internet governance

In 2001, while working at Agenda, a South African feminist academic journal, we produced an edition titled ‘Globalisation: challenging dominant discourses’. The journal problematised the realpolitik of a global neo-liberal economic system that was marked by developing countries’ indebtedness, the rise of the market and the devastating consequences of structural adjustment policies for women of…

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…

I spent a full day yesterday focusing on the intersection of feminism, activism, and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). And I kept running into the same women (the feminist Twitterati?). And these women were mostly already known to me from my own work on the issue. This worries me a little bit. Could it be that there are so few feminist / female Techies in the world that we all know…

In the interview with Flavia Fascendini of GenderIT.org, Valeria Betancourt, manager of APC’s Communications and Information Policy Programme, argues that the incorporation of knowledge transfer through technology, connectivity for the information and knowledge society, and finally, inclusion and the guarantee of human rights within the broad strategies of Ecuador’s National Plan for Good Living…

Magaly Pazello, activist and specialist researcher in gender and information and communication technologies, recently joined the team that developed the Brazil report for the UN's Universal Periodic Review. In discussion with Flavia Fascendini, the editor of GenderIT.org, Pazello confirmed that there is still a great deal to do with regards to the connection between women's rights and a broad…

GenderIT.org writer Sonia Randhawa speak with Jelen Paclarin, executive director of the Women's Legal and Human Rights Bureau (WLB) in the Philippines, about the potential of the UPR to improve the lives of women in Philippines, the emerging forms of technology-related VAW and key challenges in addressing it, and the importance of women's representation in policy-making processes.

The submission to the UPR process elaborated by the Women´s Legal and Human Rights Bureau, Inc from the Philippines addresses the issue of women’s access to justice in the country, which highlights technology-related violence against women (VAW) as an emerging form of VAW. The submission also looks at the gaps and challenges in available domestic remedies to survivors of violence and abuse…

In the submission, the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) is particularly concerned with making the internet an effective tool to exercise rights to information in India. DEF believes that the internet plays a major role in accessing information and thus a tool for social and economic development. This submission outlines India’s progress and specific areas of concern: information technology…

APC WNSP is sharing some preliminary results of the gender report cards initiative. This was a pilot initiative put forward by the Association for Progressive Communications to monitor and assess the level of gender parity and inclusion at this year's Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Although the numbers of sessions monitored were relatively small, and that a deeper analysis is needed, the…

Year after year the Internet Governance Forum renews expectations and opportunities of gender advocates to find innovative solutions to enhance women's rights online and offline. After 6 years of activism, this space still seems to be resistant to the inclusion of gender perspectives and activists are faced with more questions than answers. Where are women's rights on the internet governance…