Path change to make git Markdown not bork on & and spaces

2026-09-18 13:03:10 +02:00
parent 26db01c712
commit 1cdc6a3031
162 changed files with 100 additions and 81 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #129 Who Protects the First Click? Children's Digital Resilience
+
+## Description
+
+Children’s first online experiences are happening earlier than ever, often in digital environments that were not designed with their rights, development and safety in mind. The challenge is no longer how to teach children to “be careful online”, but how to govern the digital environments in which they learn, play, communicate, consume content and build their identities.
+This session will examine how responsibility for children’s digital resilience should be shared between families, schools, platforms, regulators, helplines, hotlines and young people themselves. It will move beyond awareness-raising and focus on practical governance questions: child safety by design, age-appropriate services, AI-driven recommender systems, persuasive design, reporting pathways, digital literacy, harmful content, online sexual exploitation risks and public-private cooperation.
+Rather than viewing children only as vulnerable users, this session adopts a child-rights approach that recognizes their rights to protection, participation, privacy, information, agency, and age-appropriate support. It argues that digital resilience depends on safer design, effective education, accessible support, and accountable institutions - not on placing responsibility on children alone.
+The panel will bring together perspectives from the technical community, education, public health, child protection, regulation, academia, civil society, the Global South and youth representative. It will ask where responsibility should sit when children encounter harmful content, manipulative design, algorithmic amplification, disinformation, grooming risks or ineffective reporting mechanisms.
+The session will produce a short “First Click to Digital Resilience Action Checklist” for policymakers, platforms, educators, child protection actors and civil society. The checklist will identify practical steps that can support children from their earliest digital interactions to safe, meaningful and resilient participation online. The session will also provide an opportunity to exchange practical knowledge and experiences on responding to harmful content, particularly child sexual abuse material, drawing on the operational expertise of hotlines within the INHOPE association.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+A. How should responsibility for children’s first online experiences be shared between parents, schools, platforms, regulators, helplines, hotlines and children themselves?
+B. How can digital resilience be supported and measured globally, especially for younger children, vulnerable groups and countries with fewer educational, regulatory or technical resources?
+C. How can youth participation become a real part of digital governance, rather than a symbolic addition to child online safety debates?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+1. A short “First Click to Digital Resilience Action Checklist” for policymakers, platforms, educators, hotlines, helplines and civil society.
+2. Practical recommendations on moving from awareness-raising to shared responsibility and safer digital design for different stakeholders.
+3. A summary of youth perspective on what makes children and young people feel safe, respected and empowered online.
+4. An exchange of practical knowledge and good practices on responding to harmful content, particularly child sexual abuse material (CSAM), drawing on the experience and operational expertise of hotlines within the INHOPE association.
+5. A basis for further cooperation between stakeholders, including possible follow-up through IGF youth, regional or intersessional processes.
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** The 60-minute interactive format is designed to maximize participation, collaboration, and practical outcomes. Instead of lengthy presentations, the session begins with a brief framing and a “Youth First” intervention, ensuring that young people's perspectives is a very important part of the discussion. Moderated thematic exchanges then explore governance challenges from multiple stakeholder perspectives. The room layout will encourage dialogue among speakers and participants, while the hybrid format ensures equal opportunities for onsite and online engagement. An online moderator will actively integrate remote questions throughout each discussion segment, rather than limiting online participation to the final Q&A. Live polling and collaborative online tools will enable participants to identify governance gaps and co-develop a “First Click to Digital Resilience Checklist.” The session concludes with a rapporteur summary synthesizing contributions from both onsite and online participants, resulting in practical, community-driven recommendations for child online safety and Internet governance.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** 1) Interaction between onsite and online speakers and attendees
+- The online moderator will collect questions from the online participants and introduce them during each discussion round.
+- The onsite moderator will alternate between onsite and online questions.
+2) Best possible experience for online and onsite participants
+- The session will use short interventions rather than long speeches.
+- At least one audience interaction point will be planned before the middle of the session.
+- Equal time will be reserved for onsite and online questions.
+- Online comments will be considered in the final checklist-building segment.
+3) Complementary online tools/platforms
+- Live polling tool such as Slido, Mentimeter or the IGF-provided equivalent.
+- Shared collaborative document or board for collecting proposed actions.
+- Chat-based question collection through the official IGF hybrid platform.
+The final checklist will reflect contributions from both onsite and online participants.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Maciej Gron, 🔒
+**Organizer 2:** Julia Piechna, NASK - National Research Institute
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Awo Aidam Amenyah, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Jutta Croll, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 3:** Jannat Roshatey, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
+**Speaker 4:** Ankita Rathi, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Maciej Gron, Technical Community, Eastern European Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Julia Piechna, Technical Community, Eastern European Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Maciej Gron, Technical Community, Eastern European Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+4. Quality Education
+4.4
+4.7
+10. Reduced Inequalities
+10.2
+10.3
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+16.10
+16.2
+17. Partnerships for the Goals
+17.16
+17.17
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #141 Raised with AI: Empowered or Dependent?
+
+## Description
+
+AI companions and generative AI are no longer just tools for answering questions. For children and teenagers, they can become tutors, friends, role-play partners, and sources of emotional support and advice. As young people increasingly turn to them for companionship, they create a new child online safety and Internet governance challenge: how to protect children's agency, development, privacy, relationships, and digital resilience when AI systems are designed to simulate care, intimacy, trust, and constant availability.
+The session will be framed around three possible roles of AI companions in childhood.
+First, AI may empower children by supporting learning, creativity, communication, accessibility, and inclusion, helping them explore ideas, overcome barriers, and access personalized support. Second, AI may create dependence if children increasingly rely on AI companions for emotional reassurance, decision-making, learning, or social interaction, potentially weakening agency, resilience, and human relationships. Third, AI may exploit children through the commercialization of intimacy by collecting sensitive data, maximizing engagement, encouraging self-disclosure, manipulating attention, or providing harmful, inaccurate, or biased advice.
+The session will examine how governance can preserve AI's benefits while protecting children from dependency, manipulation, and unsafe design, and what limits should apply to systems designed to simulate friendship, intimacy, and trust.
+The discussion will move beyond AI in education to examine the governance of AI companions used by children, focusing on safety-by-design, age-appropriate design, data protection, transparency, platform accountability, crisis response, and meaningful youth participation.
+The session will bring together perspectives from the technical community and from experts in child protection, education, AI governance, public health, civil society, regulatory bodies, and industry. The expected outcome will be a practical set of “red lines and design principles” for child-centred AI companions.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+1. When does an AI companion empower a child, and when does it create emotional, social or cognitive dependence?
+2. What safeguards should apply to AI systems designed to simulate friendship, intimacy, care, or emotional support for children?
+3. How should responsibility be shared between parents, schools, platforms, AI providers, regulators, child protection actors and young users themselves?
+4. Should AI companions for children be treated as ordinary digital services, educational tools, high-risk systems, or a separate category requiring child-specific rules?
+5. What should be considered unacceptable exploitation of children’s attention, emotions, data or vulnerabilities in AI companion services?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+The session will aim to produce:
+- A short “Raised with AI: Red Lines and Design Principles” checklist for child-centred AI companions.
+- Practical recommendations for platforms, AI providers, policymakers, educators, parents, hotlines, helplines and youth communities.
+- A clearer distinction between AI as a lever for development, AI as a cognitive or emotional prosthesis, and AI as a potentially exploitative system.
+- A basis for follow-up cooperation through IGF youth, regional, intersessional or child online safety processes.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** The 60-minute interactive roundtable is designed to maximize meaningful participation rather than passive listening. Brief framing inputs establish a shared understanding, followed by a moderated discussion structured around the opportunities, risks and governance challenges of AI companions. The thematic format allows participants to explore different perspectives while maintaining a focused and dynamic exchange. Live polling, hybrid Q&A and equal opportunities for onsite and online interventions ensure continuous engagement, rather than limiting participation to the final minutes. Collaborative identification of red lines and design principles transforms the discussion into concrete, actionable outcomes, with remote participants contributing on equal terms through polling and shared collaborative tools. The room layout will facilitate dialogue among speakers and participants, encouraging interaction across stakeholder groups and regions. The session concludes with a rapporteur summary that synthesizes key insights and recommendations from both onsite and online discussions, providing a practical basis for future policy and governance conversations.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The session will be designed as a genuinely hybrid discussion. The online moderator will actively collect online questions and bring them into each segment of the discussion, rather than reserving online participation only for the final Q&A.
+The session will use:
+- live polling to ask participants whether they see AI companions mainly as support, risk or exploitation;
+- equal time for onsite and online questions;
+- collaborative collection of red lines and design principles;
+- a final rapporteur summary of points raised by both onsite and online participants.
