From 6–10 July 2026, Soroptimist International representatives gathered in Geneva to contribute to global discussions on artificial intelligence, digital cooperation and technology governance. The following reflections were drafted by Tania Gómez Herazo, SI Advocacy AI Advisor, and cover sessions she attended and contributed to on 6 July across the Global Dialogue on AI Governance and WSIS Forum 2026.
Reports by Tania Gómez Herazo, SI Advocacy AI Advisor
Global Dialogue on AI Governance: Opening Ceremony
Event: UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance
Organiser: United Nations, Joint Secretariat coordinated by ITU and UNESCO
Date: 6–7 July 2026, Palexpo, Geneva
History was made in Geneva: for the first time, every UN member state took a seat at a dedicated table on AI governance, informed by the first report of the Independent International Scientific Panel — a body that achieved gender and regional parity.
What struck me most was how firmly children were placed at the centre of governance. The Secretary-General was blunt: we test every toy and every medicine before it reaches a child, yet AI reached children’s learning, friendships, and most private questions before anyone asked what it would do to them. He announced an AI child safety pledge built on three rules: prove a system is safe before children can reach it, zero tolerance for AI-generated abuse imagery, and never leave a child in crisis alone with an algorithm. “When a child is harmed, the answer must never be the algorithm did it.”
UNESCO answered with education and capacity: a new global normative instrument to safeguard children and young people in the age of AI, training already delivered to over 50,000 civil servants and judicial actors across 192 countries, and support to more than 80 states turning ethical principles into law. The President of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, amplified a young Rwandan voice, “we, the youth, are the filter”, reminding delegates that governance is ultimately about our children’s bedrooms, classrooms, and futures.
My reflection: protecting children in AI is not a sub-topic of governance; it is its clearest test. If rules cannot shield an eight-year-old, they will shield no one.
WSIS Women and Girls Action Plan Roundtable: The Gender Trendsetter Session
Event: Session 320, WSIS Forum 2026 | Date: 6 July 2026, Room E, ITU Varembé Building
Session Link: https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2026/Agenda/Session/320
WSIS+20 reaffirmed gender equality as a cornerstone of the information society, and this interactive session translated that promise into a working agenda: the Women and Girls Digital Empowerment Plan 2035. Nominated as Women and Girls Gender Trendsetter, I contributed best practices to its six action areas, universal digital access, future-ready skills, safety and dignity online, human rights and inclusion, women in decision-making, and economic empowerment.
The discussion confronted hard realities: persistent gender digital divides, disproportionate online risks for all women and girls, and structural barriers that limit digital agency. But the framing was deliberately forward-looking. Women and girls are not beneficiaries of digital transformation; they are trendsetters, innovators, and decision-makers driving it.
My key reflection: best practices only travel when they are documented, shared, and adapted. That is precisely what a global network like Soroptimist International can do, carry a promising practice from one country’s classroom or ministry into another’s, and continue to be part of the WSIS+20 process.
All Women and Girls Are Architects of a Safe Digital Future
Event: WSIS Forum 2026 side event
Organiser: Soroptimist International, sponsored by the Missions of Austria and Colombia to the UN in Geneva
Date: 6 July 2026, Room L1, ITU Montbrillant Building
Role: Co-Moderator
Session link: https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2026/Agenda/Session/485
It was a privilege to co-moderate this SI side event, opened with a welcome from SI President Renata Trottmann read by our Advocacy Director Berthe De Vos -Neven, and closed by His Excellency Ambassador Álvaro Ayala of Colombia, who reminded us that the central question of digital transformation “is not technological, but fundamentally political and ethical.”
Anchored in WSIS Action Lines C1, C8, C10 and C11, the panel brought remarkably different vantage points to one theme. Queen Angelique Monét of Etí-Oni, Nigeria, described digital inclusion in a 130-year-old cocoa-farming community where most farmers are women: the phone must become a classroom, a marketplace, and a pathway to opportunity, and AI literacy must equip women to recognise manipulated content. Tristan Van Thielen, technology leader argued that innovators need practical toolkits, not just regulation, citing Singapore’s AI Verify as a model. Annariina Komljenovic, Executive and AI governance expert, distilled the panel’s most quoted line: “Good intentions do not work. Mechanisms do.” And Karolien Vanhuffel, Technological leader and cybersecurity expert, warned that AI now automates harassment at scale, silencing women and pushing them out of digital participation, making online safety a prerequisite for education and economic inclusion, not a side issue.
My reflection as co-moderator: every speaker, from palace to boardroom, converged on the same architecture, ethics by design, diverse teams as quality control, and all women and girls involved in design, testing, and oversight from day one.
