REMIT Roundtable on the UN Global Digital Compact

On 25 April 2024, about forty members of the public, including university students and staff, participated in a public roundtable event organized by REMIT researcher Dennis Redeker at UBREMEN.

The event focused on the state of affairs for multilateralism and multistakeholderism in the governance of digital technologies, against the background of the ongoing negotiations of the Global Digital Compact (GDC) at the United Nations.

Three speakers discussed the state of multilateralism in Internet governance, the open consultation process for the GDC and the ongoing inter-state negotiations ahead of the Summit of the Future that will take place in September 2024 in New York. At the Summit, the GDC is due to be finally agreed as part of a “Pact for the Future” to strengthen global cooperation across a number of key areas, including technology governance, the sustainable development goals, and human rights.

Olga Kyryliuk (Internews/South Eastern European Dialogue on Internet Governance), Minda Moreira (Internet Rights and Principles Coalition) and Marianne Franklin (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) provided diverse  perspectives from academia and civil society onto pressing needs to bring in a multitude of voices into the ongoing negotiations. After a few initial remarks, they all stood ready to answer the audience’s questions. The event has been co-hosted with the Digital Constitutionalism Network, whose Erasmus+ Blended-Intensive Program on the GDC took place in Bremen during the entire week. The two-hour roundtable took place at the “Haus der Wissenschaft” (“House of Science”), which is publicly accessible and centrally located in the old town area.