2025-11-28 1156 AEDT

Nov 28, 2025

UN CEFACT GTR - AEST / PST

Invited Jo Spencer Alina Nica Gales Steve Capell John Phillips

Summary

John Phillips opened the meeting with a recap of the previous session focusing on the work of FIDES and the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK) on sandboxes and products for the grid and Digital Identity Anchor (DIA), highlighting the FIDES concept of a legal person identifier (LPID). Mark Lizar stressed that their focus remains solely on organizational ID to avoid the complexities of personal ID, which Mr. Phillips agreed should be the recommendation for July of the next year. Mr. Phillips also reported on the consolidation of project documents, with document one merging into the "generic operating manual" (document four), and DIA content being moved to a separate set of documents, including document three, while confirming that Alex Tweedell from Checked will present in two weeks and invited collaboration in the UNIC GitLab space.
Participants discussed the Senegal Symposium, which featured presentations by Alina Nikagales and Mr. Phillips, and resulted in outreach from Her Majesty's Customs and Excise, with Mr. Phillips sharing the encouraging reconfirmation of commitment to the pilot process from the Indian delegate despite technical challenges. Alina Nikagales detailed Spain's co-leadership of the Global Trust Registry (GTR) project, emphasizing their extensive digitization efforts, and Bree-Ana Blazicevic considered this a "strong" contribution, also confirming the Canadian pilot is "locked in" with funding for a reference implementation focused on Critical Raw Materials (CRM). Mr. Phillips clarified that the GTR architecture is intended to be decentralized and distributed, and Bree-Ana Blazicevic connected this to the need for a model law framework to establish governance trust layers.
Mark Lizar shared that they are consulting with Digital Data Privacy Authorities (DPAs) on a program for digital privacy officer certification focused on managing legal compliance for registries, especially controller registries, and Mr. Phillips expressed interest in the related survey. Mr. Phillips walked through the UNIC hosted GitLab environment, which is the "official public face of the project," confirmed the DIA specification is being actively applied in pilots, and he welcomed integration with other UN/CEFACT projects, such as single window or trade corridors, provided it does not decelerate the GTR project's momentum. Participants in the meeting included John Phillips, Mark Lizar, Sankashan, Bree-Ana Blazicevic, and Ann Dao.