+Possible tools include the IGF online platform, Slido/Mentimeter or equivalent polling tools, and a shared online document or form to collect recommendations from remote participants.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Julia Piechna, NASK - National Research Institute
+**Organizer 2:** Maciej Gron, 🔒
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** José Renato Laranjeira de Pereira, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+**Speaker 2:** Julia Piechna, Technical Community, Eastern European Group
+**Speaker 3:** Pascal Bekono, Government, African Group
+**Speaker 4:** Svaradiva Devi, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+**Speaker 5:** Jannat Roshatey, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Julia Piechna, Technical Community, Eastern European Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Maciej Gron, Technical Community, Eastern European Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Maciej Gron, Technical Community, Eastern European Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+3.4
+4.4
+4.7
+10.2
+10.3
+16.10
+16.2
+17.16
+17.17
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #208 AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material: From Law to Action
+
+## Description
+
+Co-organised by the Council of Europe Cybercrime Division, the Council of Europe Children’s Rights Division,  INHOPE and Brave movement, this session addresses AI-generated and altered child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse material (CSEAM) as an urgent cybercrime and child-protection challenge.
+
+AI-generated CSEAM is already being created, manipulated and disseminated at speed and scale, including through generative AI systems and “nudifying” tools. It creates new challenges for prevention, investigation and prosecution, while exacerbating harm to victims and survivors through the creation, circulation and manipulation of abusive material.
+
+The session will move beyond general calls for co-operation and focus on practical roles and responsibilities. Governments, law enforcement, hotlines, service providers, civil society and survivor-led organisations all have distinct but connected roles: criminalising AI-generated CSEAM, securing electronic evidence, enabling cross-border referrals, supporting removal, building safeguards into AI systems, preventing re-victimisation and ensuring victim-centred responses.
+
+The discussion will be anchored in the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention), its Second Protocol on enhanced cooperation and disclosure of electronic evidence, and the Convention on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (Lanzarote Convention). These instruments support criminalisation, procedural powers, international cooperation, prevention, victim protection and child-friendly justice.
+
+The session will take forward the joint statement adopted in June 2026 by the Cybercrime Convention Committee (T-CY) and the Lanzarote Committee, which affirms that technology-neutral criminalisation provisions apply to AI-generated/altered CSEAM, including both material using the likeness of a real child and fully synthetic material depicting a non-existent child. The statement also encourages practical measures on victim protection, timely detection, removal, technology-sector safeguards and accountability, effective sanctions, and awareness-raising.
+
+Through this interactive session, participants will identify practical commitments to criminalise AI-generated CSEAM, interrupt harm earlier in its lifecycle, accelerate removal, strengthen investigations, improve provider safeguards and accountability, and support co-ordinated cross-border action.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+1.	What legal and policy steps are needed to ensure effective criminalisation of AI-generated and altered CSEAM, including fully synthetic material and images created by “nudifying” tools?
+2.	How can hotlines, law enforcement and service providers, supported by international co-operation instruments, work together in practice to move from reports to removal, victim identification and lawful cross-border access to electronic evidence?
+3.	How can we mobilise safeguards, prompt-level intervention, reporting pathways, and survivor support to disrupt harm earlier on in the AI-generated CSEAM lifecycle?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of AI-generated and altered CSEAM as both a cybercrime and child-protection challenge, and of the practical roles of governments, law enforcement, hotlines, service providers, civil society and survivor-led organisations. The session will offer diverse perspectives and practical examples of tools for action: effective criminalisation, faster removal, cross-border referrals, access to electronic evidence, safeguards and other intervention points, prompt-level deterrence or redirection, and victim-centred responses.
+
+As a specific output, the co-organisers will prepare a short post-session action note summarising key messages, recommendations and follow-up opportunities. The discussion will build continued cooperation among relevant partners on implementing the T-CY/Lanzarote joint statement on AI-generated and altered CSEAM, applying international instruments, using cooperation tools, including the Second Additional Protocol, strengthening provider safeguards and accountability, and preventing re-victimisation through survivor-informed approaches.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Theater
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** The 90-minute duration is best suited to the session because it allows sufficient time to combine expert input, practical examples and audience engagement on a complex issue spanning AI, cybercrime, child protection, victim support, law enforcement, hotlines and service-provider responsibility. The format will allow panellists to set out the legal, operational, survivor-informed and technical dimensions of AI-generated and altered CSEAM, while leaving space for moderated discussion, audience questions and interactive polling to gauge participants’ knowledge, views and priorities.
+
+A theatre-style room layout is appropriate because the session is expected to attract a broad and diverse IGF audience and will benefit from clear visibility of speakers and a structured panel discussion. At the same time, the format will remain interactive through moderated questions, pre-identified floor interventions and polling, enabling participants from different sectors and regions to contribute practical perspectives and possible follow-up actions.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The session will be designed as a genuinely hybrid and interactive discussion, enabling meaningful participation from both onsite and online speakers and attendees. An onsite moderator will guide the panel and in-room discussion, while a dedicated online moderator will monitor the virtual room, collect questions and ensure online participants are brought in on an equal footing.
+
+The 90-minute format will combine short speaker interventions with moderated discussion, audience questions and interactive elements. Time will be reserved for both onsite and online participation, including pre-identified floor interventions from different stakeholder groups and regions.
+
+The organisers may use live polling or short reaction prompts to gauge views on criminalisation, cross-border co-operation, intervention points, provider safeguards and preventing re-victimisation. The organisers will use the technical tools and virtual link provided by the IGF Secretariat and Host Country, complemented by simple polling tools where appropriate.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Jan Kralik, Council of Europe
+**Organizer 2:** SAMANTHA WOOLFE, INHOPE
+**Organizer 3:** Aisling Kelly, Council of Europe
+**Organizer 4:** Naomi Trewinnard, Council of Europe
+**Organizer 5:** Kanga Rasi, Brave Movement
+**Organizer 6:** Francis TUIYOTT, Court of Appeal, Nairobi, Kenya
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** SAMANTHA WOOLFE, Civil Society, Intergovernmental Organization
+**Speaker 2:** Francis TUIYOTT, Government, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** George Neves Lodder, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Moderator
+
+Aisling Kelly, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Naomi Trewinnard, Intergovernmental Organization, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Francis TUIYOTT, Government, African Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+16.2
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #228 Human Rights Policies for Generative AI Systems
+
+## Description
+
+Generative AI systems are becoming embedded in critical information and communications infrastructure. As they increasingly intermediate speech and the flow of information, human rights governance frameworks must be built into their development and deployment — protecting users' rights to free expression, privacy, and freedom from discrimination.
+Companies developing and deploying generative AI remain behind in operationalizing human rights due diligence for their outputs. Few have published clear policies articulating how human rights frameworks are considered or implemented within their models and operations.
+Developers don't need to start from scratch, however. Existing guidance is adaptable to this context, particularly through a multistakeholder process. Stakeholders can draw on past collaborations that strengthened human rights protections in content moderation: in October 2021, a coalition of civil society organizations released the second iteration of the Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation, giving social media companies concrete guidance for respecting human rights in moderation. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights offer foundational guidance for assessing business impacts on human rights and building processes to address risks. UNESCO's Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms outline how to address digital technology's risks in line with international human rights law. Translating these frameworks for generative AI is now needed.
+This session will convene a multistakeholder group to workshop how transparency, accountability, and human rights due diligence can be adapted from content moderation and incorporated into generative AI's development and deployment. Participants will work toward concrete recommendations — using the Santa Clara Principles as a starting template — for what a "Santa Clara Principles for AI" might include, focused on incorporating human rights principles into model outputs. Other urgent considerations — AI's impact on labor markets, the environment, and affected communities — are important but beyond this workshop's scope.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+A. What provides meaningful transparency across the AI value chain?
+B. Where are human rights protections weakest? What would close gaps across jurisdictions?
+C. How can frameworks integrate economic, social, and cultural rights?
+D. What would encourage human rights due diligence, and what barriers exist?
+E. How do AI models differ from social media? Have dual-service companies bridged that gap? Are Santa Clara Principles lessons transferable?
+F. What accountability and appeal mechanisms fit AI systems?
