internet governance

A big hangar, with a constant voice asking people to wear headphones and talk to each other through the microphones, an internet network that does not allow participants to be online simultaneously, with an average of only one person out of three being able to access full online services and the other two struggling with their different devices to reach out, comment and communicate what is…

This is the transcript of the Access and Diversity Main Session that took place on November 8 2012 at the Internet Governance Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was the first time in the entire history of the IGF that women and gender issues were addressed in a main session, with the presence of Jac sm Kee from APC Women´s Rights Programme.

Attending the IGF for the first time came with no expectations, however it is difficult to ignore the usual disparity that I face everyday in Egypt, and in many other countries when I travel. No one can say that the number of women participating in the IGF 2012 is low, in fact women are very much present representing the different stakeholders; governments, private companies, and civil society…

Multistakeholder participation and enhanced cooperation seems to be one of the major issue in this year's Internet Governance Forum (IGF). With World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) around the corner and the anxious buzz of whether this is a bid by governments to have more control…

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…

I was very happy when I was asked to be guest editor of this edition of GenderIT.org on women human rights defenders (WHRD) and national cyber security policies. This is an important and timely issue for WHRDs because the misuse of counter-terrorism legislation to quell dissent and further marginalise minority voices is on the rise.

This study lays out the elements of a comprehensive security strategy for cyberspace. It aims to address the cybersecurity threats that plague national, personal and social security while protecting and preserving open networks of information and communication. The study was published as part of Global Information Society Watch 2011 that investigated how governments and internet and mobile phone…

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…

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/…

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…