In depth
Surveying Women Human Rights Defenders: Harassment is the biggest online problem
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…
In depth
Building the Capacity of WHRD: the experience of Front Line Defenders
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…
Publication
Conference Summary Report : Towards an effective and inclusive global counter-terrorism policy
Too often, counter-terrorism measures include a violation of human rights and place state security ahead of a broad-based definition of individual human security, which would include economic security, respect for human rights and freedom from disease. In this context, from October 20 - 23, 2011 Cordaid and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) convened a conference…
Feminist talk
A little red dot on a map points to a significant debate
A Feminist talk entry published in GenderIT.org (in Portuguese) started an interesting exchange related to the complex fields of freedom of expression, censorship, hate speech, legal remedies, and ICT related violence against women. You must be asking yourself what it was about, in order to start such a complex debate. Well, it all starts with a map.
In depth
Digital Storytelling as a Feminist Practice
Digital storytelling provides a powerful way of using information and communication technologies to empower marginalised women. Digital stories are produced and distributed by digital media. In digital storytelling workshops, marginalized women and women’s rights activists develop a forum to tell their stories and share their experiences by producing short films about themselves.
Feminist talk
It's violent, it's misogynist. Something needs to be done, but what?
For those of you that don't know the appalling vitriol that Anita Sarkeesian has been subject to, you can read a summary of it here. It's worrying that there are people out there who are capable of perpetrating this campaign of hatred. But what's more worrying is that we don't seem to know what to do…
Feminist talk
Copyright and the digital divide
It's day two of the 'Informal' Asia Europe Foundation meeting on human rights and ICTs, and we're split up into workshops to discuss recommendations that will go to the Foundation's ministerial meeting in November: I'm in the workshop on digital divide. While a lot of interesting ideas came up during the course of the day, the one which causes me most concern is the problem of knowledge that is…
In depth
Going online is the same as going out to a rally
In early April 2012 in Istanbul thirty people from six continents met at the APC “Dialogue on digital security and women's human rights defenders” to discuss regional and global trends on digital security, freedom of expression and freedom of association, and their impact on women's human rights defenders. Katerina Fialova and Sonia Randhawa interviewed two of the participants to interrogate/…
