In anticipation of the WSIS+20 High Level Meeting taking place in Geneva at the end of May, APC, in partnership with IT for Change and with the support of WACC Global, are publishing a series of reports as part of the GISWatch 2024 Special Edition, WSIS+20: Reimagining horizons of dignity, equity and justice for our digital future.
In the following two chapters, APC's Paula Martins (global policy lead) and Namita Aavriti (Women's Rights Programme co-manager) expand on the power of ICTs to overcome inequalities along with feminist priorities within internet governance processes.
Gender in global digital discussions: A timeline
by Paula Martins (APC)
For women and gender-diverse people, digital technologies, in particular information and communications technologies (ICTs), may be an important tool to overcome barriers to freedom of expression, and to build their economic agency and political representation. However, inequalities that women face in terms of economic power, education and access to resources also affect their participation in shaping the development and use of digital technologies, and in debates and policy-making processes at the national and global levels.
While these challenges remain, through sustained activism, gender has played a growing and more prominent role in the global digital discussions. This report seeks to provide an overview of the normative progress in this regard.
Continue reading on GISWatch.org
Preliminary feminist provocations on internet governance and WSIS +20
by Namita Aavriti (APC)
For this intervention I have chosen to speak to a few feminists, activists and scholars that engage with internet governance at the national, regional or global level. This is not a comprehensive mapping of the field of those engaging with internet governance from feminist and/or queer political perspectives, though it does point to the value of such a mapping. These were broad and unstructured conversations and interviews around their experiences of internet governance processes so far. How open have they been? How relevant? How effective? How inclusive? What are the feminist priorities? What are the questions that still remain? While many of the conversations focused on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the observations have clear implications for WSIS+20, or any other process where a multistakeholder approach to internet governance is promised.
Continue reading on GISWatch.org
We will be announcing more news about the upcoming launch of the GISWatch 2024 Special Edition ahead of the WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event at the end of May. Stay tuned!
For more information, subscribe to the APC newsletter, join the conversation on social media, and visit GISWatch online.
These reports were originally published as part of a larger compilation: “Global Information Society Watch 2024 Special edition: WSIS+20: Reimagining horizons of dignity, equity and justice for our digital future"
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) - Some rights reserved.
Web and e-book
ISBN: 978-92-95113-67-1
APC-202404-APC-R-EN-DIGITAL-357
Print
ISBN:978-92-95113-68-8
APC-202404-APC-R-EN-P-358