The Global Digital Justice Forum (GDJF) is taking its agenda for digital justice to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+20 High-Level Event 2025. The event will take place from 7 to 11 July 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland, hosted by ITU and co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP, and UNCTAD.

We invite you to join us at WSIS+20 HLE 2025 for critical sessions organized by the Forum’s members.

Download the flyer here.

Register to attend the sessions in Geneva or online here.

Event Details

8 July • Tuesday

Centering People and Planet in the WSIS+20 and Beyond

Organizers: Global Digital Justice Forum, IT for Change, and Association for Progressive Communications

09:00 – 10:00 CEST | Room K

This session seeks to inform governments, WSIS Action Line holders, and other critical stakeholders about the key demands of the campaign–endorsed by over 100+ CSOs and individuals from across the world.

Defending Our Voice: Global South participation in digital governance

Organizer: Derechos Digitales

9:00 – 9:45 CEST | Room F

This session will address how civil society, particularly from the Global South, can meaningfully participate in global digital governance and sustain that engagement amidst growing financial and political constraints. Civil society holds a key role since it represents the voices and demands of historically marginalized groups in digital governance scenarios, setting approaches that respect human rights and seek for equality at the center.

Digital Tech and the Most Marginalised: What still needs to be done?

Supported by Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication

9:00 – 9:45 CEST | Room L

This interactive session is the culmination of a consultation process during the three months before the annual WSIS Forum through which people across different networks have contributed their ideas to what the five highest priorities should be for governments, the private sector, civil society and the UN system in creating greater equity in the use of digital tech. The findings of this process will be presented during the session, and participants invited during the session to add to the recommendations through the interactive development of a mind map on marginalization that will provide a very specific output to feed into the wider ongoing debate within the UN system about digital tech and equity.

Indigenous Digital Infrastructures and Emerging Technologies: challenges, capacities, and commons

Organizers: Redes AC, Rhizomatica, and Association for Progressive Communications

12:00–12:45 CEST | Room F

The session will feature hands-on experiences from Indigenous practitioners and technologists who are incorporating emerging tools into their local contexts—for communication, connectivity, environmental monitoring, and cultural preservation. It will also reflect on capacity-building initiatives supported by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Latin America and Africa, underscoring the role of training, community knowledge, and collective governance in shaping just and resilient digital futures.

10 July • Thursday

Developing Capacities for Bottom-Up AI in the Global South: What role for the international community?

Co-organizer: IT for Change

110:00–10:45 CEST | Room F

This session will take the form of a scenario-based exercise where participants will propose a blueprint for a national AI capacity development, detailing how a fictional country can accelerate AI adoption and diffusion by leveraging internal resources and forms of international support.

Beyond International Aid: Investing in community connectivity and making it self-sustainable

Organizer: Association for Progressive Communications

15:00 – 15:45 CEST | Room L

This session will present and discuss how community connectivity initiatives, as contributors to the social and solidarity economy, could be recipients of blended and impact finance, and other innovative financial mechanisms that multilateral funds, national development banks, and regulators could make available to close the digital divide.

EQUALS Research Report 2025: Launch and the path forward

Co-organizer: Research ICT Africa

15:15–16:15 CEST | Plenary Room C

This session highlights how EQUALS is evolving to meet these challenges with a renewed vision, inclusive governance, and a stronger focus on evidence-based, impact-driven collaboration. Two major initiatives will be featured: the launch of the EQUALS Research Report 2025 ‘Advancing Gender Empowerment in the Digital Age’, providing new global insights into gender and digital transformation, and the Her Digital Skills badge programme, a youth-focused capacity-building initiative equipping girls and young women with foundational digital skills for education, employment, and empowerment.

Communication is Humanitarian Aid

Co-organizer: World Association for Christian Communication

16:00 – 16:45 CEST | Room L

An exploration of how communication/information integrity is crucial in the context of civil strife and vital to policy-making about rebuilding infrastructure and shaping post-conflict dialogue.