Global

The UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights Farida Shaheed made an important speech on internet governance in Geneva earlier in May 2012. She stressed the importance of upholding human rights principles online supporting the call of civil society for democratization of internet governance. Sonia Randhawa is urging all of us to not just look at what Farida Shaheed says, but also to take a look…

May 17 marks two important causes: The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO)and World Internet Day. Join us and play Twitter tag to connect your rights on May 17th. Help activists in your communities - geographically or issue-based - to connect with other activists who might know about IDAHO or internet rights but might not see them as interconnected or even know each…

Who governs the internet? How are decisions made about this key infrastructure and system that seems to support such an overwhelming part of our everyday lives? And what are feminists and women's rights activists doing about it? Jac sm Kee scans through the history of the internet to leave us thinking about who governs that space that can have such an influencing impact on so many areas of our…

When I saw this quote on Mozilla's new Collusion website: "If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold - Andrew Lewis." I felt it summed up the economics tool box session on Commodification of Knowledge that APC led at the 2012 AWID Forum quite nicely. The session, organised by APC, brought together speakers to spark debate and reflection, but the…

I walked in late to the jam-packed session “Bringing Gender to the Streets: Young Women Amidst the Arab Uprisings” at AWID Forum 2012. This was not a session about technology or the internet, but it was a common strand running through each presenters' activism and evidence-building for women's rights, even and perhaps especially in the midst of revolution.

I'm sure we've all seen amazing testimony videos of incredibly sensitive subjects: of women who choose to have abortion and share why despite risking imprisonment in their country for this act of taking control of their bodies; lesbians who come out fighting against "correctional rape"; rural women living in isolated regions sharing stories of cultural violence. I cringe and wonder - do they know…

The question in the headline elicits a complicit smile. Have you ever? Or have you spied on their new partner? Or have you googled someone you just met and liked a lot? At the interactive session on “Privacy and pleasure” that was held as part of the 2012 AWID Forum there were a variety of participants, of diverse ages, that raised their hands, recognizing that both Facebook and Google are tools…

Images of amazing infographics and heart-wrenching campaigns circled us in the recent "Using information design in advocacy for women's rights" workshop at AWID Forum 2012. Maya and Faith from Tactical Tech led us in a provocative session, where small groups focussed on just one of six questions about each "ad" or campaign image as they toured the room. Questions to tackle included: who did the…

A graceful tree glimmering with scarves and blue beads to ward off the evil eye greeted us every day during the 12th AWID Forum: Nazar Degemesin - “May the evil eye not touch her”. Every morning participants could share their message and hang the bead, scarf and satchel (and coin if they had one) for another participant to find at the end of the day.

Flavia from GenderIT.org based her feminist talk on Maria Suárez Toro's notes for the session "Harnessing the Power-Politics of Communications: A New Edge for Feminist Transformative Activism" that took place during the 12th AWID International Forum on Women’s Rights in Development. The session was organized by APC WNSP and took place on 12 April 2012 in Istanbul. María Suárez Toro, from the…