Across regions of the Global South, civil society organisations are operating in increasingly restrictive digital environments, marked by internet shutdowns, mass surveillance, online harassment, and the steady erosion of the enabling environment for civil society. At the same time, digital authoritarian practices are no longer confined to specific regions: with transatlantic cooperation under strain, similar challenges are increasingly shaping digital governance debates across the European Union, the United States, and the wider Global North. In this context, organisations in the Global North — including civil society actors and funders — often seek to engage with responses to digital authoritarianism, yet frequently lack sustained, trust-based channels for collaboration and mutual learning with actors working on the ground. This Day 0 session on May 5 responds to this gap by creating a structured, non-hierarchical space for Global South and Global North organisations to:

The session is anchored in a Global South perspective, while intentionally opening space for dialogue with Global North actors — including select donors — in a way that prioritizes trust, transparency, and collective strategy rather than competition.

 

Civil society has played a foundational role in shaping the internet. Yet, its influence on bodies designing critical technical standards that impact human rights (such as IETF, ICANN, ITU) remains fragmented and skewed toward the Global North. Research conducted by the Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment (CADE) -an initiative co-funded by the EU- confirms persistent barriers to participation, e.g. funding, language access, procedural complexity. With this session, we want to learn from participants’ experiences in these and other processes that can be challenging to navigate, and co-develop strategies for embedding human rights and civil society perspectives in closed spaces.  

 

We will present and gather participants’ feedback to our research which highlights coalition-building and regional hubs as a key tactic to overcome access barriers. Additionally, SMEX and KICTANet, CADE coalition members from Lebanon and Kenya, will share practical examples of how building coalitions in WANA and Africa regions enabled activists to penetrate inaccessible spaces and influence closed lawmaking. Finally, youth advocate from the Forus and Karisma ‘Youth Voices for Digital Rights’ programme, and Co-Director of The Biodiversity Project will showcase innovative forms of organising that make participation possible despite barriers. This will anchor the conversation in young people’s realities, as the primary users of digital platforms and those most impacted by exclusion from governance. 

• Day: Friday, May 8, 2026

• Time: 02:00 pm- 03:00 pm Zambia time (12:00 pm - 1 pm UTC) 

• Room: A101