The United States has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the development of a Global Digital Compact (GDC) that is inclusive and respects human rights. The U.S. emphasizes the importance of multistakeholder participation in shaping and delivering on the GDC.
In a statement, the U.S. expressed support for principles proposed by co-facilitators, which include reaffirming foundational principles like those in the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration for Human Rights. The U.S. advocates for recognizing progress on digital issues since the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and commits to a digital future that benefits all people.
The statement calls for embracing digital solidarity among member states and stakeholders to advance a shared digital future through governance, accountability, cybersecurity resilience, risk management, and strengthening digital capacity. It also highlights principles focused on digital environmental sustainability, innovation, intellectual property rights respect, and voluntary technology transfers.
The U.S. stresses closing digital divides while accelerating progress across Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It recognizes efforts by stakeholders over two decades leading to rapid technological development worldwide but acknowledges more work is needed.
The role of UN agencies such as ITU, UNDP, UNESCO in closing digital divides is recognized along with proven mechanisms forming multistakeholder alliances expanding connectivity globally.
Furthermore, addressing gender inequality remains paramount; hence prioritizing closing gender gaps digitally through initiatives fostering broad access like Women in Digital Economy Fund is encouraged alongside recognizing ongoing works collecting gender-disaggregated data quantifying divides magnitude or bridging gaps via EQUALS global partnership empowering girls/women towards equal ICT opportunities/skills access leadership roles.
For equitable participation across society online/offline: ensuring youth/adults acquire relevant vocational/information communication tech skills enhancing employment prospects especially among women/girls increases enrollment higher education technical engineering scientific programs becomes essential furthering economic/social potentials leveraging multilingual internet safely within own languages benefiting underserved/vulnerable communities alike where possible tapping into public infrastructure fostering resilience catalyzing sustainable growth promoting inclusivity equity services provided responsibly respecting safeguarding measures particularly developing countries emerging economies enabling safe secure trusted service accessibility prioritizing approaches protecting personal data privacy intellectual property respecting human rights throughout interoperable elements developed jointly public/private sectors strengthens integrity information spaces globally promoting transparency platform business models mitigating threats fostering healthier environments overall
Moreover fostering inclusive open safe secure rights-respecting equitable spaces remains priority including promoting approaches balancing safety expression freedom addressing repression threats censorship harassment surveillance misuse spyware internationally cooperating preventing responding tech-facilitated gender-based violence building partnerships combating abuses calling states refrain shutdowns degrading domestic accesses entirely partially duplicating existing works underway encouraging national capacities cyber resilience critical infrastructures protection
In advancing responsible data governance: specific targeted alignments identified facilitating trusted cross-border flows safeguarding privacy protections intellectual properties securities harnessed accelerating SDGs progresses ensuring quality respect participation inclusivity centering wellbeing aspects emphasized equally governing emerging technologies AI specifically recognized tremendous promises solving challenges powering advances medicine education highlighting enabling environments innovation investment emphasis broader international supports OECD UNESCO ethical recommendations stressed emphasizing safety trustworthiness reliability explainability inclusion responsibility centered around human-centricity aligning developments implementations disclosures risks monitored managed assessments conducted potentially mitigations considered holistically aligned consistently safe trustworthy frameworks guiding processes follow-up implementation engaging uniquely important roles forums monitoring adherence ensuring coherence synergies linked mandated improvements rather than hierarchies strengthening institutions welcoming contributions fulfilling mandates core competencies efficiently effectively collaboratively