UnityNet Digital Sovereignty Checklist 2025-10-13

This document presents the #UnityNet Digital Sovereignty Checklist (Version 1.0, October 2025), a comprehensive framework for Ethical Digital Governance and Community Empowerment.
Its purpose is to guide organizations and communities in upholding the highest standards of transparency and self-determination, supporting the vision of Foundational Security and Regenerative systems design by embedding human, ecological, and cultural integrity into digital practice.

The checklist details policies across five key areas:
1. Data Residency: Prioritizing local or regional servers, ensuring transparency in cloud storage, and promoting community-controlled data centers.

2. Audit Rights: Guaranteeing communities the right to audit how their data is used, requiring open systems, and ensuring ethical AI practices include community oversight and feedback loops.

3. Local Hosting Options: Favoring hosting digital services within local jurisdictions to strengthen resilience and trust, and building capacity for region-specific data hosting hubs aligned with environmental sustainability goals.

4. Deletion Policies: Implementing clear, enforceable deletion rights, including “right to be forgotten” protocols, and ensuring communities can request data deletion without punitive consequences or loss of essential services.

5. Contract Clauses: Embedding digital sovereignty principles into all vendor contracts, including explicit references to Indigenous, local, and community data rights, and ensuring respect for international frameworks like the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

The checklist is intended as an adaptable framework for global contexts (Africa, Asia, Europe, etc.), promoting equitable access, safeguarding Indigenous knowledge systems, and integrating into the #UnityNet Foundational Security Finance Plan and Digital Twin CoRE pilot systems.

1. Lloyd Helferty, Biochar Consulting Canada
Co-Founder and Concept Coordinator, UnityNet International
UnityNet International provides programs, services, tools and infrastructure for Workforce Development
in Under-served Communities & Emerging Markets related to Sustainable & Regenerative Development (#RD)
Goods, Services and Social Programs.
#UnityNet recognizes the traditional territories and ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples worldwide and
honors their enduring stewardship of the Earth.
#UnityNet Digital Sovereignty Checklist
Version 1.0 – October 2025
A Framework for Ethical Digital Governance and Community Empowerment

Purpose
This Digital Sovereignty Checklist is designed to guide organizations, networks, and
communities in ensuring that their digital infrastructures, partnerships, and technologies
uphold the highest standards of ethical governance, transparency, and self-determination.
It supports the #UnityNet–DAWN vision of Foundational Security and Regenerative systems
design by embedding human, ecological, and cultural integrity into digital practice.

Key Components

1. Data Residency
 Identify where data is stored — prioritize local or regional servers over international
storage when possible.
 Understand and comply with legal restrictions on data movement between
jurisdictions.
 Ensure transparency in cloud storage and cross-border data transfer agreements.
 Promote community-controlled data centers where feasible.

2. Audit Rights
 Guarantee communities the right to audit how their data is collected, used, and
shared.
 Require open, auditable systems for data access and processing.
 Publish data governance reports or transparency dashboards regularly.
 Ensure ethical AI practices include community oversight and feedback loops.

3. Local Hosting Options
 Favor hosting data and digital services within local jurisdictions to strengthen
resilience and trust.
 Where local hosting is not yet available, establish hybrid solutions that include
community-based backups.
 Build capacity for country- and region-specific data hosting hubs aligned with local
energy and environmental sustainability goals.
 Encourage partnerships that strengthen national and regional digital infrastructure
sovereignty.

2. Lloyd Helferty, Biochar Consulting Canada
Co-Founder and Concept Coordinator, UnityNet International
UnityNet International provides programs, services, tools and infrastructure for Workforce Development
in Under-served Communities & Emerging Markets related to Sustainable & Regenerative Development (#RD)
Goods, Services and Social Programs.
#UnityNet recognizes the traditional territories and ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples worldwide and
honors their enduring stewardship of the Earth.

4. Deletion Policies
 Define clear and enforceable deletion rights: who can delete data, under what
conditions, and within what timeline.
 Implement “right to be forgotten” protocols that honor individual and collective
sovereignty.
 Regularly review and publish data retention and deletion policies for all platforms
and services.
 Ensure communities can request deletion of their data without punitive
consequences or loss of essential services.

5. Contract Clauses
 Embed digital sovereignty principles into all partnership and vendor contracts.
 Include explicit references to Indigenous, local, and community data rights.
 Require data protection and audit clauses to be binding, transparent, and
enforceable.
 Ensure that all agreements respect the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and related international frameworks.

Global Considerations
 Apply the checklist as an adaptable framework for regional contexts (Africa, Asia,
Europe, the Americas, Pacific Islands).
 Prioritize people and communities at the center of digital governance.
 Address the digital divide between North and South by promoting equitable access
and capacity-building.
 Safeguard Indigenous knowledge systems and prevent their exploitation or digital
appropriation.
 Promote ethical interoperability between global systems while preserving local
autonomy.

Implementation Strategy
 Develop the checklist as a living, collaborative document with global partners and
regional councils.
 Facilitate community participation through shared online documents (e.g., Google
Docs) or other co-editing platforms.
 Position the checklist as part of a broader global ethical digital governance
framework, linking with the UnityNet–DAWN CoRE initiatives.
 Encourage pilot implementation through the Markham–Kenya Digital Twin
partnership and subsequent scaling along the Youth Peace Routes.
 Share learnings through open access repositories, webinars, and capacity-building
workshops.

3. Lloyd Helferty, Biochar Consulting Canada
Co-Founder and Concept Coordinator, UnityNet International
UnityNet International provides programs, services, tools and infrastructure for Workforce Development
in Under-served Communities & Emerging Markets related to Sustainable & Regenerative Development (#RD)
Goods, Services and Social Programs.
#UnityNet recognizes the traditional territories and ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples worldwide and
honors their enduring stewardship of the Earth.

Alignment with the #UnityNet–DAWN Ethical Digital
Governance Framework
This checklist supports:
 Foundational Security for people, data, and ecosystems.
 Ethical AI Alignment across cultural, ecological, and spiritual dimensions.
 Digital Sovereignty as a pillar of regenerative governance and peace
infrastructure.
 Community Empowerment through transparent, locally governed digital
systems.

Next Steps
1. Circulate this checklist among all #UnityNet members and affiliated councils.
2. Collect community and expert feedback to refine the framework.
3. Publish Version 2.0 in collaboration with #UnityNet DAWN and international
partners (AU, UNIDO, AfDB, AKDN, Rotary International).
4. Integrate into the #UnityNet Foundational Security Finance Plan and Digital Twin
CoRE pilot systems.

Suggested Citation
UnityNet International (2025). Digital Sovereignty Checklist: A Framework for Ethical Digital
Governance and Community Empowerment. Toronto–Nairobi: #UnityNet–DAWN Alliance.