To start off our series of Gender and Internet Governance eXchanges (gigX), APC in collaboration with an APC member in the Philippines, the Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA), will hold a 2-day event on the 29 and 30 June 2015.
Between 10 to 15 women’s rights, internet rights and sexual rights advocates from the region will come together to discuss and exchange knowledge on the intersections of women’s rights and internet governance.
The gigX Asia will take place just prior to the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF), which will be held in Macau from 1-3 July 2015 at the Macau University of Science and Technology.
APC aims to strengthen and increase the participation of women’s rights and sexual rights advocates to engage in discussions about internet governance in the region. This will inform dialogues at the global IGF which will be taking place in November.
Gender and internet governance in Asia
At the 2014 APrIGF, the Foundation for Media Alternatives organised a workshop on gender and internet governance, bringing into the spotlight the importance of human rights at the center of internet governance discussions. Panelists in this workshop noted the lack of a gendered discourse in internet governance spaces, a gender-divide in terms of access to ICTs in the region, the role of pleasure and sexuality in our online lives, the lack of appropriate cyber-crime laws that protect women as well as uphold human rights, and finally issues around freedom of expression, censorship and the role of regional cooperation in exposing repressive regimes
The main theme of this year’s APrIGF is “Evolution of internet governance: Empowering sustainable development”. Issues regarding affordable and unfettered access, states’ transparency in their regulation of the internet, cybersecurity and zero-rating services will be at the core of the discussions this year for participants of the gigX Asia.
About gigX Asia
The meeting will be held on the 29 and 30 June in Macau at the Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Center
The goals for the gigX are:
- To build capacity with the objectives to articulate, deepen, and define thinking, analysis and understanding of internet governance issues, its ecology and its current debates as well as locate how women’s rights and gender intersect in this framework.
- To examine in depth regional emerging themes and concepts related to internet governance such as internet rights and human rights, privacy & security, intellectual property, technology-based violence against women, state and intermediaries’ liabilities, sexual rights, access, freedom of expression and association.
- To identify and discuss key gender and internet governance issues for Asia and how to ensure these are addressed within the regional Internet Governance Forum.
- To build a network of feminist activists with the participants in the gigX who can respond collectively to governance and policy emerging issues in information and communications technologies and who will put their learnings in practice in the APrIGF of 2015.
- To contribute to a set of international principles or standards to inform the development or the creation of new policies and protocols by states to ensure they meet their obligations to uphold women’s human rights.