+G. What role should local/regional partners play in developing recommendations for protecting rights in AI model development and deployment?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+Building on the policy questions, the session will produce: (1) a comparative mapping of transparency and accountability gaps between content moderation and generative AI systems; (2) an outline of what a human rights due diligence framework for generative AI companies should include, grounded in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and (3) concrete next steps for the development of a civil-society informed human rights, transparency, and accountability framework for generative AI. These outputs will inform ongoing civil society advocacy toward generative AI developers, feed into broader multistakeholder AI governance discussions (including relevant UN processes), and lay groundwork for a possible follow-on drafting initiative modeled on the original Santa Clara Principles process.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** We want to encourage sharing ideas and initiatives from online and onsite attendees. A roundtable format enables equal visibility and speaking opportunity for all participants, rather than a hierarchy of speakers and listeners. The session will open with brief remarks from civil society representatives and human rights experts familiar with implementing human rights due diligence in the social media and AI contexts, followed by a facilitated breakout discussion in which participants workshop draft recommendations in small, moderated groups. Groups will reconvene to report back and refine a shared set of takeaways. This format was chosen because the goal of the session is not simply to present a problem, but to collectively draft the building blocks of a rights-based due diligence framework — mirroring the multistakeholder drafting process that originally produced the Santa Clara Principles. A 90-minute session allows sufficient time for framing, small-group work, and report-back without losing participant engagement.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** We will ensure one rapporteur is designated to monitor the online chat so we do not miss any contributions from online participants, alongside a separate online facilitator who can unmute or call on remote attendees at natural pauses. One breakout group will be online only and will report out directly to onsite attendees to ensure equal weight of contribution. One presenter will join online so their research is included regardless of location. All slides and pre-read materials will be shared with online attendees in advance, so they aren't at a disadvantage from being unable to glance at onsite materials in real time. We will use shared note-taking infrastructure so everyone can access notes during and after the event.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Kate Ruane, Center for Democracy and Technology
+**Organizer 2:** Shumaila Hussain Shahani, Tech Global Institute
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Komaitis Konstantinos , Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 2:** Alexandria Walden, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 3:** Thobekile  Adebayo , Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 4:** David Greene, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 5:** Elonnai  Hickok, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Moderator
+
+Shumaila Hussain Shahani, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Kate Ruane, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Kate Ruane, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+10. Reduced Inequalities
+10.2
+10.3
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+16.10
+16.3
+16.6
+16.7
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #230 AI, Digital Identity and Refugee Protection in Kenya
+
+## Description
+
+A growing share of the systems determining whether forcibly displaced can prove who they are, receive assistance, open a bank account, or cross a border is now digital and automated. While digital technologies are a vital lifeline for displaced persons, systemic policy barriers have often deepened digital exclusion. For example, strict Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations frequently do not recognize refugee documentation. Furthermore, AI systems are increasingly deployed without sufficient human rights oversight, privacy protections.
+Kenya hosts over 800,000 refugees and asylum seekers and operates one of Africa’s most advanced digital economies. As the country shape the future of AI and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), it is essential that refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and host communities are not left behind. Kenya’s Shirika Plan offers a compelling example of how refugee inclusion can be advanced through national systems, digital transformation, and multistakeholder collaboration. At the same time, access to digital and AI technologies remains limited in refugee-hosting areas, underscoring the need for sound digital infrastructure in line with Kenya’s Digital Inclusion Strategy.
+UNHCR and the Government of Kenya have jointly issued biometric identity documents that unlock SIM registration, mobile money, banking, connectivity, and digital skills. Yet the same infrastructure carries risks of exclusion and data protection failures, making displaced populations a critical and live test of whether digital public infrastructure deserves public trust. Aligned with Government of Kenya priorities, UNHCR is supporting the establishment of AI and Digital Hubs, including in Kakuma, Turkana.
+This roundtable convenes government- the regulator, private sector, academia, and refugee-led organisations to examine what has worked, what has not, and how identity systems can be inclusive and safe by design. It will explore accountability, redress, and safeguards, while advancing the role of displaced people from data subjects to active contributors in an AI-enabled digital economy.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+1. What is the status and practical reforms required for the digital identity and unique identifiers and their integration with key AI integrated digital economy enabling systems such as KYC, biometric identity systems for improved AI eligibility processes.
+2.	How are the refugee data protection needs reflected in the policy and legal frameworks to ensure accountability, redress, and safeguarding?
+3.	How can digital labour platforms and policies help refugees move from passive data subjects to active contributors in the AI integrated digital economy’s value chain in Kenya?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+**Expected Outputs:** (1) Key recommendations on practical reforms required for the digital identity and refugee unique identifiers, and their integration with key AI integrated digital economy such as KYC, biometric identity systems for improved AI eligibility processes. (2) Key recommendations on the policy and legal frameworks to ensure accountability, redress and safeguards of refugee data protection needs. ((3) at least two concrete follow-up commitments, for example, a technical exchange between national regulators and humanitarian data actors, or the inclusion of displacement scenarios in national AI governance consultations.
+**Expected Takeaways:** Evidence on what has worked and that which remains a work in progress in refugee digital inclusion in Kenya; a clearer view of the policy, legal and data protection questions raised digital identity; and direct exposure to refugee-led perspectives on AI governance. Findings will feed the Shirika Plan (and KISEDP and GISEDP) digital inclusion workstream and Kenya's national AI policy dialogue.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** Roundtable, 60 minutes. A roundtable removes the stage-and-audience hierarchy that routinely places institutions at the front and the rest of the people in the room. This session depends on government-  regulator representatives, refugee-led organisation representatives, Civil Society, and technology companies speaking to each other as peers; the layout signals that intent and makes it physically possible.
+The 60 minutes is deliberate. With four speakers and a moderator, five-minute framing interventions leave more time for structured discussion with onsite and online participants, which is the ratio needed to generate the concrete recommendations set out under expected outcomes. This would reduce a multistakeholder exchange to sequential statements. The moderator will keep one open seat at the table so participants can join the discussion directly rather than only asking questions from the floor.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** Online participants will be treated as a second room, not an overflow. The online moderator opens with a live poll and maintains a running speaking queue from the chat; after the framing interventions the onsite moderator alternates strictly between onsite and online contributions and states this rule at the outset. At least one speaker joins remotely by design, so that remote presence is normal rather than marginal.
+**Tools:** The Secretariat-provided platform with an actively moderated chat; Mentimeter for two live polls and an opening word cloud, projected in the room, which shapes the order of discussion; and a shared collaborative document where participants add recommendations in real time, which the rapporteur uses as raw material for the outcome note.
+**Accessibility:** live captioning, speakers briefed to describe visual material aloud, plain-language framing, and briefing notes circulated to speakers and registrants in advance.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Takeshi Moriyama, UNHCR
+**Organizer 2:** Diana Ondari, Government of Kenya: Department of Refugee Services
+**Organizer 3:** Drew Katie, UNHCR
+**Organizer 4:** Lensa Omune, UNHCR
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Lisa  Russell , Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Hubert  Senga, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** Caroline Njuki, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
+**Speaker 4:** Evan Gichuki, Government, African Group
+**Speaker 5:** Benjamin Makai, Private Sector, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Takeshi Moriyama, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Takeshi Moriyama, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Takeshi Moriyama, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+4.4
+5.b
+8.10
+9.c
+10.2
+10.7
+16.10
+16.6
+16.9
+17.16
+17.17
+17.18
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #255 Incorporating Gender Perspectives Into Cybersecurity Policy
+
+## Description
+
+Gender perspectives are being more accounted for in national, regional and global cyber policy making spaces. There is growing evidence on gendered cyber harm that arises not only from measures and incidents directed at women and gender diverse people such as TFGBV and disinformation campaigns, but also from those with no apparent connection to it: internet shutdowns, data breaches and attacks on critical infrastructure that target no one by gender, yet distribute their consequences along existing lines of inequality. Gender unaware approaches overlook critical vulnerabilities, making policies incomplete and less effective. By integrating gender considerations, we can ensure more inclusive, rights-based, and robust cybersecurity systems.
+
+However, the intersection of gender and cybersecurity is still a field in development. Existing work on this issue recommends mainstreaming gender into cyber policy and norms, but there is a need for more practical guidance on how this can be done. Out of 114 states that have national cybersecurity strategies, only 14 reference gender or women at all, most solely to acknowledge the gender gap in the technology industry.
+In recent years, APC has addressed and advocated for why gender matters in cybersecurity and raised awareness among policy makers and civil society about the value of incorporating a gendered approach to cybersecurity policy. During this session, we will launch a guide that serves as a practical tool for policymakers, regulators and others who draft, implement, and evaluate cyber strategies to mainstream a gender perspective in the content of the policy, the action plan, and in the evaluation to account for the differentiated impacts of such policy on vulnerable groups. The guide will also seek to provide civil society with more concrete tools to advocate for the inclusion of human centric and gender approaches in each phase of the cybersecurity policy cycle.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+How can a gender approach be integrated into the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of a national cyber security strategy, in a form that a cybersecurity team without gender expertise can effectively apply?
