS.jpg",1200,550,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UN-WSIS-250x115.jpg",250,115,true],"square":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UN-WSIS-600x550.jpg",600,550,true],"gform-image-choice-sm":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UN-WSIS.jpg",300,138,false],"gform-image-choice-md":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UN-WSIS.jpg",400,183,false],"gform-image-choice-lg":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UN-WSIS.jpg",600,275,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Israel Rosas","author_link":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/author\/rosas\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The outcome document of the\u00a0World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+20 review reaffirms a commitment to the conditions that have enabled the Internet to thrive.","authors":[{"term_id":4636,"user_id":1359,"is_guest":0,"slug":"rosas","display_name":"Israel 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