feminist principles of the internet

The non-territorial, transborder Internet has added layers of complexity to the human rights debate. The idea of substantive equality – a compass for human rights and the key to gender justice – must be interpreted anew and afresh, as the force of digital technologies complicates the nature of social relations and institutions. The easy binary divisions of online and offline cease to make sense…

What are the relationships and interdependencies influencing the promises of being online: voice, visibility, and power? This ARROW for Change (AFC) issue on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and the internet documents some of these dynamics.

Economic, social, cultural rights in international law is a recognition of the basic rights of all people to a fundamentally decent and happy life - one in which their right to self-determination is respected. Does the progressively digitised future threaten or cement a world where ESC rights are guaranteed for all? In this editorial, Nadine Moawad states that the network is good and the network…

In this interview, Allana Kembabazi of Initiative Social And Economic Rights in Uganda, talks about the role of the internet in advocacy and campaigns about high rates of maternal mortality in Uganda and sexual and reproductive rights. In a context where health care is far from sufficient, the internet also becomes an avenue for provision of sexual and reproductive health related information that…

Global data volume has grown exponentially in recent years and experts expect this trend to continue. The wider trend towards the pervasive datafication of our lives is not one we can just sit out. Big data and the algorithmic decisions it feeds permeate citizenship, healthcare, welfare states, education, finance, law enforcement as well as the ways in which we shop, travel, and live our social…

Technology facilitates violence against women, but it also facilitates information sharing, capacity building, networking and alternative media - Take back the tech! is the realisation of the idea that the internet can be used to expand the movement against all forms of gender-based violence. This edition brings to us the voices from the campaigns from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Canada,…

In this set of interviews, Smita Vanniyar speaks to Japleen Pasricha of Feminism in India, and Divya Rajgopal of WhyHate. In separate ways, both these are projects of passion that find ways to reclaim technology for women and also others marginalised on account of gender non-conformity, sexuality, caste, religion and class. They discuss the pros and cons of anonymity, how to address online VAW…

A detailed conversation with activist and writer Caroline Tagny on the various campaigns that she has been part of with Take Back the Tech. The interviewer, Bianca Baldo, focuses on the politics of language in these various campaigns and the importance of content in local language to connect to and bring together people and movements. The role of French as both a language of the colonial…

In this special edition of GenderIT.org we share the experiences and reflections on the recent 13th AWID International Forum, in which a large group of women from APC Women's Rights Programme, from different countries and regions, participated enthusiastically. With the participation of 1,700 people from 140 countries, this year's AWID Forum showed that the feminist movement keeps growing…