+What outcome indicators exist, or can be constructed, to measure such integration at every stage?
+How can this guide be useful for the different stakeholders working on cybersecurity?
+How can this work be used/leveraged at the international level, for instance in UN discussions such as the Global Mechanism?
+What are the gaps that future work on cybersecurity policy, gender and intersectionality should be addressed?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+This session seeks to launch and socialise APC’s guide on incorporating gender perspectives into cybersecurity policy by providing a practical tool for policymakers and others to mainstream gender in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of cybersecurity strategies at the national level, and to inform global norms on cybersecurity. The session feeds into ongoing international and national cybersecurity policy advocacy efforts. Building on this session and with the inputs from participants, APC will use the feedback in the training of civil society, policymakers, regulators and other key stakeholders to promote recognition of an intersectional gender approach to cybersecurity.
+
+Beyond this session, this tool will:
+offer practical guidance to policymakers for incorporation of gender perspectives into cybersecurity policy;
+strengthen civil society to engage in global and national policy spaces to advocate for the inclusion of gender into cyber policy and norms; and
+inform international diplomatic delegations engaging in cyber security negotiations.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** We are proposing a roundtable format because we envision this session as an interactive space for discussion rather than a series of presentations. The session will feature interventions from experts from civil society, academia, intergovernmental organizations, national regulatory authorities, and governments engaged in global cybersecurity processes, whose perspectives will help explore how a gender approach can be integrated into national cybersecurity strategies, as well as inform global governance processes.
+Equally important, the roundtable format will enable meaningful participation from both onsite and online participants. Their perspectives will be invaluable in informing how the guide can be further refined, used in future capacity-building efforts, and leveraged to advocate for the integration of gender perspectives into cybersecurity policy.
+For these reasons, we are requesting a 60-minute session. This will provide sufficient time for expert interventions while also allowing for substantive discussion and engagement with participants both online and in the room.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The session will be supported by both an on-site and online facilitator to ensure smooth interaction between speakers and participants, whether attending in-person or remotely. The agenda will be structured to provide sufficient time for expert interventions while also allowing meaningful participation from attendees both online and onsite (Expert interventions: 35 mins; Participants’ input: 20 mins; Wrap-up: 5 mins).
+At the start, the facilitator will clearly outline the agenda and time allocation so that all participants understand when and how they can contribute. Throughout the discussion, the online moderator will monitor the chat and raised hands, relaying comments and questions to the on-site facilitator to ensure that online participants have equal opportunity to engage in the discussion.
+The session will conclude with a summary of key discussion points and next steps, including how participants can continue engaging with the organizers, speakers, and the issues discussed beyond the session.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Veronica Ferrari, Association for Progressive Communication
+**Organizer 2:** Pavitra Ramanujam, 🔒
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Barbara Marchiori de Assis, Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+**Speaker 2:** Veronica Ferrari, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 3:** Moliehi Makumane, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
+
+## Moderator
+
+Pavitra Ramanujam, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Valeria Betancourt, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Veronica Ferrari, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+5. Gender Equality
+5.1
+5.2
+5.3
+5.4
+5.5
+5.6
+5.a
+5.b
+5.c
+10. Reduced Inequalities
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+16.1
+16.10
+16.2
+16.3
+16.4
+16.5
+16.6
+16.7
+16.8
+16.9
+16.a
+16.b
+17. Partnerships for the Goals
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #31 Press Delete: Scaling Global Protection from Image Abuse
+
+## Description
+
+Non-consensual intimate image (NCII) abuse, the sharing or threatened sharing of private sexual images without consent, has become one of the most direct harms the Internet inflicts on women and girls. AI has made it dramatically worse: "nudify" tools now generate synthetic intimate images of real people in seconds, at scale, from nothing but a clothed photograph. NCII abuse now sits squarely inside the IGF 2026 theme of governing the Internet in the age of intelligence, because the same AI capabilities that create the harm can also be used to detect and prevent it.
+
+One detection and removal response works. Hashing technology stops the same intimate image reappearing across major platforms within seconds, free of charge, without the image ever leaving a survivor's device. Years of deployment have generated over two million protected images and removal rates above 90% where the tool is used. Yet most victims worldwide have never heard of it, most platforms have not integrated it, and most support organisations in the Global South have no way to access it. The gap is not technical. It is infrastructural, geographic, and political.
+
+This session asks what it takes to turn a working solution into genuinely global infrastructure, without recreating the exclusions that left most of the world unprotected in the first place. Drawing on direct frontline experience from the UK helpline that pioneered hash-based prevention, the largest global platform deploying it at scale, and a leading digital rights organisation in South Asia, speakers will debate who pays, who trains, who is accountable when a platform declines to participate, and what AI-generated imagery means for hash-based approaches designed around authentic images. The audience will work through a live scaling dilemma in small groups before reporting back, producing shared, contestable conclusions rather than a single institutional narrative.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+1. What stops a survivor in Karachi, Lagos, or Manila from accessing the same image-removal protection available in London within minutes of a report, and whose responsibility is it to close that gap?
+
+2. What does the rise of AI-generated intimate imagery mean for hash-based detection approaches built around authentic images, and does it require a fundamentally different technical or governance response?
+
+3. Who should bear the cost, liability, and accountability when a platform declines to integrate cross-border image-matching infrastructure, and what recourse do survivors have in that gap?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+Participants will leave with a concrete, comparative picture of what scaling image-based abuse prevention globally actually requires, including the specific platform, NGO-capacity, and AI-related barriers that frontline organisations are encountering now. The session will produce a short set of scaling principles drawn from the live group exercise, capturing where participants converged and where genuine disagreement remained on cost, liability, platform accountability, and AI-generated imagery. These will be shared with the multi-country partner NGO network connected to this work and published publicly as a practical reference for NGOs, regulators, and platforms considering cross-border infrastructure. Speakers will also explicitly identify where AI-generated imagery creates gaps in existing detection approaches that the wider IGF community and standards bodies need to address, connecting this session's findings to the IGF 2026 theme of governing the Internet in the age of intelligence.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Classroom
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** A 90-minute classroom-format session with a structured breakout segment is best suited to this topic because the core value lies in surfacing genuine disagreement, not in presenting a settled position. The first half uses short, focused speaker contributions and moderator-led exchange to establish the real barriers to scaling image-based abuse prevention across borders. The second half moves participants into small facilitated groups, each working through a live scaling dilemma drawn from the panel's own frontline experience, before reporting conclusions back to the room. This format was used successfully in our IGF 2024 session and produced substantially richer audience contributions than a panel-only format. Ninety minutes allows enough time for both the comparative speaker discussion and a genuine breakout exercise without compressing either into a token gesture, and classroom seating allows online and onsite participants to be grouped into mixed discussion clusters rather than treated as two separate audiences.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** Online and onsite participants will be merged into the same small breakout groups for the live scaling exercise, using a shared online document so every group, regardless of location, contributes to the same visible output. A dedicated online moderator will manage remote group participation, relay contributions into the room during report-back, and ensure online attendees speak before the floor closes. Speaker contributions will include both onsite and remote participants so no single stakeholder perspective is confined to one mode of participation. We will use a shared collaborative document for breakout notes, visible to the whole room and online audience in real time, and a brief live poll at the session's midpoint to surface initial audience views before the breakout discussion begins. This structure was tested successfully in our previous IGF sessions, where online moderators represented remote participants' interventions directly into the discussion.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** David Wright, <https://swgfl.org.uk/>
+**Organizer 2:** Boris Radanovic, 🔒South West Grid for Learning
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Sophie Mortimer, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 2:** Nighat Dad, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
+**Speaker 3:** Cindy Southworth, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 4:** Victor Samuel, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+David Wright, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Boris Radanovic, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+David Wright, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+5. Gender Equality
+5.2
+5.b
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+16.10
+16.3
+17. Partnerships for the Goals
+17.16
+17.17
@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #318 Ethics and Risks: A Take on AI by Africa's PWDs
+
+## Description
+
+As Africa accelerates its digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a profound paradox for the continent's 80+ million Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
+
+On one hand, AI serves as a revolutionary assistive technology. From real-time sign language interpretation to image translation for the visually impaired, AI has the unprecedented potential to act as a bridge to internet equality, dismantling historical accessibility barriers. It forces a paradigm shift that revolutionises the very definition of disability, proving that disability is not a personal deficit, but a mismatch between a person and a poorly designed environment that AI can help correct.
+
+However, the deployment of these systems introduces severe ethical risks and the looming threat of "algorithmic ableism."
