access

The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression's report explores key trends and challenges to the right of all individuals to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds through the internet. The Report underscores the unique and transformative nature of the Internet but also outlines the growing global trend of restricting freedom of expression and association online.

Gender, science and technology. This theme will be analysed, dissected and evaluated at the 55th session of the Commission on Status of Women. Government delegates, non-government representatives and activists will troop to the United Nations headquarters in New York, braving the coldest winter in decades, to assess how women and girls are faring in education, training and employment in…

Latin American women are attaining good levels of education and training for the labour market, including knowledge of ICTs, but APC WNSP regional coordinator, Dafne Sabanes Plou acknowledges that digital inclusion as a factor in economic progress is just beginning to appear on the regional horizon and that gender equity is still sidelined from ICT policy discussions. She speaks to GenderIT.org…

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC), NUPEF and the Registry of Internet Domain Names for Latin America and the Caribbean sponsored the Third Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), held in Ecuador in early August 2010. How might this regional meeting and the IGF impact each other? What recommendations and concerns emerged from the regional process?…

The impact of internet governance on Africa was discussed on September 16th 2010, in Vilnius, Lithuania. There was fair representation of all stakeholders. Officials from South Africa, Kenya and Tunisia were there; a representative from an internet service provider; and various Africa bodies that follow the process, such as AFRINIC, ISOC Africa and CICEWA. And there were representatives from…

Looks at how power is played out in the language and terminology used in the IGF discussions, even when the theme of the discussion is "Internet governance and human rights: strategies and collaboration for empowerment".

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has been a challenging space for both women's rights advocates and for broader constituencies engaged in advocacy for gender equality and sexuality related rights. In the fifth and final year of its mandate, women's rights are still being dwarfed as a critical issue to be debated in this arena, while sexuality issues, although present, are not seen as a matter…

Sonia Randhawa interviews FemLINK Pacific coordinator Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls to get an overview of violence against women in the Pacific Islands region and to look at how ICTs are contributing to increasing the vulnerability of women and providing new forms of harassment and harm, while at the same time grassroots initiatives such as a mobile community radio station are helping to provide women…

Fatma Mint Elkory Oumrane takes a look at the progress Mauritania is making in encouraging open access to materials, its copyright regime and how these impact on women. She examines the role of women as ICT graduates and looks at how the government is helping overcome the various digital divides - and the large amount of work that remains to be done.

Sonia Randhawa interviewed with Lulu Mitshabu and Daoud Kuttab. Lulu Mitshabu is the Africa Programs Coordinator at Caritas Australia. A Congolese woman, she travels through Africa regularly and is responsible for their Congolese programme. Daoud Kuttab is president of AMARC Middle East and North Africa, and responsible for setting up Jordan's first community radio. He has recently been working…