::fc-announce:: Online Discussion: Violence Against Women and ICTs

[andrew garton]

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Cultivating Violence Through Technology?
Violence Against Women (VAW) and Information and Communication 
Technologies (ICTs)
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Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We invite you to participate in the discussion on VAW and ICTs to share
your views, experiences, knowledge and concerns.

THEMES and SCHEDULE
===================
16 - 22 May, 2005: Harmful representations of women in ICTs, censorship
and internet governance.

23 - 29 May, 2005: VAW, ICTs and Global Policy Processes (BPFA, CEDAW,
WSIS Declaration etc.) ­ seeing the gaps, making the connections.

30 May ­ 5 June, 2005: Strategies for the future.
The outcome of the discussions will be summarised thematically, and
posted on www.genderIT.org, a site by APC WNSP that addresses gender and
ICT policy issues, under the section of ‘Feminist Talk’.


HOW TO PARTICIPATE
==================
To participate in the email discussion, please send an email to Lenka
Simerska lenka at apcwomen.org.

To view the summary of the discussions and post your comment on the
themes, visit the www.genderIT.org Feminist talk section:
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=f--e--1

We would be grateful if you could help us disseminate this call for
participation to your network, organisations or individuals that may be
interested to engage in this issue.


BACKGROUND INFORMATION
=======================

This discussion will be moderated by the Association of Progressive
Communications, Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP;
www.apcwomen.org) and will be for a period of three weeks, starting from
May 16 - June 5. APC WNSP is in the process of writing a paper that
explores the connections between ICTs and VAW. The paper was presented
at an NGO side event at the recent Beijing + 10 process conducted at the
49th Commission on the Status of Women in New York. You can download the
first draft of that paper, "Cultivating Violence Through Technology?
Exploring the connections between ICTs and Violence against Women", at
http://www.genderit.org/upload/ad6d215b74e2a8613f0cf5416c9f3865/VAW_ICT_Drft1MARCH2005.pdf


This online discussion is aimed to continue the dialogue that began at
the event, and to further explore some of the concerns that were raised.
The outcome of the online discussion will feed into the paper, as well
as inform both our collective advocacy on Violence Against Women issues,
as well as those related to information and communications technologies. 
We hope that a women's movement agenda relating to these connected 
issues can be shaped.

In the recent World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), gender was
very nearly dropped out of the language in the declaration.
Multi-national profit driven companies were given the edge in setting
the agenda and powerful governments in the economic 'North' are
facilitating this imbalance of power (for an overview, Bridge ICT &
Gender Pack: http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports_gend_CEP.html#ICTs).
Now that we are in the process of preparing for Phase II of this Summit,
to be held in Tunis later this year (http://www.itu.int/wsis/), it
becomes all the more urgent that gender and how ICTs impact on women's
rights issues are rendered visible and vocalised as a concern.

Further, the recent 49th CSW that sought to reaffirm and reassess the
Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) was conspicuously silent on the issue
of women and the media. Section J of the BPFA, which deals with women's
participation in the media and issues of representation, was not
highlighted in the discussions prior to or indeed, rendered visible
during the event. This demonstrates a worrying lack of political
consciousness or will to view communication and information rights as
urgent and crticial issues for the women's movement.

Women largely being in the poorest sections of community are much
affected with regards to the issue of access to infrastucture, skills
and information communities, particularly in new ICTs. Content and
development of the technology also mainly rests in the hands of men.
Apart from that, ICTs play a large role in the development and
dissemination of culture. This ties in with the issue of sexist and
mysogynistic content which enable the perpetuation of violence against
women.

We call for your participation to create a collective understanding to
this issue, from the particular perspective of violence against women,
and also to strategise for actions that can be taken. APC WNSP is
actively engaged with policy advocacy in the field of ICTs, and your
views, expertise and experience are important to mutually enrich each
others' work in addressing women's rights.

Thank you, and looking forward to our dialogue soon.

Warmest regards,
Jaclyn Kee & Lenka Simerska
Association for Progressive Communications
Women's Networking Support Programme
APC WNSP

-- 
"Today I caught the scent of change. It moves me." - jhybeturtle/antagonyaunt

www.apcwomen.org; www.genderIT.org; 
www.kryss.org; www.wao.org.my; www.sistersinislam.org.my

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--

:: Andrew Garton

   c2o/Toy Satellite
   T/F +61 (0) 3 9417 5425
   http://c2o.org/
   http://toysatellite.org/
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   A member of the Association for Progressive Communications
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