+
+AI systems, ranging from automated recruitment tools to biometric healthcare diagnostics, are frequently trained on datasets that exclude the unique physiological, linguistic, and socio-economic realities of African PWDs. The African Union’s Continental AI Strategy, adopted in July 2024, explicitly names disability inclusion, calling for accessible datasets, skills, and governance. Yet, a vast implementation gap remains between high-level policy and grassroots reality.
+
+This session centres the voices of renowned African disability champions to transition the narrative from "AI as a tool for the disabled" to "AI built with and governed by the disabled."
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+A. How do we ensure that foundational AI models reflect the diverse realities of African PWDs, preventing automated discrimination in high-stakes areas like healthcare and employment?
+
+B. How can international frameworks like the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the EU AI Act be synthesised with Africa's unique infrastructure to shift the governance narrative, using AI to fix systemic barriers rather than "normalising" individuals?
+
+C. How can African governments accelerate the rollout of AI as an assistive technology (e.g., culturally relevant text-to-speech, predictive accessibility tools) to guarantee unprecedented internet equality for PWDs?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+Attendees will leave with a critical understanding of AI's dual nature in the Global South: its capacity to inadvertently codify discrimination, balanced against its power to revolutionise digital inclusion.
+
+Policymakers and developers will gain actionable frameworks to integrate intersectional data representation into the early stages of AI model development. Participants will learn how to operationalise the AU Continental AI Strategy and global benchmarks to protect digital rights while scaling AI as a foundational assistive technology.
+
+The session will produce a Policy Brief on Inclusive AI Governance in Africa, summarising concrete guidelines for mitigating algorithmic ableism. This will directly feed into the African Union’s AI Strategy implementation working groups and UN Global Digital Compact consultations.
+
+Additionally, we will launch an ongoing "African Inclusive AI" Community of Practice to track post-IGF policy integration, share accessible open-source datasets, and host quarterly virtual dialogues.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Classroom
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** The 90-minute duration and classroom format have been specifically selected to maximise both engagement and accessibility.
+
+The 90-minute timeframe provides the necessary depth to unpack complex intersections of AI policy, technology, disability, and human rights. It allows ample time for robust Q&A, ensuring the session captures diverse inputs and opinions from both expert speakers and participants.
+
+The forward-facing orientation creates a structured environment with clear, unobstructed sightlines. It provides ease in delivering necessary disability accommodations. It ensures that sign language interpreters stationed at the front are highly visible to all attendees, and that onscreen closed captions can be easily read on primary displays without attendees needing to turn or shift.
+
+Furthermore, classroom layout perfectly supports seamless involvement of remote participants, allowing camera configurations to easily capture the panel and integrate hybrid inputs without spatial friction, while the wider, straight aisles allow for barrier-free mobility for wheelchair users.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** To ensure equal engagement in the hybrid format, we will employ a Dual-Moderator Strategy. An experienced on-site moderator will guide the panel and room, while dedicated online moderator will manage virtual hand-raises, monitor chats, and synthesise text-based questions.
+
+The session will be on strict, interactive time-blocks to prevent audience fatigue and maintain momentum across time zones.
+
+To support full accessibility, screen shares and presentations will have real-time closed captioning and sign language feeds pinned to the primary hybrid view.
+
+We will leverage extensive networks of KICTANet, a recognised leader in ICT policy and digital rights, to mobilise participants across civil society, government, tech, and Organizations of Persons with Disabilities.
+
+In the weeks leading up to the IGF, we will run coordinated campaigns across X, LinkedIn, and mailing lists, sharing key discussion prompts, our speakers, and inviting early input, driving broad global attention and ensuring a highly engaged hybrid audience.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Nicodemus Nyakundi, KICTANet (Kenya ICT Action Network)
+**Organizer 2:** Florence Ouma, KICTANet
+**Organizer 3:** Cherie Oyier, Kenya ICT Action Network
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Florence Ouma, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Nicodemus Nyakundi, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** Cherie Oyier, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 4:** Minayo Angela, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Nicodemus Nyakundi, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Cherie Oyier, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Florence Ouma, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+4.5
+8.5
+9.5
+9.c
+10.2
+10.3
+16.7
+16.b
+17.16
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #328 When AI Meets Patriarchy: The Internet Governance Game
+
+## Description
+
+Traditional discussions on AI governance often end with more questions than answers. This workshop takes a different approach. Instead of listening to experts, participants become decision-makers navigating the real tensions of governing AI in an unequal world.
+Through an interactive Internet Governance Game, participants assume the roles of governments, technology companies, civil society, researchers, journalists, youth, and the technical community. Through realistic scenarios including AI-generated election misinformation, online gender-based violence, algorithmic bias, content moderation disputes, and unequal access to AI technologies, participants negotiate competing priorities, respond to emerging challenges, and work together to develop practical governance solutions.
+The game demonstrates that AI systems are not neutral; they are shaped by existing social norms, institutional practices, and power structures that can reinforce gender inequalities if governance frameworks fail to address them. By placing participants in the position of policymakers and stakeholders, the session encourages deeper understanding of the difficult trade-offs involved in governing intelligent technologies while protecting human rights, inclusion, innovation, and freedom of expression.The goal is not to find perfect answers,but to understand why effective AI governance requires collaboration across sectors and communities.
+Aligned with the IGF 2026 theme, "Governing the Internet in the Age of Intelligence: Our Shared Responsibility," the workshop moves beyond discussion to collective action. Participants will collaboratively develop practical recommendations for gender-responsive AI and Internet governance that can inform future policy dialogues, national AI strategies, and regional Internet governance initiatives.
+The workshop also launches the Internet Governance Game Toolkit, an open educational resource containing facilitator guidance, stakeholder role cards, policy scenario cards, and gameplay instructions.Freely available after IGF 2026 the toolkit will enable universities, youth IGFs, national and regional IGFs, civil society organizations, and policymakers to replicate the game and continue conversations on inclusive AI governance in their own contexts.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+1. How can Internet governance frameworks better address the gendered impacts of AI systems and platform governance while safeguarding innovation and human rights?
+2. What shared responsibilities should governments, technology companies, civil society, academia, and the technical community assume to ensure AI does not reinforce existing gender inequalities?
+3. How can participatory policy games and multistakeholder dialogue contribute to more inclusive, evidence-informed AI governance and policymaking?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+1. The workshop will produce a practical output entitled The Nairobi Recommendations for Gender-Responsive AI Governance, developed collaboratively by participants during the policy game.
+
+2. The recommendations will identify priority actions for governments, technology companies, civil society, technical communities, and international organisations to strengthen inclusive AI governance. Following the session, the organizing team will refine and publish the recommendations as an open-access policy brief to share with IGF participants, regional Internet Governance Forums, policymakers, and partner organizations.
+
+3. Participants will leave with a stronger understanding of how AI governance intersects with gender equality, democracy, digital rights, and platform accountability, as well as practical experience negotiating policy trade-offs through a collaborative governance exercise
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** The Internet Governance Game is designed as a collaborative policy exercise rather than a traditional panel discussion. Round-table seating enables participants to work in diverse multistakeholder teams, encouraging equal participation, negotiation, and joint decision-making. Each table functions as a policy task force responsible for responding to governance challenges and developing recommendations.
+
+A 90-minute format provides sufficient time for gameplay, facilitated discussion, stakeholder negotiation, presentation of recommendations, and collective reflection. This structure maximizes participant engagement while ensuring the session produces concrete outputs rather than remaining a purely theoretical discussion.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The workshop will ensure meaningful participation from both onsite and online attendees by integrating them into the Internet Governance Game. Online participants will join virtual teams supported by a dedicated online facilitator and collaborate with onsite groups through shared digital workspaces.
+
+Collaborative platforms such as Miro, Padlet, and Mentimeter will enable all participants to analyze scenarios, submit policy proposals, prioritize governance actions, and vote on the final recommendations in real time. Each group—whether onsite or online—will present its governance approach during plenary discussions, ensuring that all perspectives contribute equally to the final outcomes.
+
+The session is designed to maximise interaction, collaboration, and co-creation, ensuring that hybrid participation strengthens rather than limits the policy dialogue.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Najma Matengo, Gender Responsive Digital Transformation Working Group
+**Organizer 2:** Judith Mwombeki, BBC MEDIA ACTION
+**Organizer 3:** Emmanuel Simon Mwang'onda, Gender-Responsive Digital Transformation Working Group
+**Organizer 4:** Khalila Mbowe, Unleashed Africa Enterprises
+**Organizer 5:** Rose Reuben, Tanzania Media Women's association - TAMWA
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Najma Matengo, Technical Community, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Judith Mwombeki, Technical Community, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** Emmanuel Simon Mwang'onda, Technical Community, African Group
+**Speaker 4:** Khalila Mbowe, Private Sector, African Group
+**Speaker 5:** Rose Reuben, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Najma Matengo, Technical Community, African Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Judith Mwombeki, Technical Community, African Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Rose Reuben, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+5. Gender Equality
+5.1
+5.5
+5.b
+5.c
+10. Reduced Inequalities
+10.2
+10.3
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+16.10
+16.7
+16.b
+17. Partnerships for the Goals
+17.16
+17.17
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #382 Who’s behind the ban? Balancing protection and empowerment.
