The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has taken constructive steps to integrate gender equality into its space, processes and issues. This years’ Gender Roundtable and other specific spaces such as the Gender Dynamic Coalition, aimed to strengthen the previous premise by bringing in different stakeholders (including governments, UN agencies, the private sector, civil society etc.) to dialogue on key issues, challenges and best practices on the extent to which gender has been integrated into internet governance issues. This helped to increase knowledge and understanding of gender and internet specific concerns within the internet governance framework and debates.

Technology based violence against women research meeting and Internet Governance Forum in Bali

MaryOnyango
The technology-related violence on women research meeting took place in Bali, Indonesia from 19th to 21st October 2013. The meeting was organized by the Association for Progressive Communication (APC), as part of the “ending violence: Women’s rights and safety online” project with support from the Dutch government’s Funding Leadership and Opportunities for Women (FLOW) programme.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Women are vulnerable online, but also speaking up on the internet

analia
During the last Internet Governance Forum, which took place in October in Bali, Indonesia, Analía Lavin from APCNews talked to Aida Mahmutović, from APC member Owpsee in Bosnia and Herzegovina. OWPSEE is one of the national partners of APC’s project “End violence: women’s rights and safety online”.

Sexual rights in Indonesia: Creating and protecting safe spaces for women minority groups

analia
While the internet empowers women living with HIV/AIDS by providing information about their right to privacy, internet rights in Indonesia are being threatened by government practices of blocking and filtering content. During the last Internet Governance Forum that took place in October 2013 in Bali, APC talked to Indonesian activist Kamilia Manaf about the challenges that sexual rights and internet rights are facing in the country, as well as the impact that an international event like the IGF has in their advocacy work.

Gender centred snapshots at the IGF

flavia

Gender and internet governance: Integrating women's rights at the IGF space

flavia
The Dynamic Coalition on Gender offers a space for key stakeholders to meet and discuss advancing the gender justice agenda throughout the Internet Governance Forum.

Integrating women's rights at the IGF

MaryOnyango
As governments work on legislations, gender mainstreaming in ICT sector should not be overlooked. Women need to access internet for development, hence training of women and girls to access internet is crucial. Despite this, gender was not seen as a thematic area during IGF 2013 and hence was not included in the IGF workshops. This was a concern to women human rights organizations like APC which advocates for a democratic and inclusive internet governance models. The Gender Dynamic Coalition organized by APC to discuss Gender and Internet Governance: integrating women’s rights at the IGF space, was part of a concern to address strategy for inclusion of gender discussion in future IGF.

Gender and internet governance roundtable: Distributed expertise from all over the world to put women in the center

flavia

Statement: “Miss Internet Bali” and women's participation at the Internet Governance Forum 2013

apc
The Internet Governance Forum is a United Nations mandated space and as such, we expect and demand adherence to respectful and non-discriminatory standards of behavior. As participants of the Internet Governance Forum 2013 who are working to advance gender equality and the active participation of women in Internet governance policy dialogue and processes, we see this as a huge step back taken by organisers in this process.

IGF 2013: How does gender intersect with internet governance?

nadine

Connecting Our Rights at IGF2013: Women and sexual rights defenders leading progress on equitable, inclusive internet policy

shawna
The human rights of women and sexual minorities are being increasingly impacted by the internet, not only through violence and discrimination, but through policies and legislation that do not recognise their specific contexts, concerns and capacities.

Results from the Gender Report Card at the 2012 IGF: More women make a huge difference

apc
This report summarises the contents of the Gender Report Card sections of the workshop reports from the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) of 2012. Interestingly, it shows among other interesting outputs, that gender was most likely to be mentioned in those workshops in which women were most likely to participate.
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