Latin America

Wireless networks is attracting growing attention across the globe, as a plausible way of providing internet access in marginal areas or in cases where costs are prohibitive. Cristo Redentor Telecentre co-ordinator Cristina Ojeda joined a workshop on wireless networking organized by the Latin American School of Networking EsLaRed) in Mérida, Venezuela and narrates her experience.

The belief that technology is gender-neutral is still rife. Representatives of international organisations, financing institutions, and governments simply overlook gender concerns in ICTs (information and communication technologies). Dafne Plou, APC WNSP regional coordinator for Latin America and Caribbean, reflects on her recent experience at regional World Summit on the Information Society…

Magaly Pazello is the only Brazilian feminist who’s been active in the WSIS process since its inception. A member of the WSIS Gender Caucus, she is also member of the DAWN network - Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era. In the Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Preparatory Conference, held in June 2005 in Rio de Janeiro, Graciela Selaimen interviewed Magaly Pazello, speaking…

No participation of civil society as observers in the governmental delegations' meetings; no gender working group in the final regional action plan ELac 2007; almost no women, black people or indigenous people as panelists. Although the Rio WSIS Regional Meeting opened two slots for civil society statements in the plenary and produced documents which were fairly positively received by NGOs and…

Hilary Nicholson, member of Women’s Media Watch, shares her experience and impressions on participating in the Global Media Monitoring Day in Jamaica. Her article shows the expectancies and reactions of twelve women who volunteered to participate in this initiative, last February. To some of them, enlightening, to others, unsettling - to all of them an eye-opener experience, after which the…

The Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Conference (one of the Preparatory Conferences for the World Summit on the Information Society) was held in Bávaro, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, from the 29th to the 31st of January, 2003. In this article, Magaly Pazello, a member of the DAWN network, makes a report of the event and points out the small participation of women's groups and feminist…

"Information technology obviously will not solve the world's problems. But wisely deployed and developed, it has proven to be a powerful tool for advancing social causes. One of the social groups that has been most dynamic in using this technology innovatively for social progress, is the women's movement; and in many aspects, the South has exerted leadership in this process."

María Isabel and María Alejandra Davidziuk compare the findings of four national reports from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia undertaken as part of the APC WNSP project “Strengthening women’s strategic use of ICTs to combat violence against women and girls”. In their analysis they look at some barriers (both institutional and cultural) that need to be overcome in order for ICTs to be…

Cristina Peralta examines the situation in Argentina, where few cases of VAW using ICTs have been denounced. One study found that a small percentage of young girls had been contacted by unknown people via chat or Facebook before disappearing. Cell phones are also used for controlling women's mobility and have become one of the first artifacts to be destroyed by the partner during violent…

In this paper, Ingrid Leao, Thais Lapa and Tamara Amoroso discuss violence against women in the media, with advertisement and TV show examples. It also looks at civil society expectations for the first National Conference on Communications, to be held in December 2009. It examines the use of social networks like Orkut and Twitter; denouncements of VAW practices, such as cyber-bullying of teenage…