Global Digital Justice Forum — represented by Data Privacy Brasil, Derechos Digitales, EngageMedia, ETC Group, IT for Change, Research ICT Africa, Tech Global Institute — Ada Lovelace Institute, Centre for Communication Governance - National Law University Delhi, Planetary AI Network - University of Edinburgh, and The Future Society.
On 18 February 2026, IT for Change, together with partner organisations, convened the roundtable ‘AI Governance from the South: Redlines to Baselines’ at India International Centre, New Delhi.
The roundtable brought together more than 40 leading civil society organizations, researchers, and policy practitioners from across the Global South, joined by allied institutions from the North, to reframe prevailing AI governance debates. Moving beyond discussions on harmful use-cases or downstream risk-mitigation, participants focused on identifying non-negotiable structural baselines across the AI value chain — the political, economic, and ecological conditions necessary to ensure that AI systems are compatible with human rights, social justice, and planetary sustainability.
The discussions engaged with foundational questions including:
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What governance baselines must be in place for AI systems to advance human rights, social justice, and ecological sustainability?
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What would it mean to treat labour regulation, public procurement, competition policy, and environmental oversight as central pillars of AI governance?
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How can governance reshape the political economy of AI innovation, rather than merely respond to harms at the point of deployment?
The convening built on the framework ReGenAI: A New Deal for the AI Economy, which calls for a structural reorientation of the AI paradigm toward meaningful and dignified work, diversified economies, pluralistic knowledge societies, and planetary flourishing.
The roundtable was co-organised with the Global Digital Justice Forum — represented by Data Privacy Brasil, Derechos Digitales, EngageMedia, ETC Group, IT for Change, Research ICT Africa, and Tech Global Institute. Other partners included the Ada Lovelace Institute, the Centre for Communication Governance - National Law University Delhi, the Planetary AI Network - University of Edinburgh, and The Future Society. The roundtable was convened with support from the UNESCO Global CSO and Academic Network on AI Ethics and Policy (International AI Red Lines Subgroup) and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.