This edition of GenderIT.org explores the online safety of women human rights defenders from the perspective of national security and counter-terrorism. National security often encompasses a variety of security threats, including those in cyberspace. While national security measures are meant to protect the security of a nation and its citizen, in many contexts they serve as a pretext for suppressing unfavourable political and social views. Despite the fact that online & offline security measures adversely impact on women’s and sexual rights, women and sexual minorities are still two of the most invisible stakeholders in national security debates. This editions delves into some of these risks and examines explicitly messages that we have touched on before (that link this edition to previous one), particularly why & how women human rights defenders can become players in the spaces that govern cyberspace.



This edition of GenderIT.org includes the preliminary results of the first international survey of the online threats faced by WHRDs.



The edition is a part of APC’s “Connect your rights: Internet rights are human rights” campaign financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency .



_Photo by Paolo Cuttitta palestine. Used with permission under Creative Commons licence 2.0

Collateral damage of the cyberwar in Syria

jennifer & Grady
Jennifer Radloff and Grady Johnson speak to a Syrian activist in exile about the government increasing tendency to securitize the internet and crack down freedom of expression and freedom to privacy on-line. They also talk how limited access to ICTs, self-censorship due to widespread surveillance and reliance on commercial social networks in combination with a general lack of technical knowledge jeopardise the work of women rights defenders in particular, and how they can avoid being caught in the crossfire.

Egypt: Cyber-security as a priority and an integral part of human rights advocacy

Mavic Cabrera-…
GenderIT.org correspondent Mavic Cabrera-Balleza interviews Yara Sallam, Manager of the Women Human Rights Defenders Program at Nazra for Feminist Studies in Egypt, on the challenging reality for women human rights defenders, how they are affected by measures taken by the government in the name of “national security”, and strategies used to address threats to WHRD's cybersecurity.

Azerbaijan: When online security is synonymous with personal safety

Zooey Schock
The Seventh Internet Governance Forum will be taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 6 to 9 November 2012. GenderIT.org writer Zooey Schock spoke with veteran activist Dr Leyla Yunus about internet freedom and the ability to organise in post-Soviet Asia.

Building the Capacity of WHRD: the experience of Front Line Defenders

Margarita Salas
In a context where the debate around digital security tends to be focused on national security and counter-terrorism measures, civil society faces the important challenge of claiming a space for women human rights defenders (WHRD). Margarita Salas of Genderit.org spoke with Wojtek Bogusz and Tara Madden of Front Line Defenders to discuss some of the key challenges they have identified in their work supporting WHRDs.

Surveying Women Human Rights Defenders: Harassment is the biggest online problem

sonia
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC)'s “Connect your rights: Internet rights are human rights” campaign has commissioned one of the first international surveys of the online threats faced by women human rights defenders (WHRDs). Responses came from 13 English-speaking countries, and across Spanish-speaking Latin America, with just over 40 people responding. The survey thus provides a starting point for looking at the threats, training needs and security concerns of WHRDs online.

Who benefits from the silence? Freedom of expression and women human rights defenders in Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala

Daysi Flores
In this article, Daysi Flores, a JASS Mesoamérica representative and GenderIT.org contributor, looks at a number of new cybercrime laws in Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala that pose a threat to online security, the right to privacy, and freedom of expression and association for the countries’ citizens in general, but for women human rights defenders in particular.

Women human rights defenders and digital security: Reflections with a Latin American accent

Daysi Flores
A survey of women human rights defenders (WHRDs) conducted as part of APC’s Connect Your Rights! campaign revealed some interesting practices and perceptions in terms of their use of information and communications technologies in their work. Daysi Flores, a GenderIT.org contributor, analyses the preliminary results of the survey, in light of the realities of Latin America.
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