+
+## Description
+
+As increasing numbers of countries introduce legislation (including various forms of age-based restrictions) aimed at protecting children online, this session will consider effective ways to protect and empower young people, while also exploring whether new regulation or better enforcement of existing legislation is needed.
+Organised by European Schoolnet as part of its work on the European Commission’s Better Internet for Kids platform initiative – available at www.betterinternetforkids.eu – this panel will consider what role international approaches should play and how they can guide the development of child-centred and rights-respecting digital services.
+How can the principle of safety-by-design be translated into concrete obligations for online platforms, app stores, AI and gaming environments? Much attention is being paid to social media platforms, but more consideration is perhaps needed in other online spaces that young people are using?
+Particular attention will be paid to a recent report from the co-chairs of the European Commission’s Special Panel on child safety online, which supports a gradual approach towards the autonomous use of age-appropriate social media and other digital services.
+Following a number of brief expert presentations from across the world, small groups will consider a range of questions:
+•	What should evolving autonomy look like?
+•	What are the implications for vulnerable groups?
+•	How can we protect young people online while also ensuring their empowerment across a range of online environments?
+•	How can governments, industry and civil society ensure that children’s voices genuinely influence the design, implementation and evaluation of online safety measures?
+•	How should we address the circumvention of protective measures which may lead minors to move towards less regulated and less protected online spaces?
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+A.	What evidence do we have about the efficacy of age-based restrictions of social media and other digital services and how important is a regional/global approach to the problem?
+B.	How can we ensure that children’s rights are respected when protecting them from harmful and illegal content online?
+C.	How can we ensure that young people are involved in developing “safe by default” approaches rather than having “solutions” imposed on them?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+Expected outcomes:
+•	To consider the EU approach to protecting and empowering minors in a digital world and compare it with similar or different developments in other parts of the world.
+•	To identify the features of an effective child online protection strategy, and consider what is needed to ensure this is successful.
+•	To identify the role of different stakeholders.
+
+**Specific output:** on the basis of the IGF workshop, a report will be prepared and published as part of the 2027 Safer Internet Day campaign - see <https://better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/saferinternetday.>
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** The roundtable set-up will allow for a more interactive format, with both onsite and online participants being able to share and discuss their thoughts, ideas and experiences following the initial input from expert speakers, including youth.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** One on-site moderator and two online moderators will facilitate the workshop, ensuring balanced participation from on-site and remote attendees.
+Alongside onsite presenters, a particular emphasis will be given to the voice of young people. For this, an international youth panel with 10 representatives (age 12-18) from across the world will be recruited and prepared to take part remotely in the workshop, in line with ongoing work on the Better Internet for Kids youth programme – see <https://better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/bik-youth.>
+Online moderators will relay questions and comments to the on-site moderator, support online speakers where relevant, and share useful links in the chat to encourage a dynamic discussion.
+Dedicated hashtags, alongside the IGF conference hashtags, will be announced at the start of the session to support social media sharing. Participants will be encouraged to use them to share comments, feedback and reflections with the wider IGF community and beyond.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Hans Martens, EUN
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Robbert Hoving, Intergovernmental Organization, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 2:** Lillian Kariuki, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** Torsten Krause, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 4:** AMANDA THIRD, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Hans Martens, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Sarah Willoughby, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Hans Martens, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+3. Good Health and Well-Being
+4. Quality Education
+10. Reduced Inequalities
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #410 Securing Neuro-Rights and Cognitive Liberty in  AI Era
+
+## Description
+
+The intersection of AI and neurotechnology has moved from science fiction to a critical policy priority. As Artificial Intelligence transcends digital interfaces and enters the realm of neurotechnology, the boundary between human thought and machine data is dissolving. With the 2026 adoption of global ethical frameworks for neurotech, the conversation must now shift from "what is possible" to "who is protected." This session explores the urgent necessity of Neuro-Rights—a new category of human rights designed to protect our mental privacy, personal identity, and cognitive liberty.
+
+In an era where AI-driven neural harvesting and behavioral manipulation are no longer hypothetical, current digital rights frameworks are insufficient. We will examine the four pillars of neuro-rights: the right to mental privacy, the right to mental integrity, the right to psychological continuity, and the right to cognitive liberty.
+Neurotechnology poses a direct threat to the cognitive boundaries of human beings.
+These technologies not only allow for the monitoring of brain activity and the prediction of intentions, but also for the modification of mental and mood states (Neuro-Enhancement). This new threat to privacy has resulted in what is known as Neuro-Privacy.
+
+The main goal is to identify and evaluate the unprecedented challenges created by the union of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Neurotechnology, and to advocate for the establishment of new legal and ethical frameworks (specifically, Neuro-Rights) to protect human cognitive privacy and mental integrity in the digital age.
+
+Key Focus Areas:
+
+**Governance Gaps:** Analyzing why existing data protection laws (like GDPR or NDPR) stop at the "user interface" and fail to protect neural data.
+
+**Inclusive Reslience:** How AI-neurotech could exacerbate inequalities in the Global South if access is not democratized.
+This session aims to empower activists and policymakers to build a resilient digital future where the "privacy of the mind" remains the ultimate human right.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+How are the current legal framework could protect the right to Neuro-privacy and Neuro-data?
+What the safeguards in the place in different jurisdictions?
+How AI-neurotech could exacerbate inequalities in the Global South if access is not democratized?
+what are the ethical principles should be adopted in deploying AI in the field of Neuro-technology?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+The outcome of the session will be the basis of academic publication about the topic of the session
+
+## Format
+
+Classroom
+**Duration (minutes):** 60
+**Format description:** As the topic is relatively new , no much participants have the knowledge , so class room is fit with for the purpose of deliver the knowledge. 60 min is sufficient for deliver the session and interacting with questions.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** Co-Moderation Team: The session will feature two dedicated co-moderators—one Onsite Moderator facilitating the physical room and one Online/Remote Moderator designated to monitor the Zoom/IGF platform.
+
+**Integrated Speaker Order:** Onsite and online panellists will interleave naturally during presentations and discussions rather than being grouped separately. Online speakers will be displayed on large in-room screens with high-quality audio to ensure they feel fully present to physical attendees.
+
+**Short Spark Talks (20 mins total):** Speakers (both remote and in-person) will be strictly limited to 3-4 minute lightning interventions establishing key dilemmas—such as brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), neural data privacy, and algorithmic cognitive manipulation.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** MOHAMED FARAHAT, 🔒African IGF
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** MOHAMED FARAHAT, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Malek   khachlouf, Government, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** Thobekile  Adebayo , Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+MOHAMED FARAHAT, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+MOHAMED FARAHAT, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+MOHAMED FARAHAT, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+3.4
+3.8
+9.5
+9.b
+10.2
+10.3
+16.10
+16.3
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #449 Inclusive Intelligence: AI for the Majority World
+
+## Description
+
+The rules governing AI are being written largely without the four billion people, most in the Global South, who will live with the consequences. This hybrid, Nairobi-hosted roundtable moves past "inclusion" as rhetoric to practical mechanisms for genuine agency: how low- and middle-income country governments, technologists, and communities can shape AI's rules, and how digital public infrastructure and digital public goods can be designed to narrow divides rather than widen them. Its centrepiece is an original, reusable tool, the "Representation Test",  which participants co-build and pressure-test live: a simple diagnostic any policymaker, funder, or standards body can apply to check whether the people an AI-governance process affects are actually shaping it. Grounded in real practice - Nigeria's national AI strategy and UN digital-public-infrastructure safeguards, Kenyan energy-and-AI innovation, South Asia innovation and cross-continental research as speakers share replicable solutions, not just critique.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+Q1. What concrete mechanisms would give low- and middle-income countries genuine agency in shaping global AI governance, rather than inheriting rules designed elsewhere?
+Q2. How should digital public infrastructure and digital public goods be governed and designed so that, in the age of AI, they narrow rather than widen divides — particularly for women, youth, and rural communities?