Details

Notes Length: Standard

Meeting Recap and FIDES Presentation John Phillips opened the meeting by summarizing the previous session and noting that all attendees were familiar with UN/CEFACT processes and the code of conduct [00:00:00]. The previous meeting focused heavily on the work of FIDES, a Netherlands-based organization, with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK), which has developed relevant sandboxes and products for the grid and Digital Identity Anchor (DIA). Mr. Phillips confirmed that Harmon walked through the FIDES work, and the recording is available in the meetings folder, which also includes discussions with Han and Victor from FIDES and Sed from KBK [00:00:54] [00:05:10].
Document Consolidation and Organization Mr. Phillips reported on the ongoing effort to consolidate and streamline project documents. He noted that they are collapsing document one, detailing eligibility requirements, into document four, which is becoming the "generic operating manual" for the grid and includes topics like governance and technical requirements. The DIA-related content is being separated into a distinct set of documents, including document three, which Alina is focusing on, while they are focusing on document four [00:02:01] [00:04:12].
Future Presentations and Content Management They confirmed that Alex Tweedell from Checked will give a presentation in two weeks, similar to Harmon's, as their work is considered highly relevant [00:03:01] [00:15:02]. Mr. Phillips is currently the custodian of the documents in the UNICC GitLab space and invited others to join the content management efforts by raising issues and submitting merge requests [00:03:01] [00:37:35]. The Google document space is still used for "live editing" and creative discussions due to its accessibility [00:04:12].
Organizational ID Focus versus Personal ID During the meeting, Mr. Phillips noted that FIDES's work introduced the concept of a "legal person identifier (LPID)," despite focusing on organization IDs, recognizing the inevitable connection to legal and end-beneficiary interests related to anti-money laundering and terrorism financing [00:06:22]. Mark Lizar emphasized that their work, although dealing with transparency and consent, is centered entirely on organizational ID and controller ID, aligning with legal requirements to verify authority before collecting personal data, suggesting a way to avoid getting tangled in personal ID discussions [00:08:43]. Mr. Phillips agreed that the focus should remain on organization ID for the recommendation for July next year, to avoid being slowed down by the complexities of personal ID [00:07:47].
Sénégal Symposium and Pilot Progress Mr. Phillips detailed a symposium and seminar held in Dakar, Senegal, as part of the UN/CEFACT Fact 40th forum, which took place shortly after the FIDES meeting. Steve Capel, Jan Huang, and Juan Aak were among the participants, and Sankashan was present and spoke about India's pilot initiative [00:11:00] [00:15:02]. The session, which featured presentations from Alina Nikagales and Mr. Phillips, generated interest in the project, notably resulting in outreach from Her Majesty's Customs and Excise in the UK [00:16:02] [00:23:03].
Spain's Co-leadership and Digitization Efforts Alina Nikagales presented on Spain's co-leadership of the Global Trust Registry (GTR) project, highlighting their long history of digitization, consolidation, and rationalization of registries over the past 20 to 25 years [00:17:10]. Spain's interest is based on a strong legal foundation and their active pilot work, including implementation of DIA and engagement in the European "WeBuild" initiative [00:18:19]. Bree-Ana Blazicevic considered Spain’s background in modernization and digitization to be a "strong" contribution to the project [00:19:35].
Update on Canadian Pilot Bree-Ana Blazicevic provided updates on the Canadian pilot, confirming that the pilot is "locked in" and noting that they have some funding towards a reference implementation, primarily for the Critical Raw Materials (CRM) work involving Canadian copper supply chains. Bree-Ana Blazicevic is working to position this as a federal test pilot and is seeking to secure funding for a federal-size pilot, leveraging Canada's role as a G7 leader, with a meeting scheduled for the following week [00:20:41]. Mr. Phillips offered their support to help encourage the federal initiative [00:21:49].
Discussion on Centralization and Legal Frameworks Mr. Phillips described a discussion from the Senegal meeting that revolved around the logical model, clarifying that the GTR architecture is intended to be as decentralized and distributed as possible, not centralized [00:23:03]. Jean Huang presented work on a white paper concerning the interoperability of law, using a model where "centralized" implies common legal understandings, while "decentralized" means many different interpretations, which Mr. Phillips found encouraging [00:23:55]. Bree-Ana Blazicevic connected this to the need for a model law framework, similar to those for e-commerce and e-signatures, to establish governance trust layers and enable UNTP to scale effectively across jurisdictions [00:26:13].
Controller Registries and Data Governance Mark Lizar shared that they are consulting with Digital Data Privacy Authorities (DPAs) on a program for digital privacy officer certification focusing on managing legal compliance for registries, particularly controller registries [00:29:58]. They noted that the work, which relies on international convention 108 plus and long-developed standards, is focused on decentralizing data governance by enabling people to govern their own digital assets and information [00:31:25]. Mr. Phillips expressed interest in receiving the survey related to these regulatory questions [00:32:44].
Update on Indian Pilot Mr. Phillips shared that despite technical challenges during the Senegal session, which made the audio difficult to hear, they gathered encouraging reconfirmations of commitment to the pilot process from the Indian delegate. They noted India's ambition for the pilot and its economic heft as the fastest-growing economy [00:33:46].
GitLab Environment and Project Documentation Mr. Phillips walked through the UNICC hosted GitLab environment, which has become the "official public face of the project" where all UN/CEFACT live projects, including the GTR project, are now being hosted [00:34:40] [00:38:32]. Sankashan shared the link for others to sign up for a GitLab account, and Mr. Phillips encouraged collaboration, noting that the content is being moved from Google Docs into markdown documents on GitLab [00:36:41] [00:42:50]. Documents one and four have been merged to form a "super document" of operating procedures for the grid, while document three is expanding as the body of work for the DIA [00:40:33].
Digital Identity Anchor (DIA) Specification and Pilots The project is actively working on applying the DIA specification with registrars, conducting pilots, and integrating lessons learned back into the DIA spec [00:53:39]. The current version of the DIA spec for testing purposes is UNTP 0.6.1. Mr. Phillips confirmed that they will continue to recommend improvements and pull requests into the UNTP hosted spec, as agreed with Steve Capel [00:54:41].
Interoperability with Other UN/CEFACTFACT Projects Bree-Ana Blazicevic asked about opportunities for crossover with other UN/CEFACT projects, such as single window or trade corridors [00:57:06]. Mr. Phillips responded that they would welcome such integration to validate their work, as long as it does not decelerate the GTR project's momentum by introducing too many external ideas, a phenomenon they referred to informally as "garbage can theory" [00:58:06].
Organizational Theory and Project Management John Phillips discussed applying organizational theory to projects, specifically the idea of attracting the "right kind of sticky on bits" and avoiding the wrong kind. He noted that while currently behind schedule in several parts of the project, they did not want to discourage alignment and working with others, only to avoid slowing down [00:58:59]. The ultimate goal is to enable collaboration with interested projects, stating the answer is still yes to making it work [00:59:57].
Single Trade Windows and Complexity John Phillips presented a concept regarding single trade windows, citing a perspective from Steve, who has a more experienced eye on the matter. The basic idea is that introducing a single window does not necessarily simplify complexity; instead, if there were 40 separate institutions managing importation, the single window may result in 41 entities because the original 40 specialists still need to perform their work, and the new front-end entity handles the coordination [00:58:59]. They concluded that the complexity behind the scenes remains the same or might even be obscured [00:59:57].
Meeting Conclusion and Next Steps John Phillips apologized for being overtime and thanked the participants. They promised to keep all commitments, confirming the meeting had been recorded and that notes and minutes would be published in about one or two hours after processing. Bree-Ana Blazicevic, Ann Dao, and Mark Lizar all expressed their thanks to John Phillips [00:59:57].

Suggested next steps

Bree-Ana Blazicevic will work with Nancy on possibly asking to present the digital identity anchor piece in the meeting next week.
Mark Lizar will send a survey out about regulatory questions regarding the interoperability of data governance to the group.
John Phillips, Mark Lizar, Ann Dao, Bree-Ana Blazicevic, and sankarshan will apply for an account to join the UNIC GitLab space.
John Phillips will publish the notes and the minutes in about an hour or two when the processing is finished.