+Q3. What does "shared responsibility" concretely require of AI-leading economies, multilateral bodies, and the private sector toward the majority of humanity least represented in AI governance today?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+The session directly advances its three policy questions by producing concrete answers, not just debate. Participants will co-build and pressure-test the "Representation Test" — a simple, replicable diagnostic for auditing whether any AI-governance process genuinely includes those it affects (answering Q1 on mechanisms for agency). They will leave with design principles for inclusive digital public infrastructure and digital public goods that narrow rather than widen divides (Q2), and a shared articulation of what "shared responsibility" concretely demands of AI-leading economies and the private sector (Q3). Outputs include a published rapporteur's report, the open-licensed Representation Test tool for reuse, and a continuing network carrying the work into national and multilateral processes. The intended effect is a "to be continued" momentum — a tool and a coalition that outlast the session and feed future IGF and intersessional work.
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** A classroom layout suits this working session: participants need a writing surface for the hands-on segment, and it accommodates a larger, engaged audience than a closed roundtable. The 90 minutes follow a clear arc: brief framing inputs from speakers (15 min), a moderated panel drawing out diverse perspectives (25 min), a facilitated workshop where onsite and online participants co-build and pressure-test the Representation Test at their tables (45 min), and a short synthesis (5 min). This deliberately weights the session toward participant co-production rather than presentation, over half the time is interactive. Theatre seating, lacking tables for the workshop segment, could not support it; a shorter slot would force a lecture. The panel gives speakers substantive airtime while the workshop ensures the output is created by the room, balancing familiarity with genuine, structured interaction.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** A dedicated online moderator co-leads throughout, holding equal space for remote voices; an online-first rule reserves the first audience question and the first breakout report-back for online participants, structurally preventing the "remote afterthought" problem. After brief speaker framings (5 minutes each, no monologues), onsite and online participants join the same facilitated breakout prompts to co-build the Representation Test, contributing to a shared live document (Mentimeter for rapid input; a collaborative Google Doc for breakout work) visible to both audiences on the main screen. The synthesis draws visibly and equally from onsite and online contributions. The onsite and online moderators bridge the two groups, and the rapporteur captures all inputs live into the final tool. Tools: Zoom (Secretariat-provided), Mentimeter, and a shared collaborative document.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Elizabeth Abubakar, Advisor, Tubariki Foundation & ONE Campaign
+**Organizer 2:** Winfred Mutinda, Tubariki Foundation
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Elizabeth Abubakar, Private Sector, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Winfred Mutinda, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** Laila  Nazam, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
+**Speaker 4:** Sarpong Eleanor , Private Sector, African Group
+**Speaker 5:** Kawende Dylan , Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Moderator
+
+Elizabeth Abubakar, Private Sector, African Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Laila  Nazam, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Kawende Dylan , Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+5. Gender Equality
+9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
+10. Reduced Inequalities
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+17. Partnerships for the Goals
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #64 Children in the Governance of Our Shared Digital Future
+
+## Description
+
+Children appear constantly in the language of digital policy as statistics in child online safety reports, as case studies in AI ethics frameworks, as the justification cited in nearly every regulation written in their name. They are counted, cited and referenced more than almost any other group in internet governance discourse. Yet in the rooms where those policies are actually shaped and negotiated, children themselves are rarely present.
+
+This session, organized by Mtoto News International, a Kenya-based child-focused media and policy organization, brings this pattern directly into the room. Kenya's First Lady and Tech Envoy Philip Thigo both directly engaged in shaping the country's approach to child protection and digital governance will sit alongside a child and a civil society stakeholder for a genuine, unscripted conversation, moderated by Mtoto News International's CEO.
+
+The session is built around real listening: national leaders responding directly and publicly to a child's firsthand account of their digital life, framed explicitly as representative of a much broader, global pattern among children everywhere. The session closes with a concrete, spoken commitment from Kenya's leadership on what genuine inclusion of children in digital governance will look like going forward.
+
+Responding directly to IGF 2026's theme, "Governing the Internet in the Age of Intelligence: Our Shared Responsibility," this session asks what "shared" truly requires: not simply better data about children, but their structural inclusion in the rooms where their shared digital future is decided.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+A. What structural mechanisms beyond consultation or citation can ensure children are genuinely included in national and global digital governance processes?
+B. How can national leaders translate stated commitments to children's digital wellbeing into concrete, accountable governance practice?
+C. What can governments and technical communities learn from centering children's lived experience, rather than aggregated data, in shaping AI and internet governance frameworks?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+The session aims to produce a public, quotable commitment from Kenya's national leadership on embedding children's participation into digital governance processes going forward, offering a replicable model for other IGF host countries and governments. Participants will gain a clearer understanding of what structural, rather than symbolic, inclusion of children in governance requires in practice. The session will contribute a short published reflection to IGF's Policy Network on AI and child rights and is expected to generate wider media coverage extending its central message: that children are represented everywhere in data, but rarely present at the table where decisions are made. Participants will leave with concrete examples of dialogue-based, non-tokenistic approaches to child participation that they can adapt within their own national or institutional contexts
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** A roundtable layout supports the session's core purpose: genuine, unscripted dialogue rather than sequential presentation. Given the high-profile nature of the speakers (Kenya's First Lady and Tech Envoy), a roundtable signals equality of voice in the room, placing the child and stakeholder speaker on visually and structurally equal footing with national leadership reinforcing the session's central message. Ninety minutes allows adequate time for brief opening framing from each speaker, a substantive, unhurried account from the child and critically enough space for real, responsive dialogue between the child, stakeholders and leaders, rather than rushing toward a symbolic exchange. This duration also accommodates meaningful audience engagement from both onsite and online participants in the session's closing segment.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The onsite and online moderators will coordinate continuously throughout to keep both audiences integrated into a single conversation rather than two parallel ones. Online participants will submit questions and reflections via the IGF virtual platform chat, with the online moderator surfacing selected questions at natural pauses particularly during the direct dialogue segment between the child, stakeholder and leader so remote voices shape the exchange in real time rather than only via a closing Q&A. A live shared document will capture key reflections and commitments as they are spoken, visible to onsite and online participants alike, culminating in a short public summary of commitments made. The closing segment, where Kenya's leadership responds to what has been shared, will be clearly signposted for online audiences to ensure they do not miss this central moment of the session.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Joseph Atulo, Mtoto News International
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Philip Thigo Thigo, Government, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Blessed Barrack Barrack, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 3:** Ndegwa Mercy, Private Sector, African Group
+**Speaker 4:** Jennifer Kaberi Kaberi, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Moderator
+
+Joseph Atulo, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Dennis Mwendwa, Civil Society, African Group
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Gareth Sande, Intergovernmental Organization, African Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+1. No Poverty
+10. Reduced Inequalities
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+16.2
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #79 Beyond Accessibility: From Access to Empowerment
+
+## Description
+
+As governments, businesses, and public institutions accelerate digital transformation, ensuring that people with disabilities can fully participate in the digital environment is both a human rights imperative and a policy priority. This session explores how legislation, policies, and practical frameworks can support accessible and inclusive digital participation while recognizing the diverse needs, capabilities, and contributions of people with disabilities.
+The discussion will address three interconnected policy questions. First, what national and international legislation regulates access, accessibility, and guidance for people with disabilities in the digital environment? Participants will examine key legal and policy approaches and discuss how implementation can be strengthened across different regional, social, and economic contexts.
+Second, what framework is necessary to ensure that the individual needs of people with disabilities are met? The session is grounded in the understanding that inclusion cannot be achieved through one-size-fits-all solutions. Effective policy must place human needs at the centre, creating frameworks that guarantee rights and accessibility while allowing flexibility for personalized solutions. Speakers will share models of digital inclusion that combine common standards with opportunities for individual choice, autonomy, and self-determination.
+Third, how can individual capabilities be employed to benefit from artificial intelligence, digital applications, and online services? The session will explore how accessible technologies, inclusive design, digital skills, and AI can empower people with disabilities to build on their strengths, talents, and unique forms of intelligence. Rather than focusing on limitations, the discussion will highlight how individuals can contribute to innovation, education, employment, and civic participation when digital environments support their full potential.
+Bringing together diverse international perspectives, the session will showcase best practices, the views of people with disabilities themselves, concrete impacts, and lessons learned, identifying policy approaches that advance accessibility while respecting individual needs and capabilities and ensuring that digital transformation remains people-centred and inclusive.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+A.	What national and international legislation regulates access and guidance for people with disabilities in the digital environment?
+B.	What framework is necessary to ensure individual needs of people with disabilities are met?
+C.	How can individual capabilities be employed to benefit from artificial intelligence, digital applications and services?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+The session will identify policy approaches that balance common accessibility standards with the diverse and individual needs of persons with disabilities. Drawing on international experiences and multi-stakeholder perspectives, participants will explore how legal and policy frameworks can support personalized solutions, meaningful participation, and equal opportunities in the digital environment.
+Expected outputs include a summary of key recommendations, good practices, and lessons learned that can inform future policy discussions within the Internet Governance Forum and related digital inclusion initiatives. The session may also foster new connections among policymakers, disability organizations, researchers, and technology stakeholders, creating opportunities for continued collaboration.
+Participants will gain a deeper understanding of rights-based and human-centred approaches to digital inclusion, learn about different national and international models, and acquire practical insights into how individual capabilities can be recognized and supported within inclusive digital policies and services.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** A 90-minute roundtable format is particularly well suited to this session because the topic extends beyond accessibility compliance and requires the exploration of diverse experiences, policy approaches, and individual needs. The session addresses complex questions at the intersection of disability rights, digital inclusion, and participation, which benefit from meaningful dialogue rather than a series of presentations.
+The roundtable setting encourages active engagement among stakeholders from government, civil society, academia, the technical community, and organizations of persons with disabilities. It supports the exchange of different perspectives and allows participants to contribute their own experiences and insights, reflecting the session’s core premise that effective inclusion cannot be achieved through one-size-fits-all solutions.
+The 90-minute duration provides sufficient time for concise expert inputs, interactive discussion, audience participation, and the identification of practical recommendations. This format helps ensure a collaborative, people-centred conversation that can generate valuable insights and actionable outcomes.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The session will be designed as a fully integrated hybrid roundtable, ensuring that online and onsite participants can contribute equally to the discussion. A dedicated moderator will actively engage both audiences, inviting questions and comments from online participants throughout the session rather than reserving them for the end. Speakers will be encouraged to respond to contributions regardless of whether they originate from the room or online.
+To create a high-quality experience for all participants, the discussion will be structured around the policy questions and include interactive segments that invite reflections, examples, and challenges from different stakeholder groups.
+Input to the policy questions will be gathered by live polling via mentimeter, f. e. “Does national legislation in your country regulate access and guidance for people with disabilities in the digital environment?“ Thus we will capture diverse perspectives and encourage active participation.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Carola Croll, 🔒Stiftung Digitale Chancen / Digital Opprtunities Foundation
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** Muhammad Shabbir, Private Sector, Asia-Pacific Group
+**Speaker 2:** Vinton CERF, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+**Speaker 3:** Joan Katambi, Civil Society, African Group
+**Speaker 4:** Gunela Astbrink, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Moderator
+
+Carola Croll, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Bastian Pelka, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Clemens Gruber, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+4.5
+8.5
+9.c
+10.2
+10.3
+16.7
+16.b
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+# IGF 2026 WS #99 Judging AI: Rights, Trust, and Internet Governance
+
+## Description
+
+**Judging AI:** Rights, Trust, and Internet Governance brings together judges, policymakers, the technical community, civil society, academia, the private sector, and international organizations to examine the judiciary's evolving role in the age of artificial intelligence. As AI increasingly shapes digital societies, courts are being called upon to decide cases involving digital rights, online trust, privacy, cybersecurity, digital evidence, algorithmic decision-making, platform accountability, and cross-border Internet governance. Judicial decisions in these areas are becoming increasingly important in interpreting laws, safeguarding fundamental rights, and strengthening trust in the digital ecosystem.
+
+Building on the successful judiciary-focused sessions at the Internet Governance Forum in 2024 and 2025, this workshop forms part of the Global Judiciary Dialogue on Digital and Internet Governance (GloJuDDIG), an intersessional capacity-building initiative that complements the IGF by strengthening judicial engagement through year-round dialogue, knowledge exchange, webinars, collaborative learning, and the Global Judiciary School of Internet Governance (GloJuSIG).
+
+Using an interactive, multistakeholder, and case-based format, the session will facilitate dialogue between judges and other Internet governance stakeholders on emerging legal and policy challenges presented by AI and digital technologies. Participants will exchange experiences across jurisdictions, identify emerging good practices, and explore how judicial perspectives can contribute to rights-based, trustworthy, and inclusive Internet governance.
+
+By bringing judicial perspectives into multistakeholder dialogue, the workshop will bridge the gap between legal practice and Internet governance policy, fostering greater mutual understanding and helping ensure that emerging governance frameworks are informed by practical judicial experience and the rule of law.
+
+The discussion will also identify opportunities for continued collaboration and capacity building that strengthen judicial engagement and enrich National, Regional, and Global IGF processes throughout the year.
+
+## Policy Question(s)
+
+How can judicial perspectives strengthen rights-based, trustworthy, and inclusive Internet governance in the age of artificial intelligence?
+How should courts balance innovation, fundamental rights, and public trust when deciding cases involving AI, digital platforms, and emerging Internet technologies?
+How can collaboration between the judiciary and the multistakeholder Internet governance community strengthen judicial capacity and improve responses to cross-border digital challenges?
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+
+Expected Outcomes
+1.Strengthened understanding of the judiciary's role in Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital technologies, and Internet governance through multistakeholder dialogue and comparative judicial experiences.
+2.Enhanced collaboration among judges, policymakers, the technical community, civil society, academia, the private sector, and international organizations.
+3.Identification of good practices for balancing innovation, trust, fundamental rights, judicial independence, and the rule of law.
+Expected Outputs
+1.Key recommendations to support judicial capacity-building under the Global Judiciary Dialogue on Digital and Internet Governance (GloJuDDIG).
+2.Inputs for webinars, collaborative learning, knowledge-sharing initiatives, and the Global Judiciary School of Internet Governance (GloJuSIG).
+3.Stronger judicial engagement in national, regional, and global Internet Governance Forum (IGF) processes.
+
+## Reference Document
+
+Reference Document
+
+## Format
+
+Roundtable
+**Duration (minutes):** 90
+**Format description:** The proposed room layout and session duration are designed to maximize interaction, dialogue, and meaningful participation among judges and other Internet governance stakeholders. Rather than relying on presentations, the workshop will use a moderated, case-based discussion that encourages participants to exchange experiences, compare judicial and policy perspectives, and collaboratively explore practical responses to emerging AI and Internet governance challenges.
+
+The format provides adequate time for concise expert interventions, guided discussion, audience engagement, and interactive questions, ensuring balanced contributions from judges, policymakers, the technical community, civil society, academia, the private sector, and international organizations. This approach reflects the IGF's multistakeholder model, promotes cross-sector learning, and facilitates the exchange of diverse perspectives. It will enable participants to identify practical lessons, emerging good practices, and opportunities for sustained collaboration, strengthening judicial engagement and contributing to future National, Regional, and Global IGF discussions.
+
+## Hybrid Format
+
+**Hybrid Format:** The session will ensure equal participation for onsite and online attendees through a dedicated online moderator who will manage the virtual platform, monitor questions, and facilitate interaction throughout the discussion. The session moderator will alternate between onsite and online interventions to ensure balanced participation.
+
+The workshop will use a moderated, case-based discussion with interactive Q&A and live polling, encouraging participants to exchange experiences, compare perspectives, and contribute to practical solutions on AI and Internet governance. Speakers will respond to questions from both onsite and online participants, creating an inclusive multistakeholder dialogue.
+
+To enhance participation, complementary tools such as Slido or Mentimeter will be used for live polls, audience questions, and prioritization of discussion topics. Key messages and recommendations will be captured during the session and shared with all participants to support continued engagement beyond the workshop.
+
+## Organizers
+
+**Organizer 1:** Dr. Nazarius Kirama, 🔒Internet Society Tanzania
+**Organizer 2:** Athanase Bahizire, Youth IGF DRC
+**Organizer 3:** Keith Andere, African Centre for Climate Research and Innovations - ACCRI
+
+## Speakers
+
+**Speaker 1:** ELIAMANI ISAYA LALTAIKA, Technical Community, African Group
+**Speaker 2:** Marcia Whitney, Private Sector, Intergovernmental Organization
+**Speaker 3:** Diana Kavedza, Government, African Group
+**Speaker 4:** Dr. Nazarius Kirama, Technical Community, African Group
+**Speaker 5:** Elena Garcia, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
+
+## Moderator
+
+Dr. Nazarius Kirama, Technical Community, African Group
+
+## Online Moderator
+
+Sharon Polsky, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
+
+## Rapporteur
+
+Athanase Bahizire, Technical Community, African Group
+
+## Participant Benefits
+
+What will participants gain from attending this session?
+
+## SDGs
+
+9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
+10. Reduced Inequalities
+16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
+17. Partnerships